Kathy Sdao, animal trainer and faculty member for “Clicker Expo,” has a different and interesting perspective on dog bonding. Check out this paragraph from her paper titled, “Forget About Being Alpha in Your Pack.”
“One perfect example of a “sticky†story is the ever-popular notion that dogs are essentially domesticated wolves who view their human companions as members of their hierarchical pack. This story is simple (pack structure is presumably a clear-cut ranking of alpha, beta and omega animals), unexpected (imagine having the descendent of a wild wolf right in our living rooms!), and concrete (who hasn’t seen TV footage of a wolf pack chasing down a moose or elk?). So sticky is this canine urban myth, in fact, that it refuses to die, despite the series of inaccuracies at its core.
Unfortunately, both dogs and their owners suffer the consequences of this fable, for it is from this story that we get the popular but unfounded training decree that humans must be “alpha†in their mixed-species pack.
Allow me to set the record straight. Here are just a few of the inaccuracies embedded in the “dog as domesticated wolf†story.”
See the rest of Kathy’s article here.
Hear Kathy’s interesting perspectives, as expressed on the “My Doggie Says…” radio talk show. Click on the podcast button below.
Kathy’s interview was cut short by the President’s State of the Union address, and the republican response. She will reappear on the “My Doggie Says…” show on April 7, to tell “the rest of the story.”
Remember, these podcasts are also available on iTunes, so you can download them to your iPod.
