This is an aspect of dog behaviour and training which tends to get overlooked in the enthusiasm for teaching commands etc.  Pack ranking is the cornerstone for all your dogs behaviour and the importance cannot be over stressed! 

Why is it so important?

How many times have you wondered: 

	Why does my dog pull on the lead?
	Why does my dog go nuts when I come home?
	Why does my dog chew things when I leave him?
	Why is he unruly with visitors?
	Why is he possessive over his toys?

and probably countless other questions!  The answer is simpler that you would think – it’s down to pack ranking.  Here are two scenarios which happen in nearly every house!

	You are sitting watching TV, your dog comes and give you a paw or nudges your arm because he wants a fuss – you automatically pat him on the head;
	Your dog brings you a toy, you think “aw, he wants to play” and off you go and play with him.

The behaviour seems harmless enough but look at it more closely.  What is your dog doing?  Simple – he is training you and establishing leadership.  You may think, well he only wants a fuss or he only wants to play.  Quite right, but he is instigating when he wants to do things – just what an alpha dog would do.

If a dog has established himself in an alpha role, all kind of undesirable behaviours can/will appear.  Some dogs can relish the alpha role and will display classic dominant behaviour, others cannot cope with the responsibility and display undesirable confused behaviour.

Establishing leadership is not about harsh methods – an alpha dog will rarely resort to violence, he will use a hard stare!  It’s all about thinking dog – as intelligent as they are, dogs cannot comprehend our confusing system of life (neither can I sometimes!) so lets make it easy for them by communicating on their level. 

How does pack behaviour work?

Lets look at the dog pack structure.  At the head of the pack, there is an alpha pair (male and female) and it’s their responsibility to ensure the survival of the pack.  The rest of the pack will happily accept the alpha’s rule without question and each subordinate will accept his position – all have a vital role within the pack but know exactly what is expected from them.  

The pack order is continually reinforced by ritual behaviour, the alpha’s will always give off clear leadership signals and are at their most dominant at feeding and hunting times.  We have a tendency to try and impose human rules and therefore don’t give clear leadership signals.

If the pack is not given leadership from the alpha, the role of leader goes up for “election”, the pack will then start to fight in a bid to elect a new leader.  This is where undesirable behaviour manifests itself in the pet dog – you are not acting as the alpha so the dog thinks he should.  The alpha has many important decisions to make in a day and it’s extremely stressful for your dog!

Examples of this?  Lets look at some common behaviours:

	Pulling on the lead - I'm in charge here, I will walk in front;
	Brings a toy for you - I want to play, do it NOW!
	Trashing the house when left - I've lost a member of the pack, I need to find them.

Implementing the pack leader role.

You will see many methods of establishing leadership – sadly many still based around forcing your dog on the floor, flipping them onto their back as a puppy or throttling them with a choke chain.  What is achieved by these measures?  Absolutely nothing positive, your dog will be confused, fearful/aggressive and unhappy – more importantly this does not establish your leadership the “pack” way.

When a dog is under threat, he has three options open to him: 

• He can run away – Flight;

• He can stand still and hope it goes away – Freeze

• He can drive the threat away – Fight.

Lets look at cases with choke chains – I deal with many of these and the root cause is the same 99% of the time.

Dog X is taken to training classes is boisterous and want to get to the other dogs to play.  Owner is advised to “check” him.  In a few weeks the dog has turned aggressive on the lead towards other dogs – why?

The answer is simple.  Our dog X now associates another dog with pain (don’t let people tell you choke chains don’t hurt – they do!), what does a dog associate with pain?  A threat, what does he do when threatened – one of the three options. 

He cannot run away or freeze as he is restrained, the only option left is fight. What have we learned?  We have to establish leadership by kind effective methods so our dog does not feel threatened, frightened and will look to you for guidance in a confusing situation.

How do we establish ourselves as the leader?

Easy!  We do this by establishing ourselves as the controller of all the important resources – food, attention, play, toys etc.  Work to these simple rules :

	Who eats first?
	Who decides when attention should be given?
	Who makes the decisions?
	Who leads the walk?
	Who decides how to greet people?
	Who decides when to play?

 Answer to all these questions is you!  We want your dog to be relaxed and happy – not to have to answer all these questions himself.

Eating

 The dog pack structure works in a strict pecking order when eating.  The alphas will eat first, then dog B, then dog C etc.  Your dog should always be fed AFTER you have eaten.  In family and working environments this can prove to be difficult so use gesture eating.  Let your dog see you get his meal ready then put a small snack (per person) on a plate next to his food.  Each person should eat their biscuit without speaking to or looking at the dog.  When everyone has finished, then his meal should be placed down for him and he should be allowed to eat UNDISTURBED.  

I do not advise the out dated method of the insistence you must be able to remove a dogs dish when he is eating.  By making a point of doing this, you will encourage him to guard his food – leave exercises should be taught with toys, retrieve articles and small treats.  In the pack structure an alpha would not interfere with the lowest ranking dogs eating pattern – if he tried the lower rank would defend itself.  Dogs do not have table manners and they have the inbuilt instinct that food is precious, it is survival after all.  Think how you would feel if you were very hungry, sat down to a meal and someone took it away to teach you it is acceptable?  Chances are you would react in a defensive manner.  Food is a precious resource and by removing it, you will accelerate an aggressive response.  Even if you are giving the bowl back with more food in it, it still goes against the natural instinct - an alpha would not remove another dogs food then give it back with a juicy steak!  It's important for the dog to see you as a giver rather than a taker.

Separation.

When the pack reunites, it’s vital that the alpha displays leadership otherwise fighting will ensue!  Don’t speak to or have eye contact with your dog for ten minutes when you have been apart.  Separation isn’t just about when you have left your dog for a couple of hours, it’s everytime you are reunited (even if you have been to the bathroom!).

Your dog will most likely go through attention grabbing routines to gain your attention e.g. licking, barking, jumping up etc.  If your dog jumps up, say nothing, gently push him down avoiding eye contact.  He may well sit down, think about this turn in the relationship and try again – go through exactly the same routine.  When he lays down and is quiet – then is the time to interact with him on YOUR terms.

Walking.

 If your dog pulls on the lead, he is again establishing leadership by leading the hunt, we need to stop this.  By pulling on the lead, he is taking control of the walk and YOU need to control it!  Heelwork is very easy – forget what you have been told in the past and throw away that choke chain!  If your dog pulls, stop walking and stand still – he will wonder what is going on and come back to you – get some eye contact and off you go again.  It’s important that your dog has positive associations from heelwork and this is achieved remarkably quickly by clicker training.

Visitors/Threats.

 You must decide how visitors are treated and not let your dog run riot.  It’s perfectly acceptable for your dog to bark, he’s alerting the alpha to a “threat” but he must then accept at your command that you are now making the decisions. 

A common problem is the dog rushing to the door – this can be easily resolved by teaching the dog a “Back” command.  Once again, I would advocate the clicker for this.

 If your dog acts in an uncontrollable way with visitors, teach him by consequence of action i.e. if he doesn’t behave, he gets removed from the situation.  Your guests must ignore him as with the separation technique, if this is impossible, lead the dog out of the room for a couple of minutes then let him back in.  Any repeat of the unwanted behaviour – out he goes again!  He will pick up on this and then settle down.

This is a very brief introduction to pack ranking but there is much more to come - watch this space!