For those of you with several dogs, do you have any type of kind of “pack order” as far as feeding, walking, handing out treats, etc.?
I understand the word “pack” will make some people defensive. All I’m trying to state is do you provide concern to one canine vs. another?
Do you always reward the calmest dog? Or do you reward the pushiest, strongest, “most alpha-like” dog?
Or if you’re like me, do you try to reward your oldest dog?
Rewarding calm behavior
I would believe many fitness instructors would suggest gratifying all dogs for calm, polite behavior.
Calm dogs get fed. client dogs get interest as well as treats. Dogs that aren’t being pushy get let outside.
Dog behaviorist Dr. Patricia McConnell covers this problem so well in a few of her short books, exactly how to be the Leader of the Pack and feeling Outnumbered? I suggest both bit books (they’re extremely short), as well as included my Amazon affiliate links.
I likewise discovered a excellent short article by McConnell originally published in Bark Magazine. You can see the pdf here.
In it, she warns canine owners not to “support the alpha” (meaning, the strongest, pushiest dog) since some “high-status” dogs guideline with “terror as well as intimidation” as well as “supporting the alpha” can end up making issues worse between dogs.
I might see exactly how this would be the situation with my canine Ace as well as my former foster canine Lana. You can see in the photo she would place her body in front of him, pushing him back from me. He enabled her to do this as well as really turned away. It wasn’t precisely a problem, however I’d rather not motivate a dog’s pushiness.
Ace is wonderful as well as sensitive as well as enables other dogs to push him around a bit if it implies avoiding conflict. Lana, on the other hand, would barge her method to whatever she wanted. If I were to support her as the remove “alpha” of the two, I would only be motivating much more chaos.
“My guidance to people who online within a pack of dogs is to instruct them that you get what you want by being polite as well as patient, not by throwing your weight around,” McConnell composed in the article.
Oh, you want to go out the door? then please pause rather than barge into me, she wrote.
You want attention? OK, well sit as well as wait on a second while I surface petting the other canine first, she wrote. If you don’t, I’ll ask you to lie down as well as stay for a minute.
Oh, this is the story of my life best now!
Of course, this is simpler stated than done, so McConnell provided these tips:
1. Make each exercise (each problem) a fun game.
2. work with each canine individually when you can. (I composed about that here.)
3. Be patient!
So, what do the rest of you believe about managing several dogs?
Are you handling any type of pushy dogs best now?