13/11/2025
Let’s discuss Predatory Motor Patterns 🐶
Ever wondered why your dog loves tearing up the toys you give them? Or why they enjoy holding your slipper in their mouth or repeatedly biting down on a ball?
These behaviours are all part of your dog’s innate predatory motor pattern (PMP) 🧬 — they’re rehearsing what they have been bred to do!
A dog’s PMP is a sequence of natural behaviours that we have either selectively enhanced or diminished through breeding:
orient > eye > stalk > chase > grab-bite > kill-bite > dissect > consume 🐕
Some breeds perform the entire sequence (see above), while others exaggerate certain parts. For example, you’ll often see a Border Collie practising the eye > stalk > chase behaviours, whilst a Labrador utilises orient > chase > grab-bite (holding items in their mouth)
Here, Ruby demonstrates:
👀 orient > eye (locating and watching the toy)
💨 chase (running after the ‘prey’)
😬 dissect (shredding, ripping, making a good mess!)
We use a dog’s PMP to fulfil their breed(s) during enrichment sessions and as a reinforcer when training.
What behaviours do your dog(s) enjoy doing? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll see if we can match it to a part of the PMP sequence 🧠
