By George Philllp Quinlan

We are aware that being top dog is critical when living with and training a dog. What Is the difference between dominance through leadership and dominance through force? There is a big difference between being a strong influence and being a bully!

I spent five weeks last year observing behavior and rank changes within a pack at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, IN, during the January and February breeding season. Chinook was the leader of his pack. He was the alpha male and Altair was the alpha female. During this period, when aggression is at its highest, I never observed Chinook grab another wolf by the scruff of the neck and pin It to the ground to maintain order. For that matter, I never observed him or any other wolves seriously reprimand either of the two male pups that were 10 months old at the time.

It bothers me when I hear of instructors who still teach their trusting students to grab a dog by the scruff of the neck, shake and pin it to the floor. These instructors are not teaching their students how to be leaders

without being bullies. They are teaching the owners to behave aggressively toward their dogs. We accept the fact that shaking a human baby is wrong and can cause severe and permanent damage. What kind of damage can you do to a puppy? What about the risk to the student being bitten by the pet? I don’t care how big or little the dog Is, the student can still cause damage. This also is putting the life of the dog at risk- if the average dog owner is bitten, it is the dog that Will mostly likely pay for this behavior by being destroyed!!!.

For example, I had a young woman (and mother of two children) come to me for help with her new puppy. She was taught in another training class that she must be dominant over her previous dog, an Alaskan Malamute. She was instructed to correct the pet by grabbing it and forcing it to the ground. Unfortunately, she corrected the dog in a manner she was taught and was bitten so badly that her husband immediately had the dog destroyed out of fear for the children’s safety. She didn’t want to have that happen to her new puppy!

Now, maybe the instructor told her to do it slightly differently, but sometimes people misinterpret what they are told. It’s better to be safe than sorry!. If there is a chance the misunderstanding could be damaging, then we must be very careful what we teach.

I heard another story from a fellow National Association of Dog Obedience Instructions member. One of her students had a dog that liked to chase its tail One evening the dog started the tail chase during class. As the dog started to spin, the instructor reached over the dog and grabbed the check chain arid the neck. The startled dog must have felt it had to defend itself because it tried to bite her. I asked why the instructor felt that was the way to correct the dog’s problem. She told me that another trainer in her area told her she should pin the dog every time it started to chase its tail. I wish some one would take the time to explain to me the benefits of this type of correction.

What do you (the instructor) gain? Better yet, what does the dog learn? Why would you put yourself, your student or the dog at such a risk? I find it hard to understand why people feel they have to be so hard on a dog to train them. Dogs were the first animal domesticated by humans 12,000 yearn ago. Over the centuries, breeds were developed to serve different needs. From hunting to being pampered, from the hills of Scotland to the laps of Parisians, dogs have served us well. Have we evolved so much that we have forgotten how to communicate with the other creatures of this earth? If we going to train a dog by using dog language, then we should take the time to Learn the language first!

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