Game Drive Vs. Chase Drive

During the evaluation of any pup, I focus much of my attenion on game drive.  I want to take a moment to explain what I'm talking about, and then talk about the merits of game drive.

First off, lets take a look at what I call "game drive".  A dog with a high game drive will chase with a great deal of focus on the object it's pursuing, and the definite goal of attaining access to it's target or better put...to CATCH the target

On the other hand, there are dogs that are "chase driven".  The dog with a chase drive will also chase a target, but do not demonstrate the same intensity or absolute DRIVE to reach it's target as the end goal.

Put in perspective, a group of pups in the front yard.  I play the "chase game" with them, where I get the group of pups to chase after me.  Those with high game drives, will chase me and their goal is to CATCH me...they run into me, grab my pants legs, jump up on me...or otherwise come into direct contact with me.  The pups with a chase drive, they run after me, but when I stop, they run on by me, and are more fascinated with the chase than with the catch.   Chase driven dogs seldom "pick up speed" when I take off running faster...again, they are driven by chase, not catch.  Another test I use on very young pups involves rolling a tennis ball past them.  I have found that pups with a high chase drive will go after the ball, but when it stops moving, they lose interest and often go off to do something different, while the pups with a high game drive, pounce on the ball, and out of instict grab it and shake it as a grown dog would shake prey that it had caught.  My experience thus far is that pups at 8 weeks old with high game drives maintain them, while pups with high chase drives selcome develop a high game drive.

As you can see in this picture, we are already testing these puppies for game drive.  The highly game driven puppies will crawl right in the lap of the "game" and grab hold...while the chase driven puppy in the second picture is alreay done with the chase, and off to a new adventure.

The difference?

Game driven dogs start using their nose early, and are content to follow scent trails left by any matter of animals...even me when they become "lost".  Chase driven pups are normally sight dependant, and wander off to themselves and play with the other pups.  They are often a distraction to the game driven pups at this point.

Often I will separate the pups into game drive and chase drive groups, and evaluate them separatly going forward.

So about now, your asking what's the difference and why should I worry about the difference. Well, I was around in the days when a "Walker, Treeing" was a dog that could be counted on to go hunting, find game, trail the game, and tree.....for a little while.  Often these dogs would stay treed only for a short period of time, and then they were off to the chase again.  Why was that?  In a simple answer, GAME DRIVE.  They were focused on the catch, and not the chase.

Impact

Over the years, through selective breeding the Walker breed underwent a transition, and more and more breeding selections were made on the treeing of game, and not as much attention to the trailing part.  I believe that is where we made the transition from GAME DRIVE to CHASE DRIVE.  Treeing game is one thing, but chasing until it's no "fun" anymore, or becomes difficult soon lead to a breed where the act of treeing replaced the goal or target of finding game.

We as breeders and hunters became complacent about GAME DRIVE and were soon content to make excuses for dogs missing.  They would get treed, and boy did they sound and look good doing it.

I am now of the belief that we have breed a high degree of chase drive into our dogs, all the while ignoring the game drive.  Our dogs have, through no fault of their own, been breed to love the chase, and in turn to be rewarded from the adrenaline rush that comes with the act of treeing.  We train our puppies to tree from the time that we can hear them bark.  We can't resist tapping on the side of the puppy pen to get them all stretched out on the wire and "singin to him"  We have them treeing hot dogs, coon tails, and stuffed animals with "coon scent" long before we evaluate them for "game drive", and we may even be supplementing the "chase drive" by putting emphasis on treeing.

It is my current belief that the combination of breeding for a strong "tree" instinct, and our current training and evaluation processes has led us to a point where many of today's dogs are so focused on the chase, that they lose sight of the game.  That fact coupled with heavy breeding selection based upon competition wins, where "he who makes the most trees wins", have left us where we are today.

So how do we get out of the hole that we are digging for ourselves.  As my Grandfather would tell me, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.  In the world of breeding coon hounds, that equates to only breeding dogs with a HIGH GAME DRIVE.  If the game drive is there, and the treeing is bred in, then we must change the way we train pups.  But I truly believe that if we start breeding selectivley for game drive, the center of focus of catching the target, instead of simply chasing after it....then we have started down the road of being satisfied with our breeding program for a long time to come.