The Squirrel Instinct is present in all dogs.
Dogs are predators, and all of them have some amount of prey drive.
Prey drive can differ significantly based on breed, upbringing, environment, and other factors.
The Squirrel Instinct often gets a lot of attention because a bushy tail dashing amongst branches on a tree can suddenly turn our normally placid dog into a Cujo.
Both my Shiba Inu and Siberian Husky have strong prey drive. My Sibe is a three legged dog and she is usually very good about looking before she leaps. However, when a squirrel is involved, all thoughts of safety fly from her head.
When in the throes of Squirrel Instinct, a dog will usually have no interest in food, listening to their owner’s verbal monologue, or even in their own well-being. Indeed they will have little interest in anything except their quarry.
For many years, natural selection has favored wolves and dogs with a strong Squirrel Instinct, so facing this particular challenge will not be easy.
Can the Squirrel Instinct be re-trained? re-directed? fixed in any way?
There are several options.
The one most commonly cited is to use a physical correction (aversive stimulus) to ‘snap the dog out of it‘. ‘It‘ refers to the obsessive, often unwavering and unblinking gaze that a dog holds for his bushy tailed nemesis.
Aversive based trainers often cite the Squirrel Situation as a common failure point of reward training. After all, the dog shows no interest in crummy reward cookies, so reward training must not work.
Instead, they advise owners to apply a physical correction to the dog, that according to them, causes no pain. Rather, it is just a touch that will magically transform the dog from Squirrel State back to Lassie State.
Does this magical ‘touch’ truly exist?
Certainly you may startle your dog by doing something unexpected. For example, if you suddenly shout ‘Squirrel!‘, most people will take notice.
Similarly, if you suddenly poke or tap your dog’s flank – he will be temporarily startled, which will give you an opportunity to remove him from the Squirrel Zone.
However, this no-pain magical touch only works if you almost never perform the action.
The startle reaction, also called the startle response, startle reflex or alarm reaction, is the response of mind and body to a sudden unexpected stimulus.
~~[ Wikipedia ]
If you keep repeating that magical touch, its magic will quickly dissipate. As a result, the magical touch concept is unreliable at best, and often only works in the extreme short-term.
Commonly used aversive training techniques such as leash corrections (leash jerks), finger pokes, muzzle slaps, and shock collars are not magical in nature. They work precisely because they deliver a pain stimulus to the dog, which may subsequently ‘snap the dog out of it‘. The stronger ‘it‘ is, the more pain must be applied.
In the case of Squirrel Instinct, a large pain stimulus is often necessary to trump what has been instilled by Nature over many years of survival and selection.
Is pain the only way to fix the Squirrel Problem?
Luckily for our dogs, that is not the case. There are several other less painful alternatives.
1. Management
One of the keys to addressing the Squirrel Problem is through careful management. Stay vigilant while walking your dog, and interrupt him before he escalates his squirrel obsession.
As soon as you notice the dog fixating on something – quickly interrupt with a loud noise or body block and lead him away with the leash. Do not pull directly back on the leash, but move the dog to the side and away, as if in an arc.
The earlier you interrupt the dog, the easier it will be to remove him from the Squirrel Zone.
If you notice the squirrel before the dog does, just ask for his attention and move him past the Squirrel Zone.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
~~[ Henry de Bracton (English Jurist, b.1268) ]
2. Desensitization
The desensitization process will help to retrain a dog to use alternate and more human desirable behaviors when faced with a strong external stimulus (such as a moving squirrel).
The desensitization process is best performed in a more controlled environment – e.g. your backyard or a quiet neighborhood field. Pick an area where there are fewer distractions and where you can concentrate on the problematic stimulus.
In the beginning, expose your dog to only a very small amount of the problematic stimulus. In the case of the Squirrel Instinct, stand a far distance away from the Squirrel Zone – far enough away that your dog is calm and able to focus on you and on doing obedience exercises.
At this distance, get your dog to do some attention commands mixed with some regular obedience commands. If he does well, move one or two steps towards the Squirrel Zone and repeat. If your dog starts to fixate on the squirrel, you have moved forward too quickly. Move back and repeat the exercise.
This exercise teaches your dog to focus on you when faced with a ‘squirrel stimulus‘. If there are no squirrels readily available, you can get help from a friendly neighborhood cat or hamster.
Remember however that the Squirrel Instinct is a powerful thing.
While it is possible to desensitize your dog to a certain level of ‘Squirrel‘, it may not be possible to ensure perfect success. Instead, the Squirrel Instinct will still be present – but be muted – because your dog has learned that focusing on you in the presence of ‘Squirrel‘ is a very rewarding enterprise.
Incidentally, applying a pain stimulus does not magically remove the Squirrel Instinct either. In that case, the Squirrel Instinct is just suppressed by another stronger instinct – pain avoidance or fear of pain.
