Dog Health Questions: Can someone with a knowledge of dogs help me?

I'm working on a psychology essay, and it relates to dog training. I just have a question or two about a dogs instincts.

Do dogs have a natural instinct to chase/retrieve? For example, if I were to throw a ball, does the dog at least have the instinct to chase down that ball and pick it up?

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Retreivers are bred for their natural instinct to retrieve.

Terriers and hounds are bred for their natural instinct to hunt (give chase).

If all dogs had those instincts, there would be no need to develop specific breeds to do that job.

I have one dog who will just look at you like you are crazy if you throw a toy or ball.

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• Dogs are a lot like modified wild animals. Their killing instinct, with most dogs, has been modified to perform a certain (arbitrary for survival, really) function. So with labs or golden retrievers, then yes, they are going to instinctively want to not only chase the ball but also to bring it back (retrieve). However, even wolf pups and other various canids will play with objects that are not prey: sticks, fabric blowing in the wind, and even balls.


• Dogs have a natural instinct to chase prey, which could extend over to a ball. Not all dogs have a natural instinct to retrieve if they were not bred to do so and some have to be taught/trained to do this. However, it's been said that a dogs natural instinct is to chase therefore if he won't come the trick is to run away from the dog kicking in his natural instinct to chase.
  
  So while I will say with 100% certainty that dogs have a natural instinct to chase I believe that only applies to "prey" or things that run, which may or may not be a ball or other inanimate object.


• Depends on the breed. Most dogs will take notice of a moving object. However some breeds will only chase and stop/give up once the object has stopped moving (think terriers or sight hounds) Other breeds will chase, pick up and bring back (think retrievers) Other breeds will try to stop the object from moving (think herding breeds)
  
  Some dogs just cant be bothered to do any of the above and will just sit and watch. A lot also depends on how a dog is raised. Spaniels trained to the gun stop anytime an object moves


• Different breeds have different levels and types of prey instinct that makes them chase moving objects. All dogs have some prey instinct but dogs bred for hunting or killing vermin or reacting to sudden movement such as herding dogs have more prey drive than dogs bred to be strictly companion animals like many of the toy breeds. Retrieve is trained. Bringing back the object is not necessarily instinctual.


• the actual instinct of the dog is just to chase something for it to eat it afterward
  (like a pray)
  
  the human trained the dog to bring it back and the dog was doing that because he knew he would get treats
  
  so the answer is no, the instinct is just to chase and catch


• Most dogs do, but that instinct is greater or lessened depending on the breed. Certain dogs are bred to chase (Foxhounds, for example) and will be much more keen to go after something than a dog that's bred to sit around and be pretty.


• Depends upon the breed of the dog; if it is a 'toy' dog or lap dog type breed, then their prey drive will likely not be as intact as their working or sporting class cousins.


• Go to akc.org and look up what different breeds were created to do. Not all dogs fetch, retrieve etc. mostly it's in the breeding.


• It really depends on the dog, but most dogs would probably chase anything that moves, might not bring it back to you but will probably give chase!