The Dartmouth Dog Walker - October 2013

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Lesley Scoble-Ash

Leader of the Pack

One of the joys of my role as a professional dog walker is getting to see dogs having such fun with their furry friends, in a pack.

It’s something few owners get to see because most of the time they only have the one dog – or possibly two. Dogs are pack animals and when they get into a group they can act quite differently than when they are just with you.

In my day-to-day job, I am constantly bringing different dogs together for walks. I learned very quickly to be careful how to introduce the animals to one another and how to retain ‘leadership’ of the pack through my body language, voice and other subtle ways.

If you can do this, be the ‘leader’, then you get to see the dynamic of the pack form as you walk.

First off, once you are a pack, the dogs HATE to be split up, they may snuffle off on their own adventure, but if they get separated from, or think one of the pack is leaving, they can get very confused!

Secondly, they naturally fall into a hierarchy, with some dogs taking on low and others high status. Communication for dogs is very physical, so when a dog is low status you can often see other dogs in the pack pushing past them or knocking them out of the way. Their social status is very clear to see if you are watching.

Thirdly, and probably best for me as the person in control of this pack, the dogs’ watch each other for cues on how to act.  High status dogs often act very well, as they see you as the leader and want to please and this filters down to the other dogs.  We talk about peer pressure in human social circles but it is just as strong, if not stronger, in dog packs.  I walk dogs who won’t retrieve for ANYONE, no matter what. But in a pack where one or more dogs enjoy retrieving, they will join in and gain pleasure from doing so, simply because its what everyone in the pack is doing. Other behaviours change too; if one of the high status dogs loves playing with the others – play fighting or chasing around – then suddenly everyone wants to take part in that, even though they wouldn’t if they met another dog on a walk and weren’t in a pack with them.

I try and use my position as pack leader to encourage this mentality, and praise and reward those dogs in the pack that are behaving well. Other dogs in the pack see the reward, see that they could do that too and copy their behaviour.

First published October 2013 By The Dart