Dogs and Pack Leadership: Part 1

Consider it dog politics. From the very first day that you bring pup home to the last day that your senior citizen canine spends with you, there is an ongoing leadership issue. Pup will want to know three things:

• what am I allowed to do
• what can I have you do for me
• who sets the rules in this relationship

These will be questions that pup will revisit for a lifetime. It is in his/her DNA. It is part of the innate programming of that dog whose ancestors survived by being pack animals. Those dogs’ very survival depended on pack leadership and following the wisdom of that hierarchy. The question for the dog owner is ‘are you the pack leader or not?’. There is no ‘in-between’; a relationship with a dog is not an exercise in democratic ideology.

The owner’s pack leadership is challenged constantly - and subtly. Here is an example. Your dog may want to go out. So, the dog goes to the back door and barks. As a conscientious owner, you immediately go and open the door to let the dog go and do whatever bladder / bowel things are necessary. You go back a few minutes later and call the dog. And then you perhaps wait. [By the way, you have just ruined your "come" / recall command.] And you wait. In a few minutes, the dog comes and you go about with whatever you were doing. It is a regular household routine to which you do not give much thought now.

Through the dog’s perspective, you are the ‘door servant’. A bark at the door means ‘open the door for me’. Your call from the door means that you are ready to open the door when the dog decides to join you.

*** At this point, you will be objecting. You will be saying to yourself: ‘Catherine, that is what we want the dog to do. The bark at the door tells us when the dog needs to go outside’.

Let me address that with an imaginary human example. - Your employer wants you in the room. You may be needed. You excuse yourself to visit the rest room. Some time goes by and your employer goes to look for you. You are wandering about, perhaps looking out the window. Your employers tells you that you are needed. You reply that you will be there when you ‘feel like it’. Such behaviour would not be the wisest decision for job security.

However, that is exactly what the dog is doing. The dog is controlling its environment and telling you, in dog terms, who is the pack leader. And, unfortunately, it is not you.

Catherine Forsythe

Part 2 of this series will offer some solutions.