Can Dogs Overcome the Prey Drive?

Factual Questions
1

My daughter’s father decided, without my permission, to get her a guinea pig. I also have three dogs. My eldest dog, an Affenpinscher, seems to think it is his obligation to dispose of the pig. While he has never showed an interest in any kind of small animal or bird before, he will attempt to bite the pig whenever he gets near it. Unfortunately, he was successful once.

According to various sources, affenpinschers were bred as ratters so I would guess the instinct to kill the guinea pig is pretty strong. I am wondering if there is a way to train an animal with these types of instincts to no longer show an interest?

2

Well, you know that dogs are trainable. Obviously the guinea pig can’t be left alone and unattended with the dogs, but obedience training can teach the dog something, i would think.

I know some breeds have stronger prey drive than others. And some dogs within a breed have stronger prey drive.

But people have even trained cats not to attack the household birds and to let them perch on their heads, etc. I think any dog is probably more trainable than a cat.

Your dog may not be operating on strict prey drive anyway. Sounds to me like he might be a little jealous!

Calm around guinea pig = lots of treats for dog. And of course never leave them alone together.

3

If there is, I’m not aware of it. My understanding is that greyhound rescue groups won’t adopt out greyhounds to homes where they have cats. Because the dog’s racing training meant chasing a thing that looked exactly like a cat or a rabbit around a track. The dogs can’t help themselves; they see the cat and to into racing/chasing mode. Hilarity ensues, unless you’re the cat, or you love the cat. :smiley:

I’d just recommend having a strict rule about the guinea pig being caged if the dog isn’t and vice versa. Or if you don’t crate the dog, it at least has to be secured in another room somewhere or something if the kid wants to get the guinea pig out of its cage to play. Put him back, then you can go play with the dog. I wouldn’t be trying to integrate the two as pack mates or anything. One animal is prey (eyes on the sides); the other animal is a predator (eyes in front) and never the twain shall mix. That’s why cats and dogs can get along – they’re both predators.

4

Keeping them separated is what we do now. My question is more about can you train a dog to go against their breeding and if so, how would that be done so I don’t have to lock up the cage in a bedroom every time we leave the house to prevent the dog from attacking it.

5

This is what I was afraid of. Sigh…

6

Well, that’s just my opinion; I really don’t know shit.

You could try training, but I can’t guess how successful you’d be.

I’d start with treats and “leave it.”

Hold the treat out. Let dog sniff. Say leave it. Don’t let dog have treat unless it looks away/loses interest. Practice until he’s good at that.

Toss treat at dog’s feet. Say leave it. Praise if he does. Ignore if he doesn’t.

(This has been working out with my dog. She picks shit up on walks. It’s gotten so I can just glance down, say “leave it!” and she drops it. I had to pry a lot of shit out of her mouth before she learned that means ‘don’t eat whatever you’re eating.’)

Then, when the dog can stand there, in a sit-stay, for say, a minute while his $10 million dollar favorite treat is right there in front of him, then he’s ready for a guinea pig meet-and-greet. Put guinea pig cage on floor, let dog sniff. Say leave it. Pick up cage. Rinse, repeat.

Work your way up to: put dog in sit-stay. Go get guinea pig. If dog is still in sit-stay, let him sniff Guinea. Say leave it.

You repeat that “leave it” command every time you want him to leave something alone that he wants. You can teach a dog to ignore a piece of cheese, so maybe you can teach your dog to ignore the guinea pig. Think slow progress, baby steps, and make sure you can voice-control the dog in a sit-stay first. When the dog won’t break sit-stay without your permission, he’ll get leave it. If you get that far, then you can probably make the dog sit-stay and leave it, but I’m not sure if you’ll ever be able to let them all just roam around the kitchen together, freely.

7

It’s certainly possible- when I was a kid, we had two dogs, free range chickens, a selection of hand reared wild birds, a pet rat and a pet mouse (both allowed to roam around the house a lot of the time). I have pictures of the mouse sitting on the german shepard’s head, and neither of them would ever chase the chickens or semi-tame wild birds, even when left alone in the garden with them.

They’d both go for rabbits, pheasants and anything else they came across when out on walks, but they definitely got the idea that within the fence, chasing was Not Allowed

I was too little to help train them (ie. not born when my parents got them), so I can’t say for sure how they did it. They wouldn’t eat food left on the side or on a plate either- and if a dog can be trained to leave a steak alone when left unattended, it can be trained to put up with a guinea pig.

8

From what I understand Greyhounds and Whippets (not Italian Greyhounds, cats can slaughter those) are fine in the house with cats if raised by them. But if left in the yard and some cat enters and flees, then it can hard to turn off the “small furry object - kill” alarm even if it’s a cat known and loved by the dog.

9

That’s kind of my experience with dogs in general. All my dogs have lived with cats. As long as the stands his ground and doesn’t run, everything is fine. It’s* fleeing* cats that dogs can’t resist chasing. I hope the OP has a very brave guinea pig. :smiley:

10

It depends on the dog. Some dogs can be trained to do almost anything. Trouble is, you don’t know for sure until one of the animals passes away. If it’s the guinea pig, and the cause of death is dog bite, it didn’t work.

