Is It Aggression, or Is Your Dog’s Drive Out of Balance?

Understanding pack drive, prey drive and defence drive

We have a wee sausage dog in with us for residential training at the moment, and he is a really good example of why we need to look beyond what a behaviour looks like and work out what is actually driving it.

When a puppy is chasing your feet, grabbing your clothes, hanging off your hands or repeatedly coming back for another bite, it is very easy to look at that and think they are being aggressive.

They are coming at you and using their teeth, so from the owner’s side of things, aggression feels like the obvious explanation, but biting does not always mean anger, fear or a desire to fight.

Sometimes what you are seeing is prey drive being directed towards completely inappropriate things because the dog has never been shown where that drive can go, where it cannot go and how to come back down from it.

It’s important we define that, because we cannot properly resolve behaviour if we do not

understand what is fuelling it.

What do we mean when we talk about drives?

When Michael talks about drive, he is talking about the natural motivations sitting underneath the dog’s behaviour.

Dogs are not blank slates and different breeds have been selectively bred for different jobs, and those jobs required particular parts of their natural behaviour to be stronger than others.

• Some dogs have been bred to watch movement closely and control it.

• Some have been bred to chase, catch and kill vermin.

• Some have been bred to retrieve and carry things without destroying them.

• Others have been bred to guard land, animals, homes or people.

These traits do not disappear just because the dog now lives in a pet home, sleeps on the sofa and has their dinner delivered in a bowl twice a day. The drive is still there.

Our job is to understand it, fulfil it appropriately and put boundaries around where it is and is not acceptable.

Pack drive should feel fairly neutral

When we talk about pack drive, we are not talking about dogs constantly wrestling, chasing each other or being desperate to interact.

Pack drive is closer to the neutral point on the scale, the dog can exist alongside other dogs, move with the group, stick with their handler and be part of what is happening without constantly trying to chase, control, challenge or defend themselves.

There is obviously a wee bit of flexibility within that and dogs are not robots and they will interact, play and communicate, but the general energy should feel balanced.

When too much prey drive is directed towards another dog, you might see intense chasing, grabbing, stalking or repeatedly targeting one particular dog.

When too much defensiveness enters the group, you might see guarding, threatening displays, conflict around space or a dog who feels they need to control everything happening around them.

Stable adult dogs will often give younger dogs feedback when they cross those social boundaries. The issue in a lot of pet homes is that puppies and young dogs do not always receive clear, appropriate information from either dogs or humans.

They are given lots of freedom to “socialise”, but very little guidance about how to behave socially.

Socialisation is not just letting dogs play

This is where the idea of socialisation can get a wee bit muddled. People are told their puppy needs to socialise, so they allow them to run into every dog, chase relentlessly, body-slam other puppies and keep going long after the interaction has stopped being balanced.

The puppy might look like they are having a brilliant time, but they are often rehearsing being completely over the top around other dogs.

They are learning that seeing a dog means losing their head, that chasing is always available and that they can ignore another dog’s attempts to disengage.

Then, as the dog gets older, stronger and more intense, the same behaviour suddenly becomes a problem.

Proper socialisation includes exposure, guidance, boundaries and helping the dog learn how to exist around others without constantly needing access to them.

The end goal is not a dog who must play with everyone, instead It is a dog who can remain level-headed and make sensible choices around other dogs.

Prey drive is not the same as anger

Prey drive is not a dog becoming angry with something before deciding to catch it.

A predator does not need to shout at its dinner, have an argument with it and then chase it because they have fallen out.

Predatory behaviour follows a sequence:

• Orienting towards something they have seen, heard or smelled

• Visually locking onto it

• Stalking and closing the distance

• Chasing

• Grabbing to capture it

• Clamping down or shaking

• Carrying or parading it somewhere safe, feeling extremely chuft with themselves

• Dissecting

• Consuming

  
  

Not every dog will display every part of that sequence, and this is where breeding becomes important.

Different elements have been strengthened, reduced or interrupted to create dogs capable of doing particular jobs.

A herding dog needs a strong eye, stalk and chase pattern, but we do not want them moving through the entire sequence and killing the livestock.

A retriever needs to chase, pick up and carry, but are likely able to do so without crushing what they are retrieving.

A good ratting terrier needs to catch and kill quickly, but should not spend ten minutes possessing and parading one rat while the rest escape.

The behaviour was useful when the dog had the job it was bred to do but to be honest it becomes harder to live with when that drive has nowhere appropriate to go.

What does misplaced prey drive look like?

Dogs with a lot of prey drive can find modern pet life frustrating when they are given no suitable outlet for it.

The drive does not simply disappear, it can become directed towards cars, bikes, wildlife, children running, other dogs, sleeves, trouser legs, hands or anything else that moves and creates excitement.

