On Being the Alpha Dog in Your Home

“I’m alpha”…”No, I’m alpha!…”I’ll show you who’s alpha!”  Does this conversation take place in your home?  I don’t mean it happens verbally, but with your thought and the actions that follow.  If your dog does something you interpret as the expression of authority,  do you immediately turn them onto their back?   Does that work?  Not usually.

It may do something in that moment to say you are dominant over the dog.  However, if the only correction your dog receives is a random turn on their back after they’ve spent the entire day doing more subtle things that say they are in charge, it won’t have much impact.

So much of our correction of the dog happens based on our particular mood or emotion at the time. We may finally be fed up with a particular behavior, so we take action.  Consistency is more important than a random reaction to an unwanted behavior.

Being a pack leader, as it’s often referred to, is about the development of a respectful relationship.  It’s not sporadic moments of your being in authority.  It happens all day long.  In time, you won’t even have to think about it but rather it will be who you are – the alpha dog.