Is it possible to have an aggressive dog in hunting and a good calm boy at home? It’s certainly possible, but some activities must calm them down. Here’s a compilation of all the effective tips to keep your dog calm after hunting.
The secret tip behind calming dogs after a hunt is to use positive reinforcement, keeping them in a safe place. You could also train your dog on recall, off-leash activities, and attention exercises. These will make your dog calmer even after an intense hunting season.
What Is A Prey Chase Drive?
It’s a natural thing for many dogs, and they start chasing different things. In other words, it is also called the predatory chase drive. For example, your dog might want to chase little animals, cars, birds, or sometimes other humans.
The instinct can trigger at any time. But when it comes to hunting dogs, it could cause any sort of accident. You must learn to calm your dog down after a hunting season. Doing so will help you to avoid any unwanted incidents at all.
Useful Tips To Keep Your Dog Calm After Hunting
These are the easiest yet most effective ways to calm down your dog after a hunt. You must use them whenever your dog gets into the hunting instinct. These will always help you.
1. Redirect Your Dogs Attention
The first step is to redirect your dog’s attention to other things. You could start playing different games with them to redirect their attention. Because if you don’t redirect their attention, they will attack other animals or humans.
Or, you could call your dogs names. Calling their name will surely put all their focus and attention toward your call. As a result, they will not attack the prey or human which is nearby. Make sure you call their names loudly and in a good tone. They are more likely to answer your call and come towards you.
2. Use Positive Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement can be used to help the dog to train to your commands. Experts suggest treating dogs with treats is the best way to let them obey your command. You could even give them their favorite toys to play with. It will make them more joyful at following your commands.
On the other hand, you could experiment with the treat your dogs love the most. Their favorite treat will likely make the positive Reinforcement process easier. Make sure you try out other treats, whether they work on the dog or not.
3. Keep Them Safe And Secure
You should place them safely to avoid triggering their chasing and praying instinct. Make sure they are placed in an enclosed place. A retractable dog gate could create a customized, safe place.
Furthermore, the place should be quiet and clean for the dog to roam. Plus, it should have a proper boundary so the dog does not escape.
You could let them tie with a leash if the compound is open. Plus, you want to ensure the leash is strong enough to resist your dog’s force. Meanwhile, you should avoid placing the dog in an open place with animals and humans going around. It might trigger their chasing behavior.
4. Don’t Encourage The Prey Drive
First, you must know all the actions that might trigger the prey drive. Avoid these actions in front of your dog. For example, you should not bring small animals before your dog. Otherwise, it will attack the animals right away.
Whenever you see the dog start getting into prying action, make sure you distract their attention. As we have discussed earlier, you need to call off their name to come out of the praying instinct. However, when you properly train your dog to avoid praying instinct, it will improve.
5. Train Your Dog’s Recall
To successfully do the recalling action, you need to make sure the dog knows its name. Like, you must let them learn about their name. Once they know the name, you can check whether they respond to your name-calling.
In case they respond, start experimenting with it. For example, you could get a bit far and start calling off their name. Slowly, start adding distractions in between and increase the distance. And that’s how you could start training your dog’s recall.
6. Encourage Off-Leash Walking And Other Healthy Activities
Off-leash walking is one of the best ways to calm your dogs down. Specifically, you could take off the leash and walk linearly with your dog. Check if they are following you or not. You could first do it in an indoor situation. It will help you to test out their response.
It’s time for a public place once you respond well to indoor off-leash activities. You could use a longer leash and distance yourself from the dog. Such activities will distract your dog’s attention and make them more relaxed.
7. Keep Track Of Your Dog With A GPS Tracker
While doing all the extra activities, make sure you put up a GPS tracker on their shoulder. Because, while making your dog calmer, they might get to a certain distance. With the help of a GPS tracker, you can easily find them. It will save you a lot of time and hassle at the same time.