That is one of the things we are working through with the wee sausage dog we currently have in.

It would be easy to look at a puppy repeatedly coming after people and biting and simply label him aggressive.

However, when we look at the whole picture, we can see a young dog becoming highly stimulated by movement, rehearsing predatory behaviour and having no real understanding of where the boundaries are.

That does not mean we laugh it off because he is small, a behaviour does not become harmless just because the puppy currently weighs a few kilos and looks funny doing it.

When chasing and biting are repeatedly rehearsed, the dog becomes better, faster and more committed to doing them. The puppy also becomes an adult with a stronger body, a bigger mouth and months of practice behind them.

That is why we want to address it while they are young rather than waiting for it to intensify.

Defence drive is about self-preservation

Defence drive is different and this is primarily concerned with protecting the dog, creating distance and keeping hold of something they believe matters.

A defensive dog may bark, growl, stiffen, show their teeth or make themselves appear threatening, that display is often intended to make the perceived threat move away.

However, a dog may bite when they feel they do not have enough space, cannot escape, have been repeatedly pushed or believe a valuable resource is under threat.

Something we see commonly is dogs behaving defensively around food, resting spaces, toys, people or territory.

That’s not to say they are bad dogs, again, some breeds have deliberately been bred to be more naturally suspicious, territorial or defensive because those traits helped them perform their intended role.

The problem often comes from failures in communication between dogs and people.

The dog believes they are clearly asking for space, while the human either misses the communication or carries on pushing. The dog then learns that the quieter signals do not work, so they escalate.

Understanding why the dog is behaving defensively does not mean allowing dangerous behaviour to continue. It means we can respond to it properly rather than treating every growl, bark or bite as though it comes from exactly the same place.

Drive needs an outlet, but it also needs rules

We do not want to remove drive from a dog, drive is what makes dogs enthusiastic, capable, motivated and brilliant at the things they were bred to do.

What we need to do is give that drive an appropriate place to go while teaching the dog that it is not available everywhere.

And I know we really harp on about it but, play is one of the best ways to do this.

Through tug, chasing, searching, possession games and structured movement, we can give the dog access to parts of the predatory sequence in a controlled way.

We can even bring elements of defence into play by adding pressure, threatening the toy, stalking the dog or making the tug game more competitive.

Different dogs will enjoy different types and levels of pressure and some dogs want a proper competitive game, while others will switch off if the pressure becomes too much.

That is why play should be developed around the dog in front of you rather than following one exact formula.

We also want clear start and finish markers so the dog understands when the game is available and when it is over.

• The dog can chase and bite the toy

• They cannot chase and bite your ankles 

• They can stalk and search during scentwork or play

• They cannot stalk the cat through the house

• They can compete over a tug toy with their handler

• They cannot guard every object that lands on the floor

Fulfilment without boundaries can create chaos, but boundaries without appropriate fulfilment can create a frustrated dog who is constantly fighting against their own natural instincts. We need both.

Helping dogs exist neutrally

When we meet the dog’s drive needs and clearly teach where those behaviours are appropriate, they become much more capable of existing neutrally. They do not need to: 

• chase every dog because they already have an outlet for chasing

• turn every movement into a game because play has clear rules

• defend every piece of food because we have shown them that another dog being nearby does not automatically mean they will lose it

  
  

The aim is a dog who can be around people, food, movement, toys and other dogs without constantly feeling the need to hunt, control or defend.

Look at what is underneath the behaviour

When a dog is chasing, biting, barking, guarding or becoming completely over the top around other dogs, we need to stop looking only at the behaviour on the surface.

What is driving it?

Is this predatory?

Is it defensive?

Is the dog frustrated?

Are they over-aroused?

Have they been allowed to rehearse it for months?

Do they understand what they should do instead?

Are their natural needs actually being met?

And more often than not… how much sleep are they actually getting?

The answer is rarely to let the dog do whatever they want in the name of fulfilment, but it is also not fair to suppress everything the dog naturally wants to do without giving them another outlet.

We need to balance the dog with appropriate fulfilment, clear communication, sensible boundaries and enough guidance that they no longer feel responsible for making every decision themselves.

Once those pieces are in place, the dog has a much better chance of settling into that neutral pack-drive space and simply existing without everything becoming a chase, a competition or a conflict.

Do you need help understanding your dog’s behaviour?

If your puppy is constantly chasing and biting, your dog struggles to remain neutral around others, or you are unsure whether the behaviour you are seeing is prey drive, defensiveness or something else, we can help you look at the full picture.

Rather than guessing from one behaviour, we assess the dog in front of us and put together a training plan that considers their breed, routine, fulfilment, boundaries and the motivation underneath what they are doing.