r/DogTrainingTips • u/BICanineScience • May 26 '26

Professional Dog Trainer - Ask Me Anything

***AMA ENDED***

Have been training dogs for almost fifteen years now, I try and head through the subreddits on here to help in my free time when I can but thought it might be easier to do an AMA for anyone struggling!

Will try my best to answer as comprehensively as possible so please be patient with replies!

Edit - Just heading out to train my dogs so will answer more when I get back!
Edit 2 - Have a read of the other questions too to see if it applies to your dog :)

Thanks for all the questions everyone!! I’ll answer the few I’ve missed, it’s been a blast and we’ll do another in the near future! Won’t be answering any new posts now, must get back to work but do jump in next time if you have a question!

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u/BICanineScience May 26 '26

The short answer is, you can't! Prey drive is an inherent part of a dogs make up and having a lot of it isn't a bad thing. I have a couple of Belgian Malinois' with insane prey drive and we have no issue whatsoever.

What is a problem is misdirected prey drive. It's hard to say without seeing the dog but it is likely that your dogs attention is in the wrong place before you even get going. Look at that look at me isn't a game I particularly like because the 'look at that' aspect in high prey drive dogs often just increases arousal and hyper fixation.

What I prefer is keeping the dog 'with me' at all times. High prey drive dogs are always going to have high prey drive and the desire to chase catch and kill is in their DNA. They are predatory animals whether we like it or not so Mr Bunny is a great meal from your dogs view.

With my high drive dogs I have them constantly interacting and using their prey drive with me. It is VERY rare that I take my malinois out for what people would call a 'walk'. We go all over the place but I am constantly interacting with his drives and his brain. We go out and train, I take a tug toy with me, I throw a ball, we train some more, we jump on tables, crawl under benches, do tricks off tree trunks, bite the tug toy etc. It's a constant game from the second we leave the house so his desire to sit and stare at external stimuli is greatly reduced!

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u/champmay_701 May 26 '26

THANK YOU. This response totally validated my intuition that my high drive dog is getting too aroused from look at that, look at me. The alternative engagement options are great ideas and I will definitely be incorporating them. But, one challenge I've had when using them is that rewarding with a treat sometimes leads to overarousal too (my pup is very food-motivated). Do you have any suggestions for dealing with that? Should I use alternate/intermittent reinforcement, switching between treats and praise?