What do dogs hunt in the wild?

There's not too many little dogs out in the wild.  The littlest canine would probably be a fox, and they hunt birds, mice, voles, rabbits, chickens and anything that they can safely kill.  Coyotes do the same.  Both will go through your trash, if given the opportunity.

the theory that makes the most sense to me, is that dogs came from wolves, that people found as "pups", and then began breeding the friendlier, more obedient ones.
 
so i guess they originally hunted all kinds of cool stuff.
 
i once saw a nature rogram that showed a helicopter view of how wolves encircle their prey...and second view of how sheep-dogs encircled their herd...it was the same exact pattern.

Wolves are so cool!

Emma is a little dog. She hunts rabbits, birds, mice, rats, bugs, and fish. She's not really "in the wild", but she is a hunting dog. JRT were bred to hunt red fox, in England. They are often used, here, to hunt other varieties of fox, groundhog, and rats. They are *excellent* ratters, but you have to be *so* careful, since they often scarf their kills. Rat poison is a nasty way to go....

Were she abandoned in the middle of the woods, I'd imagine she'd eat lots of rabbits, birds, and rodents, and a little vegetation (she has a taste for fruit, absolutely loves it). She also found a sweet potato growing in the pasture, once[] She might dig up edible roots. She eats a bit of grass, too. She'd also feast on carrion. If she found a deer that'd been left, or bits that a hunter left behind, she'd gorge.

That was interesting to thing about![]

Shadow hunts mice and squirrels. He has the speed and size to take down a deer but he wouldn't know and he would just as likely be intimidated by it. He once got into a pasture with some cows and got right back out. Those "doggies" were too big for him.
 

to me,the wolf pack is one of the most interesting things to see in nature..how they came to hunt together,HOW they hunt together and thier  family dynamics makes for great study.

 It is funny to think that some dinosaurs worked in the same manner..where does working together for the common good come from,in the animal kingdom?

ORIGINAL: faramir

I once saw a nature rogram that showed a helicopter view of how wolves encircle their prey...and second view of how sheep-dogs encircled their herd...it was the same exact pattern.

Yep, herding instinct is just modified hunting behavior.  They gather but don't kill them.

There are bush dogs in Central and South America. They're a small dog that lives in packs. They apparently eat mostly small vertebrates such as rodents and marsupials, but do consume a lot of agouti and paca, which are about the same size as them, maybe a little bigger. They also eat fruit, which makes sense seeing as they live in rainforests.

Dingoes don't usually hunt in packs, although they can and do from time to time. They'll eat anything they can catch, from wallabies to mice and lizards. Jackals are smaller than dingoes, and along with carrion, they eat rodents and other small mammals, birds, insects, fruit and reptiles. They congregate at large kills in Africa, but otherwise mostly hunt alone.

The coyotes around here like rabbit and deer.  And, cats and small dogs - ack.

The most closely related to our dogs living wild, would IMO be the Dingo of Australia.
 
I believe Dingos take whatever they can grab..the largest being Roos or possibly Emu...rabbits, mice, insects etc.[]
 
Feral dogs usually stick to human refuse and the odd livestock kill.
 
One of my favorite and lesser known canids is the Dhole of India. These guys apparently can tree a TIGER and aren't to be trifled with! Rudyard Kipling included them in his works...beautiful critters too!
 

[linkhttp://www.cuon.net/dholes/]http://www.cuon.net/dholes/[/link]

My dog caught a small wild rabbit while we were at the barn heading down to the pasture. I saw the rabbit and said to my husband "ohhh look, a bunny" BAM! dog had it. It was awful for me..my dog was extremely proud of his catch. I forced myself to keep walking and when I came back up from the pasture my dog was eating it.
Whats odd is that my dog has not ever shown an interest (that made me nervous) in the chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry at the barn. Grouse, squirrels, rabbits etc..they definately set off the prey drive.

Damarcus...I "JUST" now noticed your Rott's name..that is soooo funny. Is it from "Friday"? that is one of my all time favorite movies. Anyhow...done hijacking just had to comment []

Dogs of all sizes can hunt sheep and goats. That's probably the top of what they can take down. An individual dog needs to catch an unwary small ruminant, or trap it, or get it in an enclosed field where it can chase until the animal tires enough to allow it to be caught. All unlikely scenarios in the wild. But packs can tag team even sick and young members of larger ungulates and kill them if they can avoid the aggressive herd members. It's hard to imagine even a pack of Yorkies taking down a sheep but anything is possible, I suppose. I knew a Yorkie that could herd, and numerous Jacks ditto.

Canids kill their larger prey by ripping out chunks as they chase. It's pretty darn ugly. Yes, they go for the gut contents first - while the animal is still running. That's life, though.

Herding dogs will kill - the kill behavior is not "bred out". Herding behaviors are combinations of various behaviors we've fixed in the breed in question, some of which are based on prey drive and hunting behaviors, and some not. Herding dogs don't kill because we are the "kill" dogs in their pack - it's not their job to kill. Different canids have different jobs in hunting packs - some drive the herd on to spread it out and cause the weak ones to fade back, some cut out the selected prey, some "turn back" the prey for the kill. Typically the dominant members of the pack take down the kill (and thus are in position to begin eating first).

Voles and mice are the preferred wild things of choice for mine, although Gracie eats crickets and grasshoppers. Tookey ate one of the cicadias that swarmed around here a couple of years ago and it made him really sick!