Was discussing this tonight with my mother and thought I would post on here. Has anyone had a dog with a very high prey drive that they have trained to have a really good recall? Or do those of you with dogs with high prey drives just decide it is safer to keep them on the lead at all times? 

I have posted on here before about my CKCS girl Gypsy. She has always had a high prey drive but has got to the point now where I don't feel safe letting her off the lead, which is not really a problem as she gets plenty of exercise on a flexi lead but I know she's not enjoying herself as much. When she is off the lead she can't be trusted, she will go looking for things to chase and the slightest thing (bird flying overhead for example) will set her off, once she has seen or heard something that's it, she is completely focused on chasing it and nothing and no amount of calling her or offering treats to come back will help.

Last time I let her off, she darted into the woods after a rabbit, vanished for about half an hour and had me worried sick. She had followed another couple all the way back to our house. Luckily we don't live on a busy road but it is still a road and I don't want to be taking any chances. There is also a railway near(ish) to our house which our neighbours dog got killed on as it got out of their garden and chased after something, so that is always at the back of my mind too and I'd rather be safe than sorry so since then she has not been off her flexi lead - like I say she's really happy and loves her walks but I do feel a little bit guilty sometimes.

Has anyone successfully taught their dog a recall when they are so prey driven, or has anyone else got a dog they don't ever let off the lead for the same reasons? I would be interested in hearing your experiences - sorry this is so long!

Hi Alice,

All of the Spins have deaf ear syndrome when they are pointing birds or scenting deer ( Boo the oldest bitches favorite), but always return. The yongest two tend to stay closer, not as confident as the big girl. The oldest will go for deaf if she gets the scent of  deer and makes OH have heart failure, but she always returns. I have in the past trained with a long line and this was very successful for our rescue boy who was a totally unreliable off lead when we first got him to the point I would say he was 95% reliable. Have you thought of training to a whistle? I use this with mine and they respond very well to this even the youngest (5 mnths) has picked it up. Or maybe a favorite squeaky toy that is saved for this training? See if she responds whilst on the line and gradually build on that, and try to make recall a fun game if you can, although I appreciate they can drive you to distraction sometimes. Oh and I do also use the 'Stay Close' command if they have their nose down and are getting deaf ear syndrome, just pulls them up to the fact I am still there lol.

HTH

D

I would think that some of the Husky owners would have some valuable experiences/ advice for you, and also Tigger2 with the Zois would be a mine of info ( nearly used your previous name then Tigger2!!!! :) )

Shhhh...I'm in disguise ;-)

My zois have always had very high prey drives and excellent recalls....you just need to know when to call them and when to save your breath :-)

To be honest though, from your description I don't think this is prey drive - possibly she is just using prey as an excuse not to come back? The reason I say this is if she had an otherwise good recall apart from prey she would chase one rabbit then come back - carrying on looking for more things to chase isn't (in my opinion) prey drive, it's lack of training.

I would go back to basics with her as Breehant has said, using a longline until you can trust her completely and meantime don't let her off lead anywhere that is not completely secure. Tennis courts, 5 a side football pitches and the like are great safe places for recall training. Try not to call her just to get her lead on, call her back often for a really nice treat or a favourite game and let her go again- don't call her at all if she's fixed on something else and you know she's not going to come back.

Hi,

Yes you can train a relaible recall to high prey driven dogs :-)  I have two very prey driven dogs, one of which is a sight/scent hound.  It's hard work but is achievable.  I think it is about a lot more than just training a recall though, I think it's about building a strong relationship with a dog through training and making yourself as interesting to them as possible.  My Dobe used to go off and go looking for stuff to chase and she would just get frantic and her eyes would glaze over and just be in the chasing 'zone'.

Through building a strong relationship keeping her focussed on me out on walks and working on general recall and an emergency recall she is no longer goes looking for stuff to chase, she looks to me to entertain her.  Our walks are about play and training time, play and training equal the same thing to her any way.

Her walks usually consist of some fun training, some find it games, some tuggy and ball throwing, I'll send her off to do her own thing and within about a minute she's trotting along side me waiting for me to do something with her. 

I think it's really important for prey driven dog to give them something to channel that drive into.  I got my Dobe in to chasing a ball.  This took quite a long time as she wasn't naurally into chasing a ball.  I built it up gradually starting at home and in the garden and litterally played for 30 seconds to start with and always put the ball away when she was excited and wanting more.  When she started getting more excited about it, I took it out on walks it remained a special walk toy.  She is now very excited by the ball and gets the bright eyed excited frantic looks she gets when she used to chase and she has an outlet for her prey drive.

I also trained an emergency recall, for which I use a whistle but it can be anything really just as long as it is unique to the emergency recall situation.  I basically built up in much the same way as I did the ball but with tuggy and that was associated with the whistle.  I started in very low distraction environments and built up and oractised in lots of different environments.  I built up to using it when she was playing with another dog and then when she was chasing another dog, then I started using it in conjunction with the ball.  I would throw the ball and use the emergency recall to practise in another chasing situation.  It is now just an automatic response and she will literally just turn mid air when she hears the whistle.

With my sight hound girl I have done pretty much the same but with her she did spend quite a bit of time on a long line to prevent her practising chasing as she was very obsessive about birds, however she will now recall off of birds.
She is a more independant girl so I had to work extra hard to make her think I was worth while spending time with on walks.  Her two main loves are chasing and sniffing, so I put sniffing on que and would find areas that I new she would like to sniff and used that as a reward for her doing something for me.  I also used small furry toys on a line and ran about like a wally dragging them about which she loved.  I have also managed to get her into tugging but it is still only at the stage where she'll have a few seconds tug as reward outside, and it's taken seven months to get to that point, however she wouldn't interact with toys at all when she first came to me and now loves a good game of tug indoors so I'm sure with more work it'll be a really valuable reward to her outdoors aswell.

