By Fran Jewell
It is almost uncommon now to find dog households with only one dog. When I grew up, no one had more than one dog. The love, indeed, has become a delight for so many of us! I know for me that when I lose one dog, I am so grateful to have another one at home to soothe my broken heart.
The dynamics of a multiple-dog household are exhilarating if you like to watch behavior like I do — although more than one also means the more we need to understand how dogs think, and we need to remember that dogs are not people, they are a species that is divine and precious all to itself. As such, the lure to have them in our lives can be irresistible.
One of the things that happens when we bring multiple dogs into our homes is that we encourage pack behavior. As much as we want to think domestication has eliminated pack behavior in dogs, it has not. There are those that completely dismiss the idea of dog packs. Science knows that dogs are still over 99% genetically the same as wolves. Yes, we have encouraged behaviors that are more acceptable to our human society and we have bred dogs to be our helpers in life. Herding livestock, hunting food, service dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, and detecting almost everything dangerous in our lives have become commonplace. We have utilized the dog’s incredible wolf-given skills and genetics to make our lives better. We have even modified their looks to help them accomplish those everyday and valuable tasks.
They are still dogs with inherent wolf behaviors whether we want to believe it or not. The longer I have trained dogs (over 35 years), the more I realize that resolving behavior problems must include understanding wolves and their behaviors.
One of the most devastating behaviors we hate to live with is dog aggression. For humans, we truly don’t understand aggression, which makes it even scarier for us.
Multiple-dog households can be setting our dogs up to become aggressive not only with other dogs, but with other people. In our desire to live with this species, we forget that when we add more dogs in confined areas, or even on our beloved walks in the woods where more and more dogs abound, the more we actually encourage our dogs into confrontational behavior or, as I would call it, more “feral” behavior. When dogs are stressed, they can revert to what they know best. In the case of dogs, they revert to defensive behavior, or dominance behavior, to protect themselves. Of course, some dogs display or will use their ancestral behaviors more than others. Some of that is breed related and some of it comes from life experiences.
What is even scarier for us humans is that dogs become more sensitive to the weaknesses of the other dogs they are in close contact with. In the dog world, a sick or older dog is not tolerated. Sometimes even certain behaviors are not tolerated. This comes from the basic need of the wolf to protect the integrity of the pack and survival of the species. Unfortunately, it is our nature to want peace and harmony among our delightful dog companions. In our zest to have more dogs around us, we increase the stress, which encourages dog behavior to revert to more instinctual behavior that is genetically hardwired by the wolf.
The more I see multiple-dog households, the more aggression I see, and the more instinctual behaviors I see. When we deny the dog as a wolf progeny, we also find ourselves not being able to resolve these intense and dangerous behaviors.
I am extremely committed to the prevention of unwanted behaviors, which is why I named my business “Positive Puppy.” The most important thing we can do to PREVENT these behaviors from escalating is incorporating leadership into our lives. Of course, leadership is right in line with understanding dog pack dynamics. If you have been persuaded not to “believe” in pack behavior, then aggression and problem behaviors will continue and grow. I see almost every problem dog behavior as a result of lack of human leadership in a manner that the DOG understands. It is not what we humans think is leadership. It is what the dog understands. Even simple things like which dog eats first is incredibly influential to the harmony of your dog pack.
With the increase of dogs in our lives, we increase the potential for feral, ancestral behavior that is genetically hardwired into every dog. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have multiple dogs in our lives, but it means we need to understand pack behavior, and especially leadership to PREVENT aggression or inappropriate behaviors in the human world.
Fran Jewell is an IAABC Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, NADOI Certified Instructor and the owner of Positive Puppy Dog Training, LLC in Sun Valley. For more information, visit positivepuppy.com or call 208-578-1565.
