Being a Pack Leader to Your New Puppy

#AlphaDogTraining #dogtrainingsaltlakecity Being a Pack Leader to Your New Puppy Published by Alpha Dog Training https://www.alpha-dog-training-slc.com When people bring an 8-week old puppy home their first concerns are "what should I feed my puppy?" and "how do I stop it from peeing on the floor?" These are important and credible concerns, but equally important and often ignored, is the concept of how to establish yourself as your new pup's pack leader. Pack Structure Dogs are pack animals, just like wolves are pack animals. They are predators. Horses and cows on the other hand, are herd animals. Being herd animals also makes them prey (food) for predators. The Beginning of Pack Structure When a puppy is raised with litter-mates they begin to establish their family pack at about 4 ½ weeks of age. They start by playing with one another. They bite and push each other around. Those pups that bite the hardest and push the most become the higher ranking pack members of the litter. What is a pack leader? When people get puppies they need to establish themselves as the new pack leader. To do this correctly they should first understand exactly what a pack leader is. Pack leaders are aloof, they are calm, and they are self confident. A pack leader is fair in how he lives with pack members. While the pack leader is a dictator, he is a fair dictator who enforces a well defined set of rules that members know, understand and are expected to live by. Where does it start? When a puppy comes to your home its only experience in life has been with its mother and littermates. It sees that things have changed, but it has no reason to believe that how it interacts with a family pack has changed. It has played with littermates by biting and chasing, so that's how it thinks it should continue to interact within a family pack. Establishing the Tether When we bring a pup home we always use a dog crate. Those who don't use a crate are making a mistake. Those who won't use a crate should just quit reading because they are wasting their time to read further. Our first goal is to reduce the possibility of house training mistakes and to teach the pup that being wild in the house is not going to happen. Controlling the Wild Puppy When people get puppies with a lot of prey drive they are often at a loss as to what to do to control the little alligator they now live with. The simple answer is to redirect the puppy into a toy. As I explained earlier, puppies play by using their mouth. They see littermates as prey objects. When they come into your home and start chewing on you, they see you as a prey item. Your job is to teach them that toys are now prey items and not your hands, arms and legs. Doors and Gates Going through doors, going through gates, and coming down stairs first are a huge things in terms of rank for a dog. All dogs, puppies or adults, get excited when it's time to be let out or time to come back in the house. Without training they will all bolt out the door. This is not only annoying, it can be dangerous. Toys There is no question that people quickly fall in love with their puppies. Many buy their pets toys. I recently saw a reality TV show in which a women spent over $100 a week buying her dog new toys. Boy, do I wish I could send her a catalog... With this said, we don't leave toys lying around our home. We take the approach that the dog does not own any toys. The toys are our toys and we allow the pup to play with "OUR TOYS." But we always take the toys away when the play time is finished. T aking the Toy Away from the Puppy After play, when it comes time to take the toy away, we say "OUT" (any word will do as long as we are consistent and stick with the same word) and offer to trade the pup a really good treat for the toy. We simply let them smell the treat and when they spit out the toy they get the food. If we want the game to end, we do a slight of hand to get the toy out of the picture and make it disappear. We don't tease them with the toy once we take it away. That's poor leadership and is counter productive to a good bond. Other Dogs and Puppies I have written extensively about the fact that we never allow our puppies to be around other dogs or puppies. If we are raising two pups at the same time we never allow them to play together. We want our pups to look at us as their source of fun and excitement and not another dog. I get emails all the time from people who have serious behavioral problems because they mistakenly bought two pups which are now 12 to 24 months old. These dogs are now anti-social and are more difficult to train. Many have aggression problems. If we are out for a walk and are approached by another person walking their dog, we NEVER allow the other dog to come up and smell or greet our puppy. I cannot stress this enough.