3. Set Your Dog Up for Success
If your dog has a strong prey drive, try and set him up for success during walks.
Carefully pick where you walk and avoid areas that are too high stimulus. If necessary, drive your dog to a nearby park or quiet school field. Do not expose your dog to more than he can handle.
Equipment such as the no-pull harness or a head halti can help with the training of certain dogs, while keeping both dog and human safe.
*Note – While dog training collars and other equipment may help in the training process, they are not a replacement for training. It is still necessary to carry on with desensitization and attention exercises.
Premier ECO Gentle Leader Head Dog Collar from Amazon.com
Make sure to read the instructions carefully as incorrect use of any dog training equipment may cause injuries to the dog.
The no-pull harness was useful in training my Shiba Inu how to walk on a leash. My Shiba Inu is a small dog but he would pull very hard during walks and choke himself. The Shiba Inu breed has a short trachea, which makes them more susceptible to neck injuries. The harness was very helpful in this situation.
My Siberian Husky is a larger dog, with much more pulling power compared to my Shiba. It was difficult to control her pulling while using a harness. Therefore, I switched to using a head halti when taking my Siberian on long walks at the park. However, I continued with regular leash training on a flat collar while on shorter, neighborhood walks. Once her walking skills improved, I quickly switched everything over to a regular collar.
I am currently using the Premier Nylon Martingale Collar 
which I really like because it is great at preventing collar escapes.
Hi!
Let me say this article is very well written and is truly insightful.
Although, I think I need further advice!
My dog is only obsessive about one thing: my neighbor’s cat. And I believe she only got to that point because the cat is deaf and doesn’t give a s**t about her, no matter how much she barks! They had another cat that was very friendly and they used to interact through the fence.
Now, the neighbor’s cat is very independent and usually goes around our yard (over walls etc). The minute my dog spots her, she goes nuts. Completely fixated.
I’ve tried some things such as the touching,”neck claw”, noises to distract her..
Any advice is appreciated 🙂
Thanks!
I adopted a Siberian husky who was surrendered to a vet @ 9 mos. with a severely broken leg after being hit by a car. I told the rescue group I would be interested in adtopting him IF he would be ok around my 3 cats so when he was recuperating from surgery to fix his leg, the vet brought in his own cat and reported Nikko was “indifferent”. However, now that he’s living with me and fully recovered, Nikko’s true high prey drive has come out! He also came to me with bit-time mouthing issues… it’s next to impossible to put a collar or harness on him without him putting his teeth on my hands & arms despite correction and/or reward. He also likes to jump on me and tries to grab my clothes and upper arms. I am not tall or strong, but I would really like to train Nikko so I can keep him. The advice on your website is great, and I will start giving your methods a try immediately. I would like to know if you think a Sibe with a high prey drive can be trained to co-exist with cats. If so, can you give me specific instructions on how to train Nikko not to “hunt” them. Thanks!
Hello Mary,
I don’t have any cats, so I don’t have first hand experience with cat training at home.
Here is a very good discussion on how to train a dog to get along with cats. It is a discussion on Shiba Inus, in particular, but Shibas also have high prey drive and are even more stubborn than Sibes. 😀
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/7120/problem-with-cats/p1#Comment_125511
Here is a good article from the ASPCA on how to introduce a dog to a cat.
We rescued a rottie mix about 1 month ago and he’s ~1 years old. He is a good dog and we can’t believe how lucky we are. I’ve noticed 3 issues when we walk outside. Squirrels, other dogs and not looking at me on the walks. Squirrels are just a prey instinct issue but I am strong enough to hold him away and I keep him on a short leash on our walks anyway. He is great with other dogs but he whines and tries to head into the direction of the other dogs when he sees them. Once he gets to say hello, he is totally fine. He is so intense when we are out walking, although he does sit at the curb when I pull the lead. He is annoyed but the ocasional sound of the skate board too.
But the big problem now is him ‘over-playing’ with my hubby when he gets home from work. He has bitten bite and nipped my hubby once until blood comes out and his shirt got ripped! This is a new development. I stay at home and spend most of my time with him. The dog, Anthony, obeys me in the house very well. My hubby is really upset and I think he is depressed about this. The behaviour will stop eventually but it would stop earlier if I intervened from the start. My hubby needs to get this straight because I will not be home all the time to help!
Do you have any ideas to suggest? We love this dog and his is 65 lb now.
Yeah, my dogs get excited when my partner comes home as well. What helps is to make coming home a calm affair, and only give the dogs attention after they have calmed down.
When they jump, he no-marks them (Ack-ack), folds up his arms, and turns away. If they bite on clothes, then they go to timeout. However, if they control their jumping, then they get attention and affection. This teaches them that –
Here is a bit more on our experiences with jumping.
Hugs to Anthony!
