Who's The Boss In Your House?... Understanding The Dog Pack Hierarchy
Who is really the boss in your home... You, or your dog?
If you've got more than one dog, which one is the top dog?
You need to know this.
We learned it the hard way... after one of our dogs got a bit out of line. Some 'experts' in the field taught us how to communicate to him in terms of dog packs and hierarchies and show him that we are the "Alpha dog" -- at all times -- not him!
As a dog owner, it is important to acknowledge (in front of your dogs) the dogs' own pack hierarchy.
It is also important that you make it clear to all dogs in your household that YOU are the real Alpha dog at all times.
To maintain control over your dog, you need to dominate every aspect of the dog's life.
Ways To Show Your Dog Who's In Charge
Three rules of thumb:
1. Your dog should never get anything for free.
2. Never let your dog dominate you.
3. Always reward your dog's positive behaviors and ignore (or deny rewards) for negative behaviors.
Ways To Prove To Your Dog That You're The Boss
(any time you and your dog are interacting)-
When you play tug of war, do not let your dog end up with the ball or rope when you are finished. - When you feed your dog, do not let him eat until you command him to come.
- Before you pet your dog, make him sit at attention first.
- Do not let your dog jump up on you in his excitement to see you. Instead, lightly "knee" him in the chest and make him sit before receiving any praise, a pat on the head, or a treat.
- Do not feed dominant-prone dogs from the table.
- Do not let dominant-prone dogs sleep in your bed.
- Before going outside, make your dog sit near the door first.
- Before putting on his leash, make him sit calmly first.
- Before entering or exiting the car, make him sit calmly first.
Another positive behavior that should be rewarded is "submission".
Signs Of Submission
(in the presence of people or other dogs)- lying their ears back on their head
- licking their lips
- repeatedly sticking out their tongue when approaching
- rolling over and lying on their back
- avoiding eye contact
- tucking the tail between their legs
- being in a playful position: front paws on the ground, rear end up in the air
On the other hand, any time your dog displays "dominant" behavior toward you, it should be ignored.
Signs of Dominance
(of people or other dogs)Remember, it is immensely important that you be totally consistent with your behavior and rewards if you want your dog to be consistent with his.
Here's another way to tell friendly behavior from unfriendly behavior in dogs.
How To Reprimand The Alpha Dog
As I alluded to in an earlier article about our Alpha dog who was overly protective of the Omega dog, there will be times when you must remind your dog who's boss.During those times when you must reprimand the Alpha dog, be sure to correct him boldly and forcefully -- just as he would correct the Beta dog! There should never be any question as to who is the real leader of the pack in this household.
Our Alpha dog is a 70-pound Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix. He's a handful, to say the least, and he could certainly pull his weight around here if we let him. Fortunately, due to early training when he was a puppy, and repeated "refresher courses", we've managed to maintain some semblance of control over him. For the most part, we can put a stop to any unwanted behavior with a simple "No!".
However, after we introduced a new puppy into our home (now 3 dogs and counting!), Destin became a little more strong-willed at times, and it would take a few repeated "No's" to regain control of the situation, followed by an immediate "sit" -- at which point we were certain that we had his full attention.
How To Get An Alpha Dog To Be Submissive
Sometimes, it's necessary to make it clear to the Alpha dog who's really in charge here... you! However, an Alpha dog may not always be willing to freely give up control of the situation on command.
In fact, a few times with Destin it became necessary to physically pull him off of the new puppy that he was being too rough with (otherwise known as "trying to teach the puppy to be submissive").
It's a natural behavior, but sometimes it just went too far, causing the puppy to whimper and/or belt out a series of loud yelps -- out of fear more than anything else.
Unfortunately, such whimpers and yelps would only heighten Destin's anxiety during those times, and his protective nature kicked into high gear and he became quite forceful toward the little puppy. As a result, we had to physically pull Destin off the puppy a handful of times.
As I said, Destin is a big dog. But this one trick has always worked like a charm...
Simply grab the Alpha dog by the back of the neck and hold onto that huge chunk of fur and skin while subsequently pulling him "up and back" and into a "sit" position. At the same time, hover over the Alpha dog, clearly showing who's the boss in this situation.
