To Be a Dog's Best Friend You Must Learn to Run Like a Wolf

By David Vanne
To be a dog's best friend you must pretend to be a dog. No, you don't have to run at thirty miles an hour, eat from a dish on the floor orü lift your leg on a tree. All you must do is feign canine behavior.
Dogs view us as other dogs because we are in their lives from the day they are born. A human imprint is being established within a new puppy before they ever open their eyes. Though law prohibits puppies from being sold before eight weeks of age, the smells and sounds of people are having a great impact on them from day one. Dogs are very social creatures and have traits driven by pack hierarchy. Eight weeks is generally viewed as optimum for a surrogate mother, namely you, to take over the responsibilities of the natural mother. At this early age an existing pecking order has already been established among the littermates. Many of these instincts are similar to human social structure and some of the main reasons why our domestic canines and people live together so well. It is easy to attribute certain behavior as human when in actuality it is most likely canine in origin. Licks, for example, to humans are almost always referred to as kisses and easily thought of as communicating affection. For the puppy, licking is an instinctual response to hunger. When directed toward the mouth, licking prompts the mother to regurgitate part of her meal. Fortunately, puppy chow handles this chore for us.
Dogs mature at much faster rates than humans. Forget the old adage of seven dog years for every one of ours. If that were the case, at a year of age, a dog might be regarded as a toddler, which would be totally incorrect. At only six months of age, most dogs are in mid adolescence. Try to tell a human teenager to "Go to school" if they had never done so before. What kind of response do you think you'll get? It might be said at this point that if a dog had no human contact within the first six months of it's life, never would it be able to adjust to living with humans.
Let's backtrack a bit and establish where our domestic dogs come from. Each and every domestic dog can trace its roots to the wolf. There may a very small amount of Red Fox, African Wild Dog, Dingo, or Coyote in a number of different breeds but the main thing to remember is that essentially all of our contemporary dog's ancestors were wolves. Certainly there are enormous differences in both appearance and behavior of today's dogs, which was accomplished through human control of the breeding process. Even though the centuries of breeding produced such diversity as Chihuahuas and Mastiffs, if we understand wolf traights we can get a better understanding of how our own dogs perceive us.
Wolves have learned, most likely through trial and error, that there is strength in numbers. The pack will venture out singly or in pairs, within their territory, during the summer months when food is plentiful. Winter months require them to reunite as sustenance becomes scarce and they need each other to hunt larger prey. Each member has a purpose to fulfill whether it be leading, flanking, tagging, tracking or staying behind to guard the pups. Mind you, wolves are not the nefarious, bloodthirsty and savage animals that earlier authors might have you believe. In fact there is only one documented case that suggests a human death by wolf attack. I say suggests because there is doubt among experts that the single animal involved was a pure wolf. An average weight for a wolf is approximately sixty-five pounds whereas the canine involved in this 19th century case weighed in well over 125 pounds. Experts believe it was a hybrid because of the tendency for wolfs that breed with domestic dogs to somehow turn out much larger than either parent. Just remember that wolves do not kill for fun, sport or revenge. Humans however, with their superior intellect, can lay no such claim. Wolves only hunt for survival and take the path of least resistance, which is prey that is very weak or very old The culling of a less than healthy animal actually strengthens the herd upon which they hunt. Each wolf performs a purpose for the betterment of the whole. If there were no direction or discipline chaos would prevail, thus there must be a leader of the pack.
The leader or Alpha is the strongest, most intelligent wolf within the pack. There is an Alpha male and Alpha female. The Alphas are the ones that install order and discipline amongst the other members. They are the front line of defense, lead the hunt, eat first, appoint puppy-sitters and the only ones within the pack to copulate. An alpha female is usually more aggressive and independent than the male. She will sometimes groom a pup to be her next successor and this pup may be allowed all alpha freedoms of food and territory. She accomplishes this by correcting other members of the pack for disciplining her pup.
Very often in our households when we empower our puppies as if they were human children, they quickly grow into dogs that feel no limits or bounds. All these privileges amount to a puppy perceiving the world with an Alpha mentality. Who does an Alpha want to please? Not one person. The Alpha wants you to please them. How many of our dogs do you see training the humans? They don't come when called, snap or snarl when someone gets to close the their food, demand to be petted, jump on everyone they meet, steel the thanksgiving turkey off the dining room table and the list goes on, The point is, to be a dogs best friend, you must run the pack similar to an Alpha wolf and not merely a litter mate. The only tool our dogs have available to correct us is with their mouths. Unfortunately there are thousands of dogs across this county shipped off to the animal shelter each day deemed " Uncontrollable vicious animals" when they were merely trying to institute order and discipline within their perceived pack You must lead the pack. If you show your dog leadership and direction he or she will follow. If your dog shows aggression towards other animals, or worse other people, you must let your dog know that it is your job as Alpha to defend the pack. A happy dog is a dog that belongs to a pack with a strong leader.
To be the lead wolf in your dogs world you must instill order, direction and discipline within the pack. When you give your dog a directed purpose in life, such as obedience training, you will set up the perception your dog has of you. Through proper reward and correction, you teach them that there are rules, limits, and purposes of life. Once you establish yourself as the Alpha wolf you will naturally and instinctively be your dog's best friend.Original content provided by David Vanne http://www.treemail.us
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