Yes, very good point. For some aggressive dogs, the city environment is just WRONG, and it’s hard to manage the problems there. But if an aggressive dog were put in a less densely populated area with his own large-ish private back yard, he and the owners could conceivably get along pretty well. So that would involve resources: having the opportunity and money to move to a house in the suburbs. All sorts of other strategies more focused on training might involve resources, too. The more I hang around with dogs, however, the more it seems to me that older aggressive dogs are just not going to be completely trustworthy–ever, and that it is up to the owner to be very careful and essentially avoid the near occasions of sin (so to speak).
Hi Shibashake! Just a little update on the famous Fred. His pulling became bad again, intractable little beast, and I went on the prowl again for remedies. I used an Easy Walk harness for just one outing, but I could tell that it was too small and was going to rub him raw in the armpits. I returned it. But the design had worked, so I am now using his regular old body harness, but I am attaching the leash at the chest/FRONT rather than at the back/top as most people do. This is eliminating 90% of his pulling because the resistance factor is now gone: you know, dogs instinctively pull forward with traditional collars or harnesses, like Alaskan sled dogs. The 10% that is not solved is still the prey drive–squirrels, of course, bikes, skate boards, runners, kids. But holding him back from these is somehow easier now on my arm with the front-attached leash. You bet I use a MUZZLE on Fred!
A big existential question arises for some of us dog owners: Is the life of an aggressive pet dog worth enough that we will endure our own human physical pain caused by it? The case would be that the dog would not be adoptable by anyone else owing to his aggressive nature. If a person had tried everything, all training methods and equipment, and the dog were still hurting her — arm, shoulder, back — would it be understandable to euthanize the dog? Huge question, no?
Heh, yeah that is a huge question – with a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ attached to it. I think for many people the answer would be that the person is more important than the dog.
Clearly, if the person gets disabled because of the pain, then everybody loses.
However, when considering this issue, the discussion/disagreement is usually around what “tried everything” means. Studies on conditioning tell us that most dogs, barring health issues, can be trained; *if* we have the will and the resources (time, money, etc.).
Most online threads that I have seen talks about the will of the owner. However, will alone is not sufficient. In these difficult times, it is frequently more an issue of resources rather than one of will.
I have a huge prey drive issue with my Dogs and Squirrels. They are brother and sister German Shepherds…almost 2 years old. I am an experienced Dog owner and I work with Dogs every day but this is one problem I’m at a loss with. I’ve been working with them separately using Martingale collars and I’ve managed to control the female when we see a squirrel. She looks but doesn’t pull or bark anymore. The male is a LOT stronger so I’ve used and anti pull harness for safety reasons and I’ve also used a shock collar to “snap” him out of it. Individually training them seemed to work but when I take them out together they just set each other off and all the progress I think I’ve made goes out the window. The male doesn’t even notice the shock and the female barks and pulls like a lunatic…..when they’re together. Did you train your Dogs separately and are you able to take them out together now?
Yes, I trained them separately. That was absolutely necessary because as you say, they feed off each other’s energy when they are together and the situation becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to handle.
My dogs are better now but they still lose it when the prey stimulus is especially strong. My Sibe has much stronger prey drive so for a really strong stimulus – e.g. deer, she will sometimes lose her head. But I can get her to calm down much faster now.
I only walk them together with a friend. One person controls one dog. In this way, they get training on dealing with situations together, but I only need to control one dog at a time.
No – I only put it on before a walk and take it off when we get home. It can get caught on something while they are running around at home or playing with each other.
So is it as safe to leave on a dog as a regular collar?
Hi Nicco,
I set my Martingale so that when it is fully tightened, it is the same circumference as my regular flat collar. In this way, it acts like a flat collar when fully tightened, but other times, it is loose and presumably more comfortable for the dog.
There are two main reasons why I switched from a flat collar to using a Martingale.
1. Breakage – There is less possibility of the Martingale breaking whereas clip-on collars are weak around the plastic clasp (clip). I have also used a flat buckle collar before, which solves the breakage issue, but it is harder is fasten. The martingale I can just slip over the head.
2. Slippage – One of the key issues I faced with the clip-on flat collars is that the collar adjustment areas kept slipping after a very short time. As a result, the collar would get larger and larger after some use, making it susceptible to collar escapes. There is less slippage with the Premier Martingale, and I have not had a collar escape since I started using it.
Interesting that you now use a Martingale collar. I’ve looked at those and am curious about them. Obviously, they still have the ability to tighten, only they tighten to a certain limit. What is this feature used for?
The Buddy Belt works great, Stops all pressure on the neck.
I think usually to stop the dog escaping but could be used to “correct” the dog too if it’s tight enough (not that I agree with the “correction” based method of training).
I just use a vest type harness for my dog (similar to what police dogs wear) – she can escape collars, halters and most strap type harnesses with ease (though never tried a martingale but since using a harness have no intention of going back to collars). The harness I use is slightly padded and has reflective strips so it’s comfortable and good for night walks too (it also looks stylish!).