08/27/2026
Prey Drive vs Desire
Here we have two dogs, who walked the same cover at the same time with me. The client dog is a pointing dog with normal prey drive and very low desire. Timber is my springer spaniel, trained to hunt within 20 yds of me, who has high prey drive and very high desire.
Prey drive is a heightened level of excitement in response to a stimulus indicating the presence of game: for us normally smell, sight, or sound.
Desire is the willingness to go find that stimulus.
On this walk Timber found and flushed 12 ruffed grouse. The client dog never indicated the presence of game. Never pointed, never even knew they were there. He walked within 10 yards of most of them but he just wasn’t looking.
Also notice the difference in the distance travelled: Timber cover almost a mile more ground than the low desire pointing dog even though she’s restricted to a 20yds radius. The client dog can go out to about 50 yds in the cover. But he didn’t.
The client dog will point birds, but you’ll need to walk him directly to them. Timber wants to find them.
I don’t believe that we can evaluate desire during a 15 minute “hunt” on a 20 acre field with five planted birds and tons of bird scent. Any dog can be excited for that. But show me a dog that continues hunting hard an hour after the last indication of game, and I’ll show you a dog with desire.
In the small munsterlander world I don’t think breeders are doing a good job of evaluating desire. I’ve trained or evaluated several dozen from many different breeders, and in my opinion we’re coming up short. Frankly, there aren’t enough of us who hunt wild birds often enough to truly do it. It can’t be done at a chapter training day. It can’t be done on a preserve. It can only be done in the thick covers, on the prairie, or in the pine woods.
I’ll take a dog with desire over a dog with a great nose every day.
