Does your dog love to hunt ? Usually the advice is to teach leave it and impulse control ( dont touch unless told you can ) , reactivity techniques and disengagement games , and building recall with distractions. And these work quite well - if you work on it . But hunting is instinctive behaviour and not allowing your dog to have an outlet for this behaviour leaves it frustrated and prone to exercising this behaviour in other ways . For example, if you take the edge off your dogs' s energy by throwing a ball thinking you will tire it out, then stop play , your dog has been brought to the high point of the predation cycle which builds excitement , but left without "cooling down " and reducing excitement . So your dog is likely to wind down by carrying out the rest of the predation cycle by ripping up your couch !
Instead of stopping your dog from being a dog , frustrating your dog or reprimanding your dog , give your dog a fun outlet . Predation Substitution Training is not a suitable outlet for all triggers - your dog may drift over into real hunting behaviour at first so not suitable for reactivity to pets dogs and people - but for birds roos rabbbits and stock that your dog cannot get , etc , it is a great alternative, especially for hunting breeds (retrievers/ pointers/ setters/ spaniels / terrriers /hounds ) and herding breeds .
Predation Subsitution Training is a technique in which your dog is allowed to and praised for carrying out the first part of the predation cycle put on cue ( name it ) - scan, stalk ,creep - under control eg on a long line and at sufficient distance that your dog can be calm, and when it disengages from the trigger of its own accord , directed to a substitute prey item( eg a prey dummy or large hard chewy crunchy dog treat ) to finish the hunt - chase ,catch , grab, bite , pocess ,rip, consume . I have been practising this with my own dogs who love to hunt possums in our fruit trees for a week at the time of writing this and saw improvement the first day ,and by the 7 th day my dogs are immediately focusing on me instead of the possums the second they pass the trees, and waiting for the hunt item to be tossed in the other direction .They catch it and we all go inside ... There are a number of predation subsititute games that you can play as well which give your dog an outlet for this natural behaviour .
If you would like details on how to do this technique contact me !
