digging for small animals

[LoerkensEllen]

While walking our Siberian husky in the forest, she is very motivated to dig for moles or mice in order to catch them and even eat them if we are too slow to stop her.  Is there something which could help curb this strong desire to dig for these small rodents?  She definitely has enough to eat at home!  This is not the problem.  

[Adrienne]

The instinct to dig and search for critters is strong in this breed. As you may already know, Siberian Huskies come from Siberia where they were developed by the Chukchis, ancient semi-nomadic, reindeer-hunting people from northeastern Siberia. Back in those ancient times, huskies were primarily employed for help in hunting reindeer. 

Consider as well that, back in time, in the warmer parts of the year, when Siberian tribes had no use of sled dogs, huskies were sometimes let loose to go hunt for themselves. In those times, they would therefore likely capture and eat small rodents like voles and maybe even a few rabbits. With a history as hunters, learned over many hundreds of generations in harsh arctic conditions, it's therefore not surprising for huskies to have a strong prey drive. Prey drive in huskies is therefore a deeply ingrained instinctual behavior which cannot reliably be trained out. 

What you can try to do is train a strong response to the leave it and drop it command, starting in the home, then in the yard, and then practice on leash walking past temptations, using foods that are very valuable so to help your husky make good choices. You can find the section on training the leave it and drop it cues here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/drop-it/

It also helps to provide outlets for instinctive hunting behaviors. It is important to offer the dog the chance to act out this natural instinct and drive. Brain games, food puzzles, treasure hunts, nosework, burying toys under sand, and the use of flirt poles can provide fun  outlets for those strong instinctive drives. These games and exercises provide your dog legitimate alternatives to their undesirable prey behaviors. If you work on making these activities appealing and rewarding enough, your husky may prefer to engage in them with you and may be therefore less inclined to chase/search for prey.

Hope this helps,

Keep me posted!

Happy training,

Adrienne