The Canine Pack
Once you’ve established that you’re the alpha dog, your family members and other pets will become members of your dog’s pack. True, dogs aren’t humans but they are pack animals. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are the natural born leader because you are human and head of your household. You will have to teach your dog to understand that you’re his or her leader, as described above. You don’t need to be overly aggressive or large in stature, and you don’t have to battle your dog for leadership. What you do need is to come across as authoritative enough for your dog to respect you, yet light enough in tone so that the two of you can communicate with one another.
In the dog world the pack members go through a period where they are vying for positions within the group. Dogs tend to be assertive so they will try to make it as far as possible in the domination/ subordination hierarchy. When you bring a new puppy or dog home, you need to establish yourself and be prepared to maintain your role for as long as you and your dog are together.
If you were to observe a group of pack animals in the wild, you would see the adults start teaching the youngsters the rules quite early in their lives. They will hold the pups by their head or neck and push them down to the ground, keeping them firmly pinned for a bit. It doesn’t take long for them to learn that the proper way to approach an adult dog is to crouch down, keep their ears laid back, their tails down but wagging, and then lick the muzzle of the adult. It may sound as if they’re terrified, but it’s actually a way to show respect and love. The purpose of this subordination in nature is to promote harmony and peace inside of the pack.
Think like a Dog
What many of us may not think about is that dogs haven’t really changed, but their environment has. Centuries ago dogs and humans roamed the earth trying to survive by finding food and avoiding their enemies. Now, humans have become more “civilized” and the dogs are now our subordinates. At least that’s the ideal situation. It can just as easily work the other way if you let it.
We’ve all seen spoiled or ill-behaved dogs that jump all over everyone, bark when they want to, and beg from the table. That’s only because he’s been allowed to think all of those things are okay. Just like children, they will try to get away with anything they can. Once you start training him and he gets a little more mature, you want to achieve mutual respect. Maybe he can’t read your mind, but just as you learn about him, he’s also learning about you.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because he doesn’t speak human, he’s not intelligent. Your dog can learn a lot about you from your body language, your mood, and even your facial expressions. If you don’t establish yourself as a qualified pack leader, he will soon have your number and won’t respect you.
Many of us who love animals credit them with forming whole sentences in their minds that we would understand if only we each spoke the same language. As I mentioned before, there is evidence to suggest that dogs think in images. For example when we tell Fido he’s probably hungry and he starts salivating, he’s probably responding to some other cues he picked up from you. You may have looked at his food bowl or even been starting to fix his dinner. If you haven’t started working on his dinner yet, once he picks up the message that you’re thinking about it, he will prod you on with tail wagging, salivation, or hopeful yipping. Does all this mean that you guys share the same thought processes? No, but it does mean that you two can communicate.
So how do you know what is going on in your dog’s mind? We are pretty sure, and there is scientific evidence to back up the theories that dogs think in some sort of images and recall sounds and smells that they associate with certain activities. For example, let’s say you leave for work every morning at eight o’clock and arrive home at five-thirty. Within a short period of time your dog expects you to walk in the door at five-thirty and starts getting excited. It’s not because he can tell time, he has just quickly become conditioned to this behaviour on your part.
After a few weeks of reinforcing this schedule, one night you stop for dinner on the way home. You don’t actually reach your house until seven-thirty. When you walk in you find things in a mess. Your shoes may be in the living room having been chewed. You might find dog hair on a chair that you sit in but your dog has never been allowed to be on. Papers may be shredded. Well you get the picture; things aren’t as they should be.
Your first reaction is very possibly one of anger and you decide on the spot to punish the little beast. The whole time he was trying to get next to you by choosing things that had your smell, and he was also confused as to why you hadn’t come home. When you do come home and show anger, then he is really confused. If the pattern repeats often enough he will associate your coming home with unpleasantness and you will start thinking that you have an un-trainable dog that you can’t trust. If this cycle continues the dog is likely to exhibit worse behaviour such as toileting on the carpet, and by now you think you have the worse behaved dog in the world. All too often the human takes the dog away to the pound where he most likely will meet an untimely and totally unnecessary end.
So what’s to be done? If the behaviour does escalate take your dog to the veterinarian for a complete physical. The purpose is to rule out any physical problems that are health-related. In recent years dogs have been diagnosed with separation anxiety and given anti-depressants or some other designer drug. The problem is we are assigning a human condition to a dog. By all means however, listen to what the doctor says. There may be times when a dog does need medication for nervous conditions.
Here we need to go back to the basic alpha dog and pack configuration. Many times without realizing it we let our dogs rule us. They come up to us and push their heads under our hands to be petted. They whine for dinner and we serve it up. They bring us a toy to play with and we jump right into the game. Looking at things from that perspective makes it fairly easy to see why he’d feel upset when you aren’t there to obey his every wish and command. Early conditioning that teaches him right upfront that you are master can go a long way in eliminating all these hassles.
Yes, he will test you, but when he does it’s your job to ignore him. For example, you get in the habit of asking him to sit before you do anything with him he’ll know that you expect certain things from him before he will get certain things from you. When he complies, lavish him with praise and when he doesn’t, walk away. He may challenge you for as many as a few days, but if you are consistent, he’ll soon figure it out. You should also train him to follow you submissively when you’re both in the house or even better keep him in a down or lay position. This will remind him that the house isn’t his domain to rule.
In the morning when you go off to work instead of bustling around and making a big deal about leaving, sit near your dog for a few minutes without reacting to him. Then just get up and leave with no big fanfare. When you arrive back home, greet your dog quietly and calmly. If he or she is excited, ignore him until he’s calm. Then praise him and tell him you’re glad to see him, but don’t do it near the door where you came in. These simple tricks will take the emotional and confusing images out of his mind and the reality will soon become just another part of his, and your, routine.
Okay, what about the scene we mentioned where you arrive home to a big mess that the dog made. It can be chewed up things, inappropriate urination or defecation, dog on furniture, or any number of other things. This will be hard for you but you should totally ignore it and the dog for a few minutes. When five or so minutes have gone by, take your dog to another part of the house and then calmly greet him. Keep him away from the area where he misbehaved and then clean up the mess. Yes, you want to strangle him, but you’re trying to learn dog-think here. It’s not clear why this works, but it seems to create a better image in the dog’s mind of the relationship with the owner’s comings and goings.
Basically what we need to do is to reshape the images in the dog’s mind to be more structured and unemotional. He has certain jobs to do and you will show him how. It’s time to stop trying to bully your dog and build a bond based on mutual respect.