Join a Pack

Dogs are social animals and the drive to live with a group is very strong. How comfortable the dog feels within a certain group is determined by how well the dog understands the group. The canine pack shares risks, responsibilities and rewards as well as a common language. Unfortunately, instinctive knowledge only allows dogs to understand the canine versions of these things. If a dog joins a human pack and those humans don’t make an effort to share these ideals in ways the dog can understand, the dog becomes anxious, frustrated, confused and uncertain and will begin “acting out” to express its discomfort.

The risks of pack life in the wild involve struggling for the survival of the group. The responsibilities include feeding and protecting the group. The rewards are security and safety within a kill-or-be-killed environment. Obviously, as soon as a dog joins a human group in a human domestic environment everything changes.

If a social animal that believes its position within the pack is determined by how well it hunts and defends the group, should become part of a human pack where these tasks are no longer necessary, how will that animal earn its self-esteem and the right to be part of the group? If that group doesn’t communicate in a language the dog understands how can the dog discover what its new responsibilities are or that its instinctive behaviors are no longer appropriate? If a social animal knows that group-living requires rules of social behavior but it doesn’t understand the rules of that group, how can it avoid becoming stressed and frustrated? If an animal that understands the environment and conditions of living in the wild, should become part of a domestic situation, how can it understand what is necessary for survival in that environment? The answer to all of these questions is: they can’t so we must tell them in ways they understand!

The fact that so many humans don’t explain things to dogs in ways the dogs understand is the source of many unwanted dog behaviors. If we communicate with dogs as if they are human, they won’t understand most of it and they’ll need three forevers to understand the rest.

For example, when a dog wants to wrestle and play with another dog, it will run up and plant both front feet on the other dog. If that other dog wants to wrestle and play, it will stand up and plant its front feet on the other dog as well. When a dog jumps up on a human and that human doesn’t like it, they put their two front limbs on the dog and push them away. The human is saying, “Stop that!” Unfortunately, the dog is hearing, “Okay! Let’s wrestle and play!” A dog can only interpret our behaviors in a canine way. They cannot understand what we do in a human context.

So when that dog jumps on a human and the human responds in the typical way, that dog believes it is being rewarded by getting what it wants; to wrestle and play. The human is actually teaching the dog to do what the human doesn’t want it to do! The same situation arises in dozens of dog behaviors that people don’t appreciate. Frequently we reward them for performing unwanted behaviors by not being aware of how the dog interprets our actions. The dog ends up living in a group that is confusing and unpredictable. They become stressed and frustrated and start acting out.