Last week I wrote about a behaviour called predatory drift, which is a misunderstood behaviour often mislabelled as aggression.
Predatory drift is a glitch in a dog's prey drive that causes a dog to display predatory behaviour. The dog tries to stop an agitated, squirming, squealing, running thing from moving and, unfortunately, this involves using its mouth and teeth. I first became aware of predatory drift with my German shepherd Zumi about 10 years ago. She was sleeping on her bed and I decided to trim the nails of my other dog Piper. Piper, incidentally, hates having his nails trimmed and will often fuss, squirm and struggle when it's trim day. When I picked up Piper's paw to trim his nail, he began his usual struggle of pulling his foot away and squirming. This struggle prompted Zumi to wake from a dead sleep and run to us and basically assault Piper. I use the word assault lightly as there is no other way to describe it. She placed her mouth on Piper's leg and bit down in an attempt to subdue him. But there was nothing that resembled aggression. Her tail was wagging, her ears were forward, she was excited, alert and highly stimulated, but not aggressive. She was simply trying to get the squirming to stop.
That is predatory drift.
As I mentioned last week, any dog can display this behaviour but there does seem to be a strong correlation between dogs who already have a very high prey drive and the need to subdue their prey (display predatory drift). It is typically not a problem as a dog can switch off predatory drift just as quickly as it switches it on with absolutely no negative association. This is unlike aggression, where a negative association develops towards the object of the aggressive display.
Dogs can display predatory drift towards anything: cats, squirrels, rabbits, chickens, etc. But for the sake of simplicity, I will keep the discussion to dog-versus-dog interactions.
The behaviour becomes dangerous when there is a big size difference between the dogs involved in a predatory drift altercation. Small dogs can easy become injured, or worse, by a large dog that is displaying the behaviour. Small dogs can just as easily display the behaviour, but if it is towards a larger dog the outcome is not as traumatic.
Training a dog to not display predatory drift is sort of like training a dog to stop breathing. Since it is part of a dog's genetic makeup, the training recommendation is to manage the behaviour of a dog that has the drift tendency and not let it play with smaller dogs.
Unfortunately there is no real test to check if you dog has this tendency. It is only triggered when something is in distress and even then the behaviour may not present itself. Therefore, if you see your dog display predatory drift, it is advised that you manage its behaviour from then on.
It may mean the dog no longer goes to the dog park where small dogs are running. The dog may also not be able to live with cats or small dogs and it may need to be watched around small children. These are not dangerous dogs; they are normal, healthy dogs. They are often well socialized and highly trained dogs. I hope this information helps people recognize the difference between a dog that is aggressive and dangerous due to a lack of socialization and adequate leadership and a dog that is social but highly stimulated and drifting into predation because of the perceived distress of another animal.
I also hope this information does not add fuel to the fire between small dog owners and large dog owners.
It takes someone with wide vision to be reasonable enough to see the big picture, differentiate between the two behaviours and not point angry fingers.
Within my pack, Zumi is not allowed to play with dogs that are smaller than her, including puppies. She goes into another room on nail trimming day and small children who squeal and scream a lot don't come to visit.
Ownership involves not only being responsible for your dog, but also taking ownership of its behaviours, quirks and all.
Joan Klucha has been working with dogs for more than 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her through her website k9kinship.com.
