The hunting instinct, predatory or predatory instinct, usually manifests itself in an obvious way in animals that do not have food provided by humans, therefore it will be practiced by all those animals that live in the wild.
In this case, the hunting instinct will be clearly focused on survival, to cover the fundamental need to obtain and eat food. In order not to starve, basically.
This instinct is triggered by internal stimuli such as hunger or also by external stimuli such as the visualization of a moving prey.
It is important, dear readers, that we keep this last point in mind. In living beings with a marked predatory instinct , although their diet is fully satisfied thanks to the care and concern of the owner, predatory behaviors may occur towards animals or people they do not consider to be from their herd … Even towards small or large vehicles. This instinct is the cause of some of the aggressions of dogs to children: the animal does not recognize that “little individual”, nobody has socialized him with that “type” of human being. The dog only shows a moving prey and its hunting instinct is activated and it starts to attack.
This type of behavior is difficult to handle at the time and we should emphasize the latter. All inappropriate behavior of dogs whose origin is instinctive is more problematic than learned behaviors, installed in the brain by experience. For this reason, it is essential to be very clear about the “perronality” of our animal since childhood, to know its instinctive intelligence , and if necessary, to put all the means to control it. Because if the human responsible for that dog had socialized the animal, with the help of a professional if necessary, the attack would never have occurred.
The predatory instinct is temporary
The hunting instinct disappears temporarily due to the fatigue of the animal after the unsuccessful pursuit of a prey or because the appetite has been satisfied after a successful hunting day.
The predation instinct of our dogs can also be weakened by more important or pressing stimuli for the animal, such as in cases of illness or in situations of fear. In addition, in a dog with an iron training, we can stop its attack using some of the attention-calling tricks that the canine educator has taught us.
If we feel that our dog has too developed his hunter instinct and we are afraid that this could give us problems, we will ask our veterinarian for a behavior specialist. This person will educate our dog and give us guidelines to prevent our pet from causing or falling into danger due to his instinct.
On the other hand, if we see that our dog, who lives in a plot, does not stop hunting vermin or small living beings and then eat them, he goes without delay to the veterinary professional to diagnose what is happening to our best friend. It could be an eating problem, illness, or some behavioral difficulty.
