In this video, I’m breaking down why prey drive training so often feels like it “works”… until it doesn’t. I use my client Gus as an example: within a week of reward-based training, he could respond to a cued “leave it” around animals (what I call level one). But my real goal isn’t to micromanage your dog forever—I want level three: your dog spots an animal and chooses not to chase without you saying a word. That’s voluntary disengagement, and it’s the difference between obedience and true reliability. The missing piece most people ignore is instinct fulfillment. Prey drive isn’t a bad behaviour—it’s a predatory sequence (search, stalk, chase, grab, etc.) that dogs were literally designed to have. If we focus only on control, we create pressure, and that “prey drive battery” stays fully charged until a squirrel shows up and everything explodes. So I layer training (like “leave it”) on top of replacement outlets that safely satisfy the instinct—then I often use those outlets as functional rewards. When you meet the need first, training gets dramatically easier, and results skyrocket.