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DUKEJ8

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05/03/2007 6:05 PM	Alert
Why are you the leader(ALPHA) of your pack?

keskam
Pierce, Colorado

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05/03/2007 8:34 PM	Alert
If I am not the pack leader then one of the dogs will be !! and that is not good

HR Rocky Mountain Rosco JH APR HR Lady Satin of Black Forest JH SHR Satin's Jumpin Jedi JH SHR Chelsea Snow Angel JH APR HR KB's Snakey Jake of Poudre River JH SHR KB's It's Showtime of Bearpoint (Star) SHR KB's Loaded To Go Allie KB's Black Diamond Tessa

Jere

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05/04/2007 10:42 AM	Alert
Posted By DUKEJ8 on 05/03/2007 6:05 PM Why are you the leader(ALPHA) of your pack? If you mean "how did I get to be and maintain my position," there are lots of things I have done to do this over the years. Maybe all have been important. BUT two things recently happened that made me rethink all but one. Those two things were: 1. I went to spend a looong weekend babysitting my youngest daughter's three Labs. I took my two with me. The three were rather unruly, no direction, no leader. I began my usual meal time ritual feeding the whole pack in individual bowls sort of scattered around the kitchen/living room. I made each dog sit and placed the bowls with food down. Then, at random, I released the individual dogs to eat. After three episodes of this all five were following me around like I was the pied piper and when I sat on the sofa to watch the boob tube all five took up places around the room where they could watch me. Clearly they were all accepting me as pack leader. 2. Then I watched two videos. "A man among wolves" and "Living with Wolves" (Both available for purchase online at wal-mart) If one watches these s/he'd have to blind and numb not to realize that the alfa wolf of the pack maintains his position of leadership in the pack by and large by controlling who feeds when. It dawned on me that the feeding control may well be the single most important aspect of establishing and maintaining leadership in a wolf or dog pack. Even though dogs nor wolves appear to necessarily consider a human to be one of them (the two videos show distinctly different human/wolf relationships), either will accept a human as a leader. I'm not going to stop doing other stuff I do to maintain my top dog status, but I have new appreciation for the feeding time ritual. The question of pack order under the alpha is interesting. To what extent can the Alpha influence this effectively. In "Living with Wolves" one bitch appeared destined to be the omega of the pack - the very bottom below all others. But, the alpha male chose her as his mate and elevated her to alpha female. Widespead availability of video allows one to watch animals' behavior and form his own interpreteations rather than listening to or reading others' interpretations. All my previous wolf study has been through reading the likes of Murie, Mech, Crisler, ... . Is this the dawn of a new world of ethology? Jere

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