Leader of the Pack

10/08/2026

There is SO much silly fuss these days about domestic dogs being nothing to do with wolves, not being pack animals etc. etc. I just saw this rather misleading video and had to comment……

So the ones “in charge” aren’t NAMED “alpha”, they are NAMED “parents”… by YOU. Do you think that the wolves who are actually “in charge” give a flying f*** what name YOU decide to designate to them? In case you didn’t know, they don’t USE words. So this is a lot of utterly pointless fuss over the choice of a word…. Meanwhile, packs / herds/ troops of animals in nature blissfully go about their organised life, with no interest in what some stupid human word you choose to label them with. For a little further information, wild domestic dogs in the mountains of Bovaria have formed hunting packs. The scientist who documented them noted that the only difference to the wild wolf packs she had studied was that they had a single leader, not a pair…. he wasn’t the pack’s parent. What name should I designate to that single particular leader that won’t offend you?

06/08/2026

Got to watch till the last story. 🥹

06/08/2026

That’s nice.

06/08/2026

I may have saved two lives this afternoon. 😱

This is about UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE between SUFFICIENTLY TRAINING a dog to follow commands in any given scenario, and KNOWING HOW TO INFLUENCE A DOG that has NOT yet been sufficiently trained. This could easily be a life or death distinction.

I had literally just walked out of a client’s house after teaching them:
1) how to INFLUENCE their puppy: how to discourage them out of unwanted and unsafe behaviours and how to encourage them into safe and wanted ones.
2) how to TRAIN their puppy to fully understand command WORDS and develop the skill to do as they are told, even in challenging circumstances; which takes a LOT longer.
Two very different things.

I was just getting into my car as a puppy with no lead shot past me, followed by a little girl shouting and waving her arms…. both heading straight for the busy main road. 🫣 I instantly crouched down and made some loud, silly high-pitched noises. The puppy slammed on the breaks, about-turned and came hurtling straight past the little girl and into my arms. I handed him over to the little girl and watched until they were safely back indoors; wondering 🤔…. Might one or both of them actually died if I hadn’t been there? 🫣 …. Where were the adults? 🤷‍♀️…. Is anyone going to teach this little girl how to safely handle her dog? 🤞 I shouted as she walked away holding on tightly to the puppy who was almost as big as her, “If he runs away, don’t chase him! Crouch down and make silly noises!” 🙏
I was a little shaky as I drove home.

02/08/2026

There are owners who consider that dogs jumping up is harmless; “He’s just being friendly” so people shouldn’t make a fuss. You sometimes hear owners defending their dog’s invasive behaviour on people or other animals because of what they judge (or misjudge) their dog’s INTENTIONS to be; with the mindset that if no harm is intended, no harm can be done. I personally know of two dogs whose owners were issued with a CPN for them never to be off lead in public again, simply because of their over-enthusiastic and invasive way of “Just saying hello”. The owner didn’t do the training, but the dog paid the price.
There’s no escaping the fact that dogs ARE essentially predatory animals who need to be taught how to respond to their environment to remain a free and SAFE member of society.
All dogs , being animals, are subject to basic urges to just “do stuff”, and the purpose of training is keep them away from harm AND prevent them causing any. If your dog is taught to control themselves and only get involved with others when they are permitted to do so, they can have a happy and incident-free life. The mindset to just let him do as he pleases because “He’s a sweetheart”, can in some circumstances create a REAL danger: to others and ultimately to the dog himself. This story is utterly heartbreaking and is simply caused by a lack of training, possibly by an owner who didn’t believe it was necessary….. because he’s such a nice dog.

02/08/2026

02/08/2026

That’s what you call good energy. ❤️