SOURCES:
Food Aggression: Why Dogs Do it And How To Fix It
Winning Your Puppy's Trust, Respect and Confidence
Humane Society's View Of Dog Aggression
Dealing With Canine Aggression
De-Throning The Canine King
We have adopted a dog, a dear lovely little thing, mix between terrier and pointer, of about 1 - 2 years old. She had a badly broken leg, apparently, and as a result hops around on three legs - quite happily. We received her recently, and have all fallen in love. But, we (my boyfriend and I) have a lot of discussions going regarding what rules she has to follow, so that she understands who is in charge. He (my boyfriend) has obviously become alpha dog of the pack for her, but she also shows signs of submission towards me. Our son of 9 years is struggling a bit to show her who is boss, naturally, and just now she snarled and yapped at him when he tried to move her off the sofa.
The question we struggle with is;
Will our authority diminish if we let her sit on the sofa with us?
Hi. I am really hoping I can get some advice from experts out there re our new dog. Woody is an eight month old staff/terrier mix, who was abandoned in the mountains and found by some concerned passer by's. He was brought to a dog pound who were able to place him in a foster home (busy household of two adults, five kids between 16 and 6, two other dogs, two cats, a recent litter of kittens and two budgies). He had a tendancy to growl when people entered the house which put people off him when they viewed him in the foster house, and as a result, he was there four months before we came along. We had been warned about the growling, so on our first visit, the foster dad brought him out to us on a lead and then we all entered the house...he didn't growl at us for the remainder of our visit, which we took as something of a positive sign. On our next visit, when we were picking him up, we could all tell he knew something was happening, however he didn't show any display of aggression when being put into the car etc.
It was almost a three hour journey back to our house, and the poor little thing got sick about 15mins from our house (windy roads). We pulled over to let him out, but he responded to this by growling and rather than upsetting him further we decided to just get him home. My boyfriend got him out the car, we then brought him into the house and back garden for a sniff around. There was a loose board on a side gate and he made an escape..in a slight panic, Pat went running after him, to no avail. Luckily he circled the right way and came back around to me and came over to me with no problem.
That evening (Sunday just gone), he was fine with both of us, Pat left the house to get some food, and when he got back Woody was growling at him...and this has been going on since. He follows me absolutely everywhere (apart from upstairs as he is not allowed up), and I can't move even within a room without him watching me and following with either his eyes or physically. At first we thought perhaps it was Pat's deep voice that reminded him of an unpleasant experience in his past...yet he is full of love and waggy tails for Pat in the mornings (Pat is first up in the morning and to let him out of the utility room where Woody sleeps). When Pat comes back in the evening, he'll bark and growl. Because he wasn't being aggressive to me, we were letting Pat do all the feeding (and some bribing) so that Pat could win some 'brownie points'. But now I am wondering if he see's Pat as the leader, himself as dominant of me and therefore he growls at Pat (and visitors) as a method of protecting me?
Straw that is breaking the camel's back for us is his behaviour with other people. Pat's sister called in yesterday evening, we had prewarned her to just ignore him and his growling and come in as normal. We brought him out to meet her, but all evening he proceeded to growl at her and Pat at different intervals. She got increasingly uncomfortable with it as the evening progressed, so we put him to bed early.
I was at the vet's yesterday for a shot for him, and she went through some pointers with me (hence why I'm thinking he is protecting me rather than what I thought previously and that I was dominant of him). Since yesterday, both Pat and I have changed tacts and are: ignoring him when we re-enter the house and when he is all excited to see someone, then petting him when we decide to (I am also going to start with the sitting before petting rule); feeding ourselves first and then him; walking him on a tighter lead and not letting him zig zag to alternative sides when someone is approaching.
I very much appreciate that we have only had him five days and therefore he is still settling in, but we want to be sure we are handling him correctly from the beginning so that he doesn't develop bad habits...starting as we mean to go on basically. I also appreciate that he may now be getting mixed signals as I am trying to ensure he knows I am also above him in the pack, as he has since yesterday started to growl at me too (just twice).
I am just wondering if he is trying to protect me (following me everywhere, only growls when I'm around)?
Is this something that can be rectified? Will he always be like that with visitors? I really don't want to be warning people in advance or having to put him out when we have people over.
As he is a resuce dog, we really, really want to give him a home here, but his behaviour yesterday was stressful and difficult and I want to be sure we are handling these situations correctly......???