Also, keep the little rodent away from Peruvians.

11

don’t try. unless you want a teachable moment about how everything dies and dogs don’t buy their food at the store.

even if trained, at some point unsupervised the dog won’t restrain its instincts, even turning your back.

keep the critter caged if the dog can get into the same room.

12

Hi: I’ve collected/raised/bred many domestic and exotic animals only one confounded me, the Parson’s[jack russell] terrier, blood thirsty- nothing worked to stop “the drive” even shock collar auto for the area i’ve had the small mammals/birds. NOT to cause a problem, i still donot understand “pitbull” attacks- loved, kindly raised family pets then with ? no warning 66sutures or deaths. does this have something to do with prey drive/instinct? by the way i breed english bulldogs and parrots sit on them, pet rat rides on them only very rarely the bullies will “whop” them when they move ie. hit them gently with a paw but stop if told to!

13

Ok, but the dachshund just climbs on top of them or gnaws on their ears (the big boys, not the tiny little girls, whom he’s afraid of). Outside, he takes off after everything, cats, rabbits, birds, lizards, don’t know what he’d do if he caught them. He did grab the world’s smallest cottontail, but only soft mouthed it.

But I think the point is: outside they are much more likely to kill.

Now I want to try some cuy.

14

It is possible, but not with 100% success. Guide dogs are trained to not be food or cat distracted, and they need to pass up tasty morsels in order to become working guides. Mine did this and became a breeder. However lots of dogs can’t, and get career changed, and they all are descended from generations of dogs who could resist food.
You’d have to train a dog from young puppyhood, and even then I still wouldn’t risk leaving a small animal with them.

15

The “leave it” command is the only reason Pedro Skittles is alive today. Fortunately, Maximilian dropped him and Pedro ran behind the desk.

16

I think you can train almost any dog to regard one particular animal as not-prey, but you have to work at it. I have a friend who has a retired greyhound, and she has cats. Her dog will not chase her cats in the house. She actually won’t chase other cats when she’s outside on the leash…but boy, she wants to.

She will chase my friend’s cats when they are all in the yard. Not if the cats are sitting quietly. But if one of them makes a run for the house, the dog will go after it.

At this point they’ve lived together long enough (about three years) that the dog knows that individual cat and knows that cat has claws, and said claws have been applied. So the dog goes a certain distance toward the cat and then stops. The dog has been trained to do that.

These animals are left alone together in the house at times.

Of course, guinea pigs are not cats, and should be in a cage and behind a closed door if left alone with the dog in the house.

Dogs are pretty smart, but some breeds are a lot more biddable than others. For instance I have a border collie mix and I can stop him in his tracks with a drawn-out disappointed sigh whereas his predecessor, a husky/chow mix, didn’t give a fuck about my feelings. I have no idea about your breed, but if the “leave it” command worked, then you’re on your way. You need to establish an unconditional leave-it aura around the rodent. I have put a blanket leave-it spell on the cat food so it can stay on the floor, but that’s probably not as attractive as a prey animal.

17

Are they the greatest dogs ever, or what? Smarter than half the people I know.

18

Meaning no disrespect but this is not true. I have rescued greyhounds for almost 20 years.

What we do, with a new dog, is test it. Expose it to a (fairly laid back or shell shocked at this point) cat and other small animals and see if it’ll go for it. If it doesn’t we mark it ‘cat safe’ and the dog can be placed in a home with a cat. We’ve even tested some against birds, snakes, etc.

Greyhounds, some of them, DO come with a strong prey drive. But they can be taught. Our first one was fine with our cats and other small furry mammals but we had a colony of norwegian rats in the woods behind our house and she spent a summer killing them all. Zero to dead, as we called it.

So greyhounds CAN have a prey drive but it can be controlled or restrained. But it’s best to test.

Heck, we even test them for their ability to be gentle with kids, if needed.

Now, if you want hilarity, let me tell you about the time the big box pet store put our booth up next to the ‘rabbit breeding society’. 10 new greyhounds next to 25 rabbits. Oy.

19

Prey drive in dogs is extremely variable. So is trainability.

So is loyalty to the other species that live with them. There are dog breeds specifically developed to protect the animals belonging to their master from (other) predators. So it is complicated.

Terriers in general have totally unmediated prey drive (that is, they have the complete prey behavior sequence from locate to kill/eat), low body sensitivity, and low trainability. If affenpinschers are anything like terriers you have a row to hoe. Guinea pigs move in a jerky, tasty way that excites predatory instincts in all but the most gentle and phlegmatic dogs.

That said, with patience you can undoubtedly train your dog to leave the cage alone when you are in the room. Personally that’s as far as I would take it.

20

I have had dogs that learned to accept the family cat, chickens etc. But they would still go after strange ones. Some breeds are more trainable, my Chihuahua will go after any small animal no matter how much he has been punished for chasing them I can’t seem to break him of it. In my presence he might be behave but when I turn my back it is on.