Can You Train the Hunt Out of a Hound?
You can take the dog out of the hunt, but you can’t take the hunt out of the dog.
Every now and then, I see a comment that scent hounds have to be trained to hunt and hunting is not just “in their nature”. I know this misconception comes from a good place, people who just want dogs to live comfortable lives that are free from stress or abuse.
My Golden Retriever and American Foxhound doing what they do best — exploring the world through their noses!
But therein lies the misunderstanding: temperament and behavior ARE genetic.
They aren’t solely genetic; training and environment can strengthen and provide guidance for the expression of a behavior. But the foundation for a dog’s behavior is rooted in genetics.
Genetic inclinations for certain behaviors are why we have distinct dog breeds at all. Early breeders who needed dogs to accomplish specific jobs bred together dogs who had the temperaments to accomplish those tasks. Eventually, temperament informed breeding leads to predictable behaviors that are distinct from other breeds.
There’s a spectrum for any given behavior of a breed, and some individual dogs may be outliers. But as a general rule, certain traits are predictable within specific populations of dogs.
These traits don’t mean that an individual dog needs to perform their traditional job to live a happy life. But it does mean that the breed inclination needs to be satisfied in some way. In modern life, we call satisfying a dog’s primal desire “enrichment” and there are many ways to accomplish it!
Since my dogs are hunting breeds, they have a strong desire to sniff that I can satisfy with long, meandering walks where they get to follow their nose. They can do Barn Hunt lessons and trials that simulate hunting by requiring sniffing, problem solving, and locating prey. My Golden’s need to retrieve can be satisfied with a game of fetch. I can tap into my Foxhound’s genetic desire to distance run by hooking her up to a bike and knocking out a few miles.
I have these breeds because I like their behaviors, and I enjoy doing activities together that satisfy their fundamental desires. My dogs are happier and more relaxed when their biological needs are fulfilled, and restless and naughtier on days when I haven’t given them enough enrichment.
That’s pretty normal for most dogs; a dog with a comfortable life free from stress, abuse, and neglect is a dog whose owner understands that some behaviors ARE just “in their nature”, and take initiative to satisfy those biological needs.
My dogs don’t hunt, but I can’t train the hunt out of them, and I don’t want to.