I have a wonderful golden labrador retreiver who I just adore & love completely.I always give him alot of attention like massages ,walking ,touching , cuddling together..!His behavior when ,I am horseback riding puzzles me ....is it possible that he is jealous of my physical contact with another animal ?
Hi,
I have two labrador cross puppies about 6 months old- 1 male 1 female (female is just 4 weeks younger). They are lovely and super friendly dogs who just love everyone and everything. I make sure to walk infront of them, to tell them to stay until I get to the top of the stairs, they wait until I tell them to eat etc... There really is one problem and that is the recall. When I let them off the lead and call them they often come back immediately and I give them plenty of praise and treats (they sit as soon as they come)... however, if there is another dog especially a small one, they see this as being much more interesting and just run after it and whatever I say won't bring them back (when they get bored they come back. this also happens when the male (neutered) chases the female one and pins her down.- I have tried running away from them, I have tried a long line, I have tried punishing them by putting them back on the lead and bringing them home (although catching them is often the hard part). The other day she chased a little dog accross the road - she didn't get hit but the other dog did. I am terrified it will be one of them one day but long to give them the freedom they deserve! All this does is make me reluctant to take them out/ let them off.I have also tried the spray commander... ANY IDEAS cause I am running out!? THANKS!
Sharon -
I wouldn't count on the neutering helping much -- if at all. For what it's worth, we noticed no difference in our two dogs' interaction or behaviors after neutering.
And while I'm certainly not an expert on this topic, from from what we have experienced firsthand with our 2 male dogs I can say this...
It's been just over a year now, and our older dog STILL tries to exert his dominance in aggressive ways under very specific circumstances: Usually, whenever there's food around (or the older dog THINKS there's food around or that the younger dog has gotten some food/treat that he didn't get himself) he will lash out at the younger dog very violently. It used to be toys, or bones... but now it's mostly just food.
After a year, we now know how to tell when it's about to happen (our older dog stops dead in his tracks and licks his lips before he charges), so we've learned that we just need to distract the older dog -- immediately -- in order to avoid the interaction.
Sometimes that just means stepping in between the two. Sometimes it's telling the older dog "Destin stop!!!!" in a tone that says the world will come to and end if he doesn't listen to us immediately. Other times it's just coaxing Destin: "Want a treat? Come here, Destin, come get a treat."
...Whatever it takes to "break" the fixation the older dog has on the younger dog at that moment.
Other than that, I would say you cannot EVER have the frequently-attacked male in the company of the other males unless you can see what they are doing at all times AND be within close enough reach to break something up the second it happens.
For us, we use baby gates to separate different rooms of the house. And crates are a lifesaver. They're not punishment... they're a way of life. A dog needs a safety zone, and for our younger dog, his crate is his castle AND the place he always knows he's safe if the bigger dog comes chasing him. Both of our dogs LOVE their crates.
Again, I'm not an expert here, but I'm just sharing with you what has worked for us in a situation that's similar to yours. Maybe you'll find something in there that will help with your dogs.
P.S. Do you know which is the alpha dog in your "pack"? If so, be sure to always respect that yourself when you're in the company of your other dogs. Otherwise, it confuses them & grays the lines even more within their pack. Your alpha dog should always get treats first, be fed first, get petted first, etc. Just remember, when it comes to training THAT dog, you must always be the "real" alpha dog and call all of the shots -- with meaning -- all of the time in your household.
Hope that helps some...
We have had golden retreivers for years and until last April we still had a male and a female retreiver who had mated many times with no success, which was fine, too. Then one day an American Bulldog visited and mated with our female retreiver and what do you know, Tazi had puppies! I've never seen anything like these dogs. They are great with me and my husband, but with each other, we have had major problems. We ended up keeping three puppies (2 males and a female) and everything was fine. Then one of the new owners brought back their male, because they were moving, so now we had 3 males and a female and trouble started which we attributed to the new member trying to assert himself in the pack. On New Year's Eve he really hurt one of our males and I had to take him for stitches, so my husband has a body shop and decided he'd take him to stay at the shop. Not ideal, but we thought it safer. Until today when for no reason we could see, the other two had a fight and the same male was hurt yet again by his brother. We're taking them all to be neutered and the female spayed, but for now we're just keeping them separated. What a nightmare this is! If the neutering doesn't work I don't know what I'll do. Any suggestions?