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Alpha DogSo, let put aside the fact that were talking about a Westie, and talk about the wolf !. You may have already noticed that the wolf does not look anything like a Westie, and its fact that Westie's don't roam the forests in packs hunting for pray (First clue) Back in the 1920s some biologists who were studying animal behaviour (pecking order in chickens) began looking at other species that socialize, they named these groups "dominance hierarchies". The dominance hierarchies took off when a former Nazi won a Nobel prize for his theories about dogs, most of which have been proved wrong with modern DNA testing. This has resulted in very bad training methods, for example if you hit your dog and it does not yelp, then you haven't hit it hard enough. Yes its true, these mindless morons also recommend throwing your dog, and shouting NO ! to correct bad behaviour, this training method was known as the "alpha wolf rollover" (What Alpha Dogs do to enforce authority) Are you sick yet? Let me just say here, if I see/hear of any form of animal cruelty I will do my utmost to stamp it out, and STAMP on the person doing it too !. Today we have seen this theory put forward in a more gentler form, for example when a wolf rolls over in play its displaying submission to the authority of a dominant member of the pack ! Try this, have a play fight with your Westie, have a good roll around the floor, then when he's biting your ears, nose arms, roll over onto your back, put your legs in the air, and shout I give up, you win ! I think you will find your Westie doesn't have a desire to dominate you, it just re-enforced the feelings you have for each other, it shows your Westie your are equal, happy, content, and you will mutually bond. It will not at any time make you or your Westie think that you/him is a alpha dog. Dogs don't think symbolically, or use signifiers, a dog does not think an action stands for something else. Ranks, Status, Roles, Hierarchy are all concepts, the dog cant sniff them, he cant hear them or see them, and so do not exist in a dogs mind. Some alpha dog theorists out there may think that when a dog chases a ball, it signifies he's chasing pray, but if this is true, why is it that pups out on a first walk will chase anything that moves, a leaf a piece of paper blown by the wind, a bird even, yet the leaf doesn't symbolize a bird he can eat. Instinct and thinking symbolically are hugely miles apart, instincts originate in the hypothalamus of the dogs brain and symbolic thinking originates in the frontal lobes, dogs brains have very small and undeveloped frontal lobes and cannot relate to things like rank or status. Alpha theorists will also put forward that the dominance is the characteristic of the pack instinct, when its just a part of the sex drive and the act of mating, it also has to do with survival, eating, sleeping. Looking at the dominant/submissive behaviour when two rivals fight for the right to breed with a available partner, this rivalry can only take place between two males or two females, it never happens between a male and female and never between a human and a dog. Or do you have a Westie that sometimes attacks you when you come in contact with a Westie of the opposite sex ? In the wild, some females wolves steal pups from her less dominant counterpart to raise with her own litter, but in some cases will kill the pups when food is scarce. Food may show a dominance from one dog, best sleeping spot is another, but what ever dominant behaviour is shown, it has nothing to do with pack instinct, sex is not a social activity for dogs, its purpose is to insure the survival of the species, there are no dating services, no arrange marriages, no meetings at the local pub. When your told by someone your dog is very alpha or dominant, this is not true, a clearly more descriptive report would say the dog is assertive, not dominant, and definitely not alpha. What really sets Westie's (Dogs in general) and wolves apart from other social animals is not the pack hierarchy , but how they hunt. The pack instinct only exists to enable dogs to hunt large prey by working together. When wolves set up home near a garbage dump, and are able to find food this way, they no longer display the packs social structure. Other wild animals like Jackals or Coyotes only form packs to hunt large pray to survive. When they don't need to hunt large pray they don't form packs. The African wild dog who are very distantly related to dogs (Not even member of the same family) will hunt for large or small pray in packs and these dogs are the most social mammals on the planet. The alpha theory is a fallacy, it began with a Nazi, the same race that believed in world dominance, it has many flaws, it makes no sense, and most ethologists are questioning it. Today alpha theorists are saying there may be up to 5 or 6 alpha wolf's in a pack ! Stupid or what? Back to our Westie's, Westie's are NOT wolves anyway, they are nothing like a wolf, thousands of years of evolution, Breeding traits, size, fur colour, have separated them from other dog species. So lets set the record straight, dump any trainer that suggests your Westie (or you) is the alpha dog. When you talk about the Westie Highland White terrier, think of Scotland, Colonel Malcolm even, BUT DON'T THINK OF THE WOLF ! or ALPHA DOG ! |
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