I understand prey drive, in the years since the RBs died we have had 8 Jack Russell terriers. That’s a lot of prey drive right there. In fact there is a rabbit hunt going on in the back yard right now.
That should read “rather than vicious”.
Very interesting that your RRs didn’t have prey drive... and that they were from SA stock.
So imagine the kind of prey drive that your JRTs have (or that Greyhounds have) and put it in your RRs... That’s what I have. I can’t go anywhere with them off leash unless it’s a fenced area or wide-open country where I know they won’t run into traffic or accidently run off a cliff chasing (cat, rabbit, squirrel, deer, antelope, etc.).
I was loading one of my RRs into the truck one day and made the mistake of letting her out of the house off leash because we were just going from the front door to the driveway and into the truck. Unfortunately, there was a cat under the truck and it took off across the street, RR flew after it... The cat ran up the side of a huge tree, and the RR ran up the side of the tree too, completely oblivious to something called gravity. Only when the cat and the RR both got about 7 feet off the ground did gravity take over, and they both fell back to the ground in a heap of boiling fur. Fortunately for all parties, the RR had landed on her back and the cat had landed somewhere in the heap, but the thud on the ground gave the cat a chance to escape.
It was very fortunate no cars were coming when that happened, or one/both the animals could have been killed since neither of them even noticed the street they had just crossed.
That was the first time the RR had ever met a cat. Needless to say, we don’t leave the house, even just to get in the truck, without being on leash now.