Killing instinct/Prey Drive

[mrbrycel]

I'm planning on rescuing a husky this year. I won't have any other animals living with me at the moment, but I was wondering if you could train a husky NOT to want to kill other little animals? When I hear stories of a husky killing a neighbor's cat, it makes me think how bad I would feel if my pet killed someone else's. Of course I would never let my Husky out offleash in the neighborhood to begin with, but I was just wondering if you could train the desire to kill little animals OUT of a husky?

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

i doubt it tbh - i really want some new gerbils n know i can care n look after them safely but im worried about skyla as she has a REALLY high prey drive so not sure if its the best idea ive had

[Sid_Wolf]

nope, its generations and generations of breeding, Kira has killed so many rabbits and birds

[rose]

Doubt you can train the instinct out of them, all ours stalk moving leaves even !!. If a cat or bird got caught in our garden by any of our 3 they would all kill it.

[Kirbysowner]

you can tie a bird around their mouths so they dont eat the other animals. that's about all you can do.

[ocspirit]

You can train control over the instinct but you can't completely train the instinct out of them. There's many cases of huskies being great with other animals for years and then all of a sudden one day the cat streaks by while chasing a leaf or something of the sort and moments later the husky has killed it. No matter how good they seem, you should never 100% trust them.

My 7 month old is great around cats and even very young kittens (3 weeks old) however I would never leave her unattended in a room with one. She's been around cats since 8 weeks old. She'll still go after birds and rodents in the yard. She also already has a couple mole and mice kills under her collar.

[sutsibe]

How much you can train them to be around small animals depends on the individual dog. My Shad is really good with any of the cats that come onto our acreage from where-ever they come, and in fact, they'll usually trust him before they'll trust me! If he could (he's now 14 and not as spry as he used to be!), however, catch a rabbit or bird, he would - and consider them a tasty meal!

[Joey.Zarly]

When my two where puppies they where fine around cats, but now they play rough with them (not to kill them) and both hold one end and spin around in circles.

I don't believe you can train it out of them, be like someone training a dog not to bark (they'll still bark especially if you're not around) or training a dog not to bite (push them enough and they'll snap).

[Elyse]

Well, mine doesn't bother chasing after birds, but that's because he knows they'll just fly away. He did, however, kill a robin last year that had a broken wing.

So yeah - you cannot train that instinct out of him. Suka almost kill my neighbour's cat once, cause it was declawed and couldn't climb the tree. It was pretty scary.

[Bec]

You can't really kill instinct. You can however teach control through teaching your dog that they can achieve drive satisfaction by obeying your commands.

[persephona]

I don't think you can ever kill their instinct I really wouldn't rely on that.

My dog hasn't had too many chances to kill small animals - however, he is crazy about chasing birds and small animals. I am pretty sure I could train him to leave cats alone if I wanted to, as he has become more wary of cats lately. But birds, mice and so on - no chance.

When we went to the country side with him, he was obsessed with the chickens! He even managed to sneak his way into their pen and caught one, which had to be rescued by my father. No chicken was hurt in the end, but my point is that he is completely unreliable with small animals.