Moreover, with the help of GPS tracking, you can better track your dog’s movement. As a result, detecting your dog’s activities will get easier. You will be more prepared to tame your dog with GPS tracking features. So, let them wear a lightweight GPS tracking kit.
8. Practice Basic Obedience
You could enroll in short courses if you are not good at teaching your dog basic obedience. Once you master them, try to implement them on your dog. Make sure each of the sessions is short and basic. Start with basic steps; over time, you will see the dog is following your instructions properly.
While training your basic obedience, use small treats to keep your dog interested. That’s why your dog will not get distracted during the training period. Do the short training period regularly. But at the same time, ensure your dog doesn’t get upset from the training process.
9. Attention Exercises And Strengthening Your Bond
The Attention Exercises are also called “Watch Me” cues. Simply it gets done with small treats at hand and calling their name. At first, entice your dog with the treat and put it in front of its nose. When they seem interested in it, bring the treat between your eyes.
During the process, you should use marker words. According to the experts, the marker should be like “Yes,” “Ok,” or similar words. Keep on doing these steps several times. With regular exercise, you could improve your dog’s attention toward you. They may be more likely to obey your command and avoid preying.
10. Walk With Your Dogs
Whether you believe it or not, taking a brief walk with your dogs can make you relaxed. As a standard practice for dog walking, you should use Martingale Collar. It’s a great leash with a suitable collar for dog walking. Once you put the leash on, walk with your dog outside.
To be honest, you need to consider walking slowly for puppies. Because they have small paws and legs, they walk quite slowly. Whether they are puppies or adult dogs, you must form a habit of walking your dog regularly. It will help you tame the dog after hunting.
11. Train Them To Run On a Treadmill
Letting your dog run on Treadmill will make them more relaxed. As a first step, you need to manage a proper running treadmill unit at your house. Once you buy one, let your dog run and roam around the treadmill. It will help them to get adjusted to the machine and its scent.
After a few hours, you should put your dog on the running track. Start with slow speed. Let your dog adapt to its speed. You must let them run at a lower speed for the first few days. They slowly start increasing their speed after they get good at running on the treadmill. But be sure they don’t get any injury while running on it.
12 Do Behavioral Training
You must perform behavioral training with your dog, especially if they are addicted to the praying instinct. If your dog keeps attacking outside animals and neighbors, providing them with behavioral training is the only way. That’s how you could manage their bad behavior and make them a good-mannered dog.
As with other training, you must use treats to engage your dog. Find out the food they love the most. Use that as a treat to keep them involved with the training. Keep on doing the training and therapy until your dog does not attack other humans or animals outside your home boundary. Meanwhile, there are also things to consider before taking your dog hunting. Make sure to do these as well.
13. Keep On Doing Eye Contact
To bond with your dog, you need to keep eye contact with your dog. But make sure you don’t overdo the process. A gentle glance in their eye with a short interval will be enough to create a bond with your dog.
Creating a better bond with your dog through eye contact will relax them. As a result, you get to stop their praying instinct. Your dog will be calm when you keep on naturally making eye contact.
Conclusion
That marks the end of my handy tips to keep your dog calm after a hunt. Keeping your dog calm can be challenging. Understanding their activity is a whole new journey. You must be patient and empathetic to your dog to understand them more.
Most of all, you must keep doing these exercises with your dog. These will make them calmer and more relaxed.
FAQs
How Do You Calm A Dog With A High Prey Drive?
Do actions like getting attention from them, dropping a treat near them, and similar things. Doing these will help distract your dog in high prey drive.
What Do Dogs Do When They Hunt?
They try to chase their prey. After chasing them down, they catch the prey and start eating up. However, they tend to be hyper when they start getting into the cycle of hunting.
Why Do Dogs Like To Hunt?
Because, from the beginning of the species, they are used for hunting. They tend to live around forests and naturally hunt small animals, so it’s in their blood to get into the hunting mood.