An oft-recommended approach to handling a multi-dog household is to reinforce the ranking hierarchy — to feed the “alpha” dog first, the middle-ranking dog second, the low-ranking dog last; to greet or pet the “top” dog first, and so on.

But behaviorists are moving away from that technique, and most now advise reinforcing appropriate behavior without taking hierarchy into account. As scientists explore more about dog cognition and social behavior, we’re discovering that dog hierarchies are a lot more fluid and complex than the straight alpha - beta - omega designations once used for wolf packs might suggest.

In my experience, the average pet owner rarely understands dog behavior well enough to really know who the “top dog” is. Most think that the dog who fights and snarks at the others the most is the “top dog” — they’ve never even heard of “alpha wannabe’s” (dogs who are status seekers but are not confident enough to actually fulfill the role of “top dog”). So the wrong dog gets reinforced.

Dog hierarchies are also subject to change — especially when other dogs enter the mix (whether that’s adding a new dog to a household or simply having other dogs visiting).

I advise my clients that it doesn’t matter who’s “top dog” within the dog hierarchy, as long as they all defer to the humans in the house, and those humans have the ability to direct and control those dogs (whether that’s through management or good training).

Need some guidelines for good management and training for multi-dog household situations? I recommend “Feeling Outnumbered?” by Karen London and Patricia McConnell. (more…)

Yesterday, the sun came out, so I took Brandy and Nico for a walk in the Blue Hills Reservation. I took the video camera with me so I could get some video of them, especially Nico (who’s recovering from his panniculitis, although he’s still weak).

Being a weekday morning, I didn’t expect many people to be out and about. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. There were other cars parked along the edge of the reservation, although none in the little turn-around where we usually start our walks.

But the walk started off well, with no one else in sight. I had Brandy on a training lead (a 30′ leash), which I was letting her drag. Nico was off-leash. (Confession time: dogs are actually supposed to be leashed when on the Blue Hills Reservation lands, but lots of people let their dogs off leash. Nico is pretty reliable, and comes back to us whenever he sees someone, so he’s allowed off-leash. Whenever we see or hear anyone else about, we call him and put him back on-leash until we’re alone again.) I got some good video of them, although they were both staying closer than I expected them to so some of the shots were real close-ups and others were of the empty trail ahead of us as they were right next to me. (more…)

Brandy is my “crossover” dog. I got her at 4 months old, but didn’t do much socialization with her (and she’d had practically none before I got her, spending most of her time in a crate). That was mostly due to our older dog, Barney, who had been “slowing down.” We thought it was due to old age (a large dog, 9 years old) but a couple of months after Brandy came home Barney was diagnosed with blood cancer (multiple myeloma). With most of my time, attention, and energy focused on Barney for much of 2001 (we lost him in October of that year), Brandy got short shrift. She got along fine with the other dogs and staff at Rover Come Over doggie daycare, and I thought that would be enough. (more…)