Terms Used In Protection Dog Training By 1998 Prey Drive Prey drive is the desire to pursue, bite and vanquish. Prey drive is stimulated or trigger by movement. I have an extensive article on my web site titled Understanding the Drives of Protection Training that should also be read by people interested in this work. If you really want to learn about prey drive I recommend you study my training video titled The First Steps of Bite Training. Play Drive Play and prey drive are very close to the same thing. While there is a subtle difference in the two, many trainers (especially dog health questions dog health questions in Europe) will refer to play drive when they mean prey drive. The fact is that a dog can have a nice temperament and have play drive but little prey drive. This can be seen in dogs that are very willing to play with their handler but don't really have a lot of drive to chase or make prey by playing tug. Locked in Prey A dog with good nerves that is worked too long in prey drive will become locked in prey. It's very important that trainers understand this process. These are usually good dogs that become so focused on their prey cairn terrier puppies dog health questions item (either the sleeve or the suite) that they zone out during the work and develop almost fanatical intensity towards their prey. Once a dog is locked in prey the handler has a difficult situation on his hands. What he has actually done (by mistake) is raise the threshold to defense to a point where its almost impossible to add defense. The dog has become progressively more and more independent and is harder to control. It becomes a dog that will take a great deal of abuse from a decoy by developing a mind set that "I can take anything you can clicker dog training dog health questions give me because I know that if I do I will get my prey in the end." What often happens is that the trainers will suppress the prey drive with pressure. When that happens fight drive often appears. One would initially think that this is OK because in reality this is what we are trying to accomplish. The problem is that this fight drive is very situational and not spontaneous. Threshold All behaviors have thresholds. A threshold is the level of stimulation that triggers a certain drive or behavior. It is impossible for a new helper to work dogs in defense unless he has a dog training dog health questions clear
