When a dog is hungry he is not really hungry he is "Hunger Driven". This "Drive" "Drives" him to eat. On the way to the food dish he is actually in "Hunt" drive. This "Drive" is stimulated by "Food Drive," not to be confused with, "Hunger or Hunt Drive". Now "Hunt Drive" is a close "Drive" to "Prey Drive". It is so close it could be called, "Walk Drive," but lets not get ahead of ourselves or we may "Drive" each other nuts.

Now let's re-cap, we have "Hunt, Prey, Hunger and Food Drive," and we haven't got to the dish yet. If, on the way to eat, we throw in a ball, this is not, "Interference Drive," this is "Prey Drive". This "Prey Drive," then quickly turns into "Ball Drive" which in turn can, without notice, become "Prey Drive". See how simple this really is. I bet you get the understanding of how your dog works now. In fact, I am finding this so enlightening that I am going to go much deeper than I had planned to.

Now if I pull on the ball my dog goes into, "Tug Drive". I just heard of that drive. it's newly discovered. From, "Tug Drive," the dog may go into, "Prey," if the ball falls onto the floor and rolls away. For the more serious we have, "Flight, Courage, Fight, Defensive, Battle and Combat Drives". No, I am not making these up. If you think that "Hunger" "Food," "Prey" and "Hunt Drives," overlap, just hold on a moment. The terms "Battle", "Combat" and "Fight" are used not only in Nintendo games, but actually by dog people. Some of us prefer the terms, "Go get em boy". I suppose we should not forget, "Bite Drive". It also fits in here somewhere. I am beginning to get a bit confused, and just when I thought that I had it figured out.

I guess the important thing to remember is that your dog cannot function without these drives. Even when you are clicker training, your dog is in some form of drive. Now it may be "Clicker Drive," or "Ignore the idiot until he clicks drive". The important thing is that we beginners do not readily identify these many drives. For this we need the "Drive Guru's". They are usually found driving around the mental health clinics.

I would like to apologize to any of the "Drives," that I may have missed. I think I left out "Search Drive". This "Drive," has little to do with "Hunt Drive," but mysteriously shows some resemblance to "Prey Drive". I am not certain about their individual origins but upon doing research I was found "Driving myself nuts," so I stopped doing that. You can see that there is so very much to learn about "Driving".

In closing there will be a seminar given on "Defensive Drive," not to be confused with, "Combat or Battle Drives". This seminar will be conducted by the, "Day in the park in spandex," crowd on Sunday morning, at nine, weather permitting. There is nothing like, "Driving" around looking at cellulite bulging through spandex on a Sunday morning. We hope to see you there.

To show the line between the Working world and the sport world I leave you with this…..ask a sport person does the dog track and you may hear, "His prey drive is good, but his hunt drive is not equal to his search drive. We are hoping to utilize his, Ball Drive," with his, "Food Drive," to enhance his desire to "Track".

Ask us if the dog tracks and you will get a, "Yes". Ask a sport person about a dogs bite and you may hear…."His fight drive is pronounced but not equal to his defensive drive which is matched only by his flight drive. We hope to work on his combat drive to instill his battle drive and this will ensure his balance between prey and defense drives". Ask us and we will simply say "He has balls".

©Mike McConnery-Baden K-9, 02/25/2006