THE CANINE BEHAVIOR SERIES By Kathy Diamond Davis Author and Trainer

When it comes to living in a pack with other dogs, dogs are very much the victims of their own instincts. These instincts can be difficult for humans to understand, and often the results of such misunderstandings lead to tragedy for the dogs.

By instinct, dogs who share living space form a pack that has a hierarchy of authority. Humans become, in a sense, a part of the pack and of the hierarchy, too.

Yelling "I am the boss of this house" might seem to work for a human trying to rule other humans, but it doesn't work with dogs. In the pack, the leader is the one who is able and willing to protect the others, with the sacrifice of his or her life if necessary.

Pack leader is a position of service, held by an individual of competence. If a human is the overall leader, this is of course great, and the way things should be for the safety of all concerned. There will also be a dog pack leader, though, unless the dogs are kept separate so that they will not form a pack.

Because of the need for the pack leader to protect the pack, a time comes when the elder who has been pack leader may no longer be the right individual for the task. The exact personalities of the dogs involved will determine how this situation plays out in the group.

Sometimes the younger pack member ready for the task of leadership so reveres the elder that the younger one does not overtly challenge this leader, but instead carries on the tasks of leadership as a sort of "second-in-command." If the elder is gracious in physical decline and the younger leader is confident enough to be happy doing the job without the "title," this can make for an orderly transition of leadership.

The Pack Leader's Job

What does a pack leader do? The leader may push the other dogs back from the territory boundary (such as a fence), and stand between them and any perceived intruders. You may notice the pack leader asserting this protection of the others by urinating and defecating on the outskirts of the territory, to mark scent there. The leader may also urinate over the urine of the lower pack members, as if to mask their scent.

A pack leader may also enforce discipline in the pack-making sure pack members are ready to obey when a real crisis arises. Discipline can take the form of "exercises," such as taking toys away from the lower pack member. If you give the lower member another toy, the leader is likely to take that one, too! Other discipline can take the form of requiring pack members to bow to the leader at a look or a growl. Watch the "underlings" carefully, and you'll notice they actually relax when they do this. It makes them feel safer, more protected, and that their world is as it should be.

Pack leaders in the wild eat first-and you really don't want this natural instinct at work in your own pack. Separate your dogs for feeding, to prevent feeding time from eventually turning into serious fighting time.

When all the dogs feel comfortable with the choice of pack leader, serious fights seldom happen. Note that which dog turns out to be pack leader is not up for a vote, nor is it up to the human family members to designate. You may be able to help things along, but if you try to interfere in the process, you're more likely to misjudge the situation, make the wrong moves, and cause much more serious conflict. Pack leadership is survival of the fittest. A dog pack is not a democracy, nor is it a monarchy.

When It Can't Work

Some pairs or groups of dogs are simply unable to choose a leader. Humans have bred dogs to be very different from their natural instincts. Some dogs cannot live in peace with any other dog of the same sex. It's important to carefully research this trait for all the breeds involved before adding a dog to any home that already has a dog.

Two dogs of opposite sex can usually come to a fairly peaceful arrangement-usually low stress and often quite happy-because the male becomes top male and the female becomes top female in their little pack. Neither is forced to be completely submissive to the other. You may find that the male is the protector, but that can vary with breeds and with individual dogs. If you think about how things would work in a wild pack, you can see that the female has lots of options-needed for protecting her pups-and the male needs to protect the territory when she is busy raising young. These roles are often reflected in how a male and female get along in your home.

When you have two dogs of the same sex and you keep them together, one will be forced to submit to the other. If the dogs cannot reach an agreement on which this will be, the fighting is likely to escalate, and some dogs will fight to the death.

Sometimes the personalities or instincts of the dogs involved are the problem. Other times, lack of good social skills with other dogs on the part of one or both dogs can be a reason they can't form a workable relationship. Even the loss of sensory or motor abilities, as can happen in an elderly dog, sometimes so impairs a dog's responses to the body language of another dog that the two can't communicate well enough to make peace. A dog who experiences pain when performing movements needed to communicate with another dog may not be able to work out a same-sex relationship, either.

It's inhumane, as well as expensive and dangerous, to keep two dogs together who will injure each other by fighting. In such a case, the dogs need to be separated until a behavior specialist can help determine the appropriate course of action. Some families opt to keep the dogs permanently separated and arrange to spend adequate time with each of the dogs to ensure a good quality of life. Others decide the risk of the two getting to each other, or the difficulty of keeping them apart, makes it preferable to find another home for the younger or more adoptable of the two.

Actions that Can Help

Training each dog individually is an important step in working toward a safe relationship between the two dogs. This individual training time is also what creates a good bond between you and each dog, and improves your ability to work with each of them for their own safety as well as the safety of others. Each dog needs one-on-one time with the human on a regular basis, ideally away from the house. The activities can be different, according to the needs of the dogs. One of them may need a training session, while the other may need a ride along in the car to the drive-through bank.

Separating dogs for food and highly desirable treats is an important safety measure. Spaying or neutering helps dogs live together in a group more peacefully. Grooming each dog every day (a thorough combing or rubdown) vastly improves your ability to safely put your hands on a dog in a high state of agitation. Training each dog to the point of obeying your voice without a leash reduces the risk that you will put your hands between flashing dog teeth to try to break up a fight.

It can help to separate your dogs at certain times. Until you're completely confident of their ability to interact peacefully, don't leave them together when you're not able to supervise them. It also helps to separate them at times they tend to get overexcited. Some dogs do better if they are not together when the people arrive home from work, for example.

When you do bring the dogs together at times they're highly excited, it can help to put them in an area where they can run off some of their excitement. A fenced back yard is ideal for this. A good run together is a much safer way for dogs to determine which is stronger and faster than a face-off in tight quarters.

Head halters can aid in structured behavior modification programs, which are best undertaken with the help of a behavior specialist.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Bringing in a new dog as a puppy is absolutely no guarantee that the dog will grow up able to get along with your older dog. In fact, it can even prolong the time it takes the two dogs to decide which will be leader, because the younger dog takes time to grow into full powers. This situation can terribly traumatize both dogs. Select any puppies you decide to add to a family that includes another dog according to how experts in the breeds involved predict an ADULT dog of that type would likely get along with the dog you already have.

Beware of making snap judgments as to which of your dogs is the leader, or which "should be" the leader. People are very often wrong about which is the most fit for leadership. One thing that confuses the issue is the tendency in some packs for one dog to lead in one situation, and another dog to lead in other situations! Human interference in pack order can lead to a huge increase in fighting.
 
Don't let wishful thinking cause you to keep two dogs together who are fighting, in hopes that they will somehow work it out. If either dog is getting injured, separate them before it gets worse. Pack order disputes should not result in significant injuries to either dog. If this is happening, things are NOT going well. Get help from an expert in person.

A dog who can't get along with another dog of the same sex in the home and winds up killing the other dog is not necessarily any threat to humans. People often overreact to this situation, and put the dog to sleep. The dog should not again be put in the position of living with another dog of the same sex, but would likely do fine living with an opposite-sex dog or in a one-dog home. It's important not to impose the standards that apply to human behavior, when judging the actions of an animal following its natural instincts.

Date Published: 5/4/2003 12:05:00 PM

    

Kathy Diamond Davis is the author of the book Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others. Should the training articles available here or elsewhere not be effective, contact your veterinarian. Veterinarians not specializing in behavior can eliminate medical causes of behavior problems. If no medical cause is found, your veterinarian can refer you to a colleague who specializes in behavior or a local behaviorist.