In the classical sense of the use of the word, “drive”, hunger is not a drive. It is a motivation. However, since many scientific studies by scientists and dog trainers equate hunger with drive, I’ve had to choose to organize the different definitions of drive into 3 categories: a motivation like hunger as Type A Drive, play as Type B Drive, and the classical set of behaviors (Sex; Prey; Defensive; and Pack) as Class C Drive. This is my way of distinguishing what each author is talking about, because many don’t know what they are talking about.
The differences are made much clearer, starting with the famous attachment experiment on Rhesus monkeys by Harry Harlow. One set of infant monkeys were placed with a fake “mother” made up of wire, with a bottle sticking out of her for food. The second group of monkeys was put with a different fake “mother” covered in soft cloth, but without the bottle sticking out. The question was whether the attachment infants have to their mothers was a result of simple reinforcement, by being fed, or if the attachment was because of the babies bonding to the mother. They then exposed the babies to a variety of tests, and the results were very clearly different. For example, if a startling, scary stimulus was presented, such as a stranger or strange thing, the first group of monkeys would run away in fear and then hug themselves and rock back and forth. For the second group, they would also run away but would cling to their fake mothers. After a time, they would calm and then go explore the scary stimulus. But they would only do that exploration if the fake fuzzy mother was present. If not, they would just run away and not recover.
The conclusion? The food was just a motivation, but it wasn’t a drive. In this case, in dog terms, the fuzzy mother alternative, in the face of threat, activated a predictable set of behavioral responses that would be considered “pack drive”.
Regarding play. There is a distinct difference between a motivation, Type A, and a classical drive, Type C. There is also a distinct difference between Type A, Type C, and Type B (play). This was also shown in the Rhesus monkey experiments. Play has been defined as “all motor activity performed postnatally that appears purposeless, in which motor patterns from other contexts may often be used in modified forms or altered sequencing.” (Bekoff, 1998). Or, in the definition of play fighting, “The finding that during play fighting animals supposedly used the tactics of attack and defense in the absence of agonistic signals of threat has been held to be strong evidence for the practice hypothesis.” (Bekoff, 1998).
The reason it has become so hard to define drive is because many of the scientists used, for convenience’s sake, species such as rats and pigeons for their experiments, and because it was easier to manipulate hunger. This is why we get concepts such as drive reduction theory, mostly based upon satiation (let’s call it a full stomach). However, there are no predictable patterns of behavior when an animal is hungry, thus they had to devise laboratory contraptions requiring the rats or pigeons to push levers to get pellets of food. That wouldn’t have happened in nature. Play also became a puzzle, since it looked like a drive, but didn’t have that element of satiation, and has been notoriously hard to explain biologically, even though it is evident in so many species as a category of behavior.
What does this have to do with dogs? I have a dog training book, right here, on my desk, that talks about using “food drive” to train dogs. The usage is wrong and therefore leads the reader off on a silly goose chase. I have another supposedly science-based book that claims, from a radical behaviorist point of view, that you can teach skills to dogs to deal with behavioral issues. That causes dog owners, and most dog trainers, to try and solve behavioral problems by enrolling dogs in obedience classes. That’s like someone teaching a woman to play the piano and then thinking they can command her to fall in love. Or teaching a dog skills with treat reinforcements can overcome the destructiveness of separation anxiety. Skill training is the not same thing as behavior modification.
There is more on this topic, more specific stuff regarding how to apply this to dog training and behavior modification. I’ve given you some breadcrumbs to follow, if you are interested. Start there.
Read my other articles.
Plan accordingly.