Be the pack leader your dog wants you to be

By Kevin Glynn

​Years ago when I was a student at William Paterson University, I had a professor who used to ask many of the English majors there the same question. I majored in Literature with aspirations of one day being a writer, but the majority of the students were there to earn their teaching certifications.

“Why do you want to be a teacher?” he would ask.

The answer to the question, as many times as I heard it asked, was always the same: “I love children.”

“Loving children won’t make you a good teacher,” he would respond. “If you love children, you should be a parent.”

The majority of students would bristle at his retort, but I always knew what he was trying to accomplish, and I sometimes wonder how many of those students reconsidered if they really wanted to be teachers.

I grew up around dogs and was very happy when I started dating my wife. She came as a package deal with her Beagle, Audrey Four Paws.

As I would soon learn, however, loving dogs is not enough to be a behaviorist either. You need to be able to see the world through the eyes of a dog and then explain that behavior to their adoring people. If anything, loving dogs gets in the way of that due to people’s affinity for humanizing animal behavior.

The concept of being a “pack leader” has received a lot of negative attention lately from trainers who believe in using positive training methods. I also believe in positive training, and I can’t imagine anything more positive than learning to become the pack leader that your dog wants you to be.

When people think of pack leaders, most think of anger, force and aggression. Most of us have worked for someone who used fear and insults to motivate his or her employees. It probably worked to an extent. Employees stay in line due to fear of losing their jobs, but there is no loyalty. Most employees under those circumstances spend an inordinate amount of time online searching for a new job.

The leaders that we want to follow, that we follow of our free will, unleash their inner ability to inspire. They seem to effortlessly lead, and people follow, not because they are afraid, but because they want to contribute to the success of the group.

As I said earlier, anthropomorphism - humanizing animals - is a problem for many people and causes many behavioral problems in dogs, but I believe that genuine leadership is universal.

When a problem arises, a genuine leader finds a solution to it and then reflects to make sure it never happens again. Leaders that we are forced to follow get angry because they are afraid, and that fear clouds their judgement. Small problems become bigger problems. The fabric of the group begins to unravel because no one wants to put their trust in someone who is afraid and angry.

Those who lead using aggression or anger are not leaders at all. Many believe that aggressive dogs act that way because they are alphas, but the vast majority are just afraid, which can lead to anger and aggression, just like with people.

Being the pack leader that your dog needs will help your dog, strengthen the bond between you, and probably make you a better person. I believe it made me a better person, and while I’ve never asked my wife, I think she would agree.

So if your dog has behavioral problems, start to rectify them by learning how to lead the walk. Stop leaving food and bones laying around for her, and become a provider. Show your dog that you can take care of your home and loved ones and that you don’t need him to take on guarding responsibilities. And at the end of all that, when your dog is comfortably relaxing because he doesn’t have to worry about being the pack leader, call him over for some affection to reinforce the good behavior and further your bond with him.
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Sometimes turning that corner isn’t so simple, so if you need help getting the ball rolling, we can teach how to become the pack leader that your dog wants you to be.