Ex Racing Greyhounds Prey Drive?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have 2 retired greyhounds, one of my greys will take great interest in cats, rabbits e.t.c but nothing you dont expect, a pull on the lead maybe the odd bark.
A month ago we adopted a small blue ***** her prey drive is in overdrive 24/7 she is constantly looking out the window and if she sees a cat, shut the doors because she will run around so crazy she has nearly injured herself on the stairs before.
Lately its getting worse everytime we let her in the back garden she pounces up the fences (luckily its a very tall fence, she is unable to get over) she tries to jump up at the fence, she saw a hedgehog the other night and since then EVERY night she barks in the exact same place she saw it causing our other greyhound to get upset and start barking and then the whole neighbourhoods dogs are barking.
I know basic dog training, so I can deter her from the situation and get her inside for about 30 seconds then she paces around the house till we finally have to shut her away for bedtime.
Its a constant battle between her instinct and what she has learnt from racing, and our restraint and patience!
If anybody has anything they think we should try, I will sure give it ago!
ps. Muzzling her makes her even more hyper active, she runs around even more muzzled.
Shes 4 in October
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Lots of stuff to respond to here.
First, if you are not familiar with Greytalk.com, you should sign up. It’s the most comprehensive and most active greyhound discussion board on the web. The folks there will help you more than anyone anywhere else. I’ll take a stab at a few things, because I also have a high-prey-drive grey.
Reading one of the last things you wrote: isn’t it great to watch them run? It’s one of the best things about having a greyhound. Amazing animals outside and great pets inside.
As you’ve discovered, they vary from individual to individual in terms of energy and prey drive. My girl has a very high prey drive, but not as much energy. My daughter’s grey (also a female) has unbounded energy, but little interest in prey. So the energy and the prey drive are not necessarily related, although the high energy will contribute, I suspect.
I’ve had my hound for almost a year now – early October – when we got her, she couldn’t take her eyes off small critters. I recently learned that she killed a kitten in one of her foster homes (she had a couple). We’d go to the pet store and she’d fix the caged rabbit with a long death stare. But in time this has changed. She has learned from my old mixed breed that they have good things behind the pet store checkout counter, and has no interest in that rabbit. Where she used to pull and do all sorts of things on walks, she is now very calm. So there’s hope, but as they used to say in car ads, “your mileage may vary.”
One thing I think has really contributed is a constant effort to socialize the dog. I walk her to the center of our town, into the pet store, and take her wherever she’d be welcome. If your adoption group holds meet-and-greets, go as often as you can. Of course, as you know by now, be very careful with people with tiny dogs off leash – I learned that one the hard way too.
You talked about training, so I’m guessing you are practicing “leave it” (or some variation). In time, and with maturity, the hound will learn.
You didn’t mention the age of the dog. Greyhounds mature at 3. With my girl, it’s like someone threw a switch. All of a sudden, she acted like a mature, quiet dog. For my daughter’s hound, not so much.
But get over to Greytalk and post something there. You can try a search, but I’ve never found their search engine to be that good.
Good luck.
(I just followed your link, and see you are in the U.K., and your dog is over 3. So I hope all this is still useful to you.)
Later: read it again and see you had the age in your posting. Sorry I missed it.
You could try a bark collar.
Make sure you muzzle her on walks though, you never know what could happen.
You could also try contacting your local dog club for advice, or a even a trainer.
Unfortunately, you’ve got one of the few greyhounds with an extreme prey drive – she must have a winning record, because these are the dogs who are the best racers.
I’ve only known one grey like yours and she, too, was a wingnut! They aren’t easy to live with – the rescue should have warned you.
I’d take her out on a leash at night until she gets out of the habit of looking for that hedgehog.
You might also want to google Tellington Touch. There are many, many uses for TTouch, and there are a few touches designed especially to help calm dogs down. TTouch alone isn’t going to help her, but every little bit helps and I know it works – I’ve used it.
Greyhounds are also really good thinkers and love to learn, but they get bored quickly with repetition (like all sighthounds). Teach her “watch me” to get her to focus on you BEFORE she’s over threshold and unable to think. If she’s not food motivated (and you need really high value food), it’s going to be hard.
She sounds like a very hard dog to live with, I’ve got a female with high prey drive, but she’s extremely biddable and can be controlled. Talk to the rescue group you got her from for their ideas – they should have a lot of experience that would help you.
You have an issue. People who do not have greyhounds can not comprehend how focussed these dogs can get. My girl raced every third day until she was 5. Thankfully, she is not a high-prey drive dog… gets along fine with cats (she’ll go up and sniff noses with the local outside cats on our walks) and small critters, only shows a small interest in squirrels and rabbits, etc. But I took her to a fun run once, and she went insane trying to get the lure. Like, run through fences and knock tent stakes out to get the lure crazy. But only for a moving lure… when they stopped it right in front of her, she just ignored it and searched frantically everywhere for the thing that she had been chasing. She managed to tear her stop pads running across the wire, and banged her shoulder up on the fence. And it took probably 90 minutes after we left (to go see the vet) before she got calmed back down.
And one of the fosters in the rescue I adopted her from had a dog jump a fence to chase a remote control car that some kids were racing in a parking lot. That dog tore his paws to bloody stumps before he was caught. I saw the dog a week later, and he would only take like three steps before he had to lie down because the paws hurt so badly.
The fixation and obsession some of these dogs have is absolutely frightening. So, I’d be talking to your rescue group and getting their advice. And you may need to seriously consider whether this particular grey is a good match for you. I can avoid fun runs, you can’t stop small animals from showing up in your yard.
I was also looking at adopting a retired racing greyhound but I gave up because most of the places I looked at dogs and out of 10 dogs – 9 had a prey drive for small animals. I have two purebred Bengal cats and there was NO WAY I could have a dog that would put them in harm. From everyone I talked to about this prey drive they all said 95% of the time it will NOT be correctable even if you try – it’s just that the prey drive it overwhelming to the dog and it cannot be broken. All I can say is “I hope you don’t have small animals as pets!”
Probably already been suggested, but why don’t you work with the Rescue Kennels you got her from. They are usually only too happy (keen even) to help their retired racers settle into home life (they don’t want them back!!). Some of them are like this, and the pacing is very irritating. And if she’s winding your other grey up, that’s not good either. Speak to them – or other Rescue Kennels. They are very experienced, and I’m sure will give you some pointers (that’s with a small ‘p’ lol)
A tired dog is a good dog. So tire her out, doesn’t sound like she’s getting near enough stimulation.
Increase their walks and invest in a flirt toy. She’ll go nuts over that and it’ll be very easy to tire her out with it.
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and none of that matters, I’m telling you that individual dog is not getting enough stimulation. It maybe enough for your other greyhound, but this one has a higher prey drive. More walks and get a flirt toy.
You can try this. Its called “LOOK AT ME”
Basically, you train your dog to look at you. Say her name, when she looks say “look at me” treat/praise.
once she gets that down, try it outside. Then try it with mroe distractions. You should be able to say LOOK AT ME to her when a kritter is nearby and instead of her going off at the kirtter, she looks at you.