Canine Behavior: Understanding the Predatory Sequence
Are Obedience Behaviors in Dogs Based on the Hunting Behaviors of Wolves?
Wolves Exhibiting Parts of the Predatory Sequence
In mammalian predators (which includes dogs), there are 5 basic steps [1] in what’s called the predatory sequence. Each of the steps involves a fixed-action pattern, or hard-wired instinctive behavior, that leads to the 5th and final step.
These steps are as follows:
The Search
The Eye-Stalk
The Chase
The Grab Bite
The Kill Bite
As you will see, each of these steps seen in the wolf’s predatory sequence is also related in some way to most obedience behaviors in dogs.
But first, it’s important to understand that for a predator, the act of leaving one’s den or home turf to find and kill prey animals of any size is a dangerous business. In many cases the predator has to venture deep into foreign territory, with unknown changes in terrain that have to be factored in to its approach to hunting. A predator could easily become injured by twisting a leg in a rabbit hole, for example, or injure a paw by landing hard on a sharp rock, or rip a hole in its abdomen by running too close to a sharp tree branch.
In order to motivate predators to do their job, Mother Nature has a compelling tool at her disposal: the release of endorphins, one of the body’s own form of opiates. Nature does this at each of the 5 successive stages because the closer a predator gets to its prey, the more dangerous the enterprise becomes.
So in some ways, while we tend to think of predators as the dangerous ones, hunting is almost as dangerous for the hunter as it is for the hunted. Hunting is also more dangerous for wolves than it is for other predators, such as the big cats. That’s because the default setting on the wolf’s prey drive is to go after large mammals with horns and hooves. It’s true that a wolf will also hunt small prey, especially when large, dangerous prey are unavailable. But the wolf's prey of choice is usually over ten times bigger than the average wolf. Elk weigh around 800 lbs., moose around 1000, while the average wolf only weighs around 80 lbs. Also, a wolf doesn’t have powerful claws, as the big cats do. Nor does he have the tooth size or the kind of pressure in his bite that a cougar or cheetah does. So the odds are stacked against him.
However, he has two things working in his favor. One is that he doesn’t hunt by himself, so the feeling of danger inherent to preying on moose and elk is diffused, spread out across the entire pack; no one wolf feels the entire charge. And, since the wolf isn’t going solo, he’s also able to work in-synch with his pack mates: this means he can slack off, take a breather, if a change in terrain favors another wolf’s physical skills, or fall back if he sees an easier, more circular approach to the prey, etc.
The second element in the wolf’s favor is his relentless drive to connect to the prey animals, and his ability to outwit and outlast them. Big cats operate primarily on the element of surprise. So a cheetah or cougar always has to act quickly or lose the window of opportunity. Wolves, on the other hand, win by wearing down their prey.
It’s also important to note that wolves who settle near garbage dumps don’t form packs. Coyotes, on the other hand, sometimes do, but only when they need to hunt large prey. So pack formation is actually an ancillary function of the canine hunting instincts.
Finally, it’s important to know that captive wolves exhibit stress-related dominant and submissive behaviors, but that these behaviors are not as common in wild wolf packs. In 13 years studying the wolves on Ellesmere Island in Canada, Dr. David Mech never saw any dominant or submissive behaviors: none. The reason captive wolves exhibit these stress-related behaviors is that they aren’t able to relieve their internal stress by going out as a group and hunting large prey, so they engage in internecine squabbles instead. And since hunting success in wild wolf packs drops off significantly as pack size increases, members of larger packs also show more so-called dominant and submissive behaviors. That’s because in wild wolves hunting and killing large prey is the ultimate stress-reducer.
Is this really relevant to dog training?
Of course. Since hunting is dangerous, especially for wolves, and since predators are motivated by an internal, psycho-chemical process to go through all 5 steps of the sequence, and since dogs share a long evolutionary history with wolves, we can learn something about what motivates dogs to learn new behaviors or unlearn old ones by looking at what motivates their wild cousins to hunt large prey. Plus, all the basic obedience behaviors we teach dogs (except the sit) are based on the predatory motor patterns found in wolves. And since the wolf’s need to hunt large prey is the genesis of all canine social instincts (hunting as part of a group requires intense social cohesion and cooperation), knowing as much as we can about the way wolves hunt may be the most relevant thing we can do to learn about how to best motivate dogs to obey, and how to make a maximum use of their instinctive energy and emotions. And finally, since all misbehaviors seen in dogs are the result of an inability for the dog to relieve internal tension and stress naturally, and since the prey drive has stress-relief built into it (thanks to endorphins, etc.), it's far more effective to use up your dog's energy by playing hunting games than it is by getting him to carry heavy weights, taking him on long 4-hour walks, or even going jogging together.
With that in mind, there are seven games designed to use up your dog’s energy, naturally, by stimulating and satisfying his prey drive:
The Predatory Sequence & 7 Games Associated With It
The Search – “Find” - hide a toy or treat then tell the dog, “Find!”
The Eye-Stalk – “The Eyes Exercise” (which is the foundation for the stay)
The Chase – “Fetch, “Chase Me,” and “Hide-and-Seek.”
The Grab Bite – “Fetch,” and “Tug-of-War.”
The Kill Bite – “Tug” and “Push-of-War” (push while playing tug)
Next time: Premack's Principle vs. Drive Training
Lee Charles Kelley
“Life Is an Adventure—Where Will Your Dog Take You?”
1.) Raymond and Lorna Coppinger describe seven steps: 1) orient, 2) eye, 3) stalk, 4) chase, 5) grab-bite, 6) kill-bite, 7) dissect. According to the Coppingers, dogs do not necessarily exhibit all of these behaviors even though they are designed to implement them.
