Pack Structure

Pack Structure

You can feed and love your dog, but if you don’t establish a pack order, with you as pack leader, he will like you, but he won’t respect you.

Bonding with your dog is as important as feeding your dog. Bonding with a dog is different than bonding with your child or your cat. Dogs need structure and whether they live with humans or amongst other dogs or both, they need to know their place in the pack. Cats may live in a pack as well, but in a cat’s mind she is the leader and everyone else lives to serve her.

It’s quite the other way around with dogs. Dogs need you to be the pack leader and if you are not, this can create a confused and aggressive dog. Bonding, as such, is two-fold.

Playing with your dog is an important part of being a pack leader. You can feed “Jake” and then turn around and ignore him.

It’s important to realize that ALL dogs must be in a pack structure, be they large or small breeds. Whether Jake is a Maltese or a Bull Mastiff, he needs to know his place in the pack. This may seem complicated to you, but don’t worry, your job is only to establish yourself as pack leader. Dogs are always below you and if you have multiple dogs or cats in your home, regardless of age, breed, size or gender, they’ll work out the order amongst themselves.

For example, say you own two dogs, both the same age and the same gender, female. A potential threat has just caught their attention – a falling leaf from a tree or a moving cloud is making its way across the sky. One will lead the brigade to put that leaf in its place or bark at the cloud above. The other will sit there and occasionally let out a yelp but annoyed that her sleep was disturbed. Clearly the diva is going to be fine being relegated to number two amongst themselves. If you have a cat, although there may be some resistance, all end up being below your cat, even you at times.

Becoming a pack leader involves adopting the attitude of a pack leader. It does not involve aggression towards a dog, it doesn’t involve rolling him on his back, hard leash corrections or even raising your voice to the dog. It involves adopting a leader's attitude. This is something that new dog owners must learn how to do.

Here are some easy things you can start doing right now to establish yourself as pack leader:

Always make your dog sit before going through a door.
Never allow your dog to go through a door before you.
Make sure you call his name and “allow” him to go through the door, always after you.
When you are eating, the order is, pack leader (s) is/are served first, then dogs.
Eating with your dogs is recommended, serve yourself first, then your dogs.
Praise them for finishing all their food.
Never give them table scraps.

Photo Credits: nicadlr

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