If I take my girls out together my youngster (sighthound) is put back on a long line as at the moment I think if the pair of them saw something together and started after it that would add to the excitement and may risk them not hearing me so I'm just prevent them being in that situation.

HTH :-)

If your dog is food orientated it is easier to train her to come back :-)

I have one here that used to run off. She just liked to check the area out, but when she ended up on the dual carriageway I had to do something. I started by using a long line and treats. Every time she went too far I whistled and gave her a treat when she came back. I then started to let her off lead as soon as we arrived at our walking area and let her loose for about a quarter of the walk before recalling her and putting her back on the lead. She was let off for a few minutes at a time after that but I didn't always put her back on the lead. She was given a treat every time she came back though. She very rarely runs off now. she keeps coming back looking for the nice tasty treats instead of the horrid smell :-)

It can be done but expect it to take time. It won't happen overnight.

I have a patterdale terrier with a very strong prey drive.  As a result like you I keep her on a lead but an extendable one.  Even though we live near lots of fields there are quite a few roads, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was on the lead last week she would have been straight across the road to get a cat on the otherside, she was going mad on the lead pulling so she could get to it.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to me...it's much appreciated :-)

Tigger2 I think you have a point about the training. I took the dog on when I moved in with my OH - she previously belonged to his ex-wife who abandoned her when they got divorced leaving my OH to look after her, so she hasn't really had any training apart from the 2 years of basic stuff that I have taught her. It's a bit tricky though as in the house she is the most food orientated dog I have ever known, but outside on walks her attitude is completely different - "if it moves, I'll chase it" sort of thing, I could have her favourite ever food with me and she wouldn't give two hoots! It's funny as she has excellent recall the rest of the time, on the occasions I have let her off and she hasn't been distracted, she comes back straight away.

I have tried squeaky toys/balls on walks but she is not the least bit interested in them, but she loves them at home. I will try what you guys have suggested and see how we get on - but until she's properly trained she'll be staying on her flexi lead so I don't have to worry about where she is and what she's doing !!

I think it depends more on the personality of the dog, rather than a certain type or breed and I have found
that strong bonding doesn't always result in good recalls. For instance, an insecure dog would hate to being
left alone so may keep more frequent visual contact with his handler, while a bolshy type may just not care
and do their own fun thing. I keep two scent hound littermates, one male, one female. The male used to be
great on recall until his sister went into heat; now based on past experience my money would have been on
HIM to maintain his recall as he was always my "favourite". Since she went into heat or the first time, he
now suffers from selective hearing while HER recall has improved tremendously.
Weirdly, he is useless at home as he feels 100% in charge of the environment. When out walking though,
he is like a baby in unknown territory which I am exploiting now for my purposes.

On the other hand, I adopted a lurcher/longdog (deerhound x greyhound) a few good years back, the dog
was approx 4 years old when I got him. While there was no bonding process needed/going on (we just
clicked from the first second of meeting) and he turned out an A1 companion, we NEVER trained a recall.
Bar from seeing a cat, his recall was to die for. He never failed me and I managed to even train him to the
level where he would go and "retrieve" a deaf-blind puppy for me when she strayed away too far or onto
different surface where she couldn't receive my stomping signal for recall.

The bassett is ONLY co-operating when he is "working", e.g. when we are going through our morning
routines; he "helps" letting the dogs out, sorting out the horse and cats, following a certain routine.
Let off to his own devices ... it can take me up to an hour to persuade him to come back.

I have two Weimaraners (amongst others) and we have given up letting them off the lead unless they are in the paddock with stock fencing so they can't get out.  We let them off on the bridle path and they are gone.  One whiff of a rabbit and thats it, Casper chases one, then sees another in the distance and goes for that one, then sees another, and so on until he is several fields away.  Frey will give chase but when the rabbit goes down the hole so does she!  She will attempt to dig it out so at least she is easy to catch as she has her head shoved down a hole and isn't on the run.  Our other three, Ridgeback, Staffy and Standard Poodle will all attempt to give chase but recall is good and will come back as soon as we call, but we got so fed up of traipsing accross muddy fields in the rain after the other two that we keep them on the lead now.

I find it a terrible shame that a Weimaraner is kept on a lead especially as they are so trainable and participate at the highest level in several discipines.  They are bred to work hand in hand with their owner/trainer and hunt, point and retrieve birds. 

It is perfectly possible to redirect the prey drive onto other things however it can be hard work, or you can train your dog using the premack principle.

I have two dogs, one with a high prey drive (Weimaraner) and the other with an extremely high prey drive (GSD) they are hardly on the lead and both have excellent recalls off rabbits, deer, dogs and criminals.........................

If you choose to have a dog that hunts you have to put in at least twice as much work on recalls as in other breeds who do not possess this outlook on life.

I find it a terrible shame that a Weimaraner is kept on a lead....

They aren't kept on a lead, just when we walk up the bridlepath, then they are let off to run to their hearts content in the paddocks.  Alone they are fine and can be let off lead anywhere with good recall, but when all the dogs are there, for some reason their recall is shocking!  At training class their recall is perfect with other dogs around, its just those darn rabbits!