Dog Training: Are You The Alpha? Are you the “Pack Leader”?
Saturday, September 17th, 2011 at
5:11 am
www.facebook.com The BEST DOG TRAINING PAGE on FACEBOOK Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com My main channel: www.youtube.com My second (video blog) channel: www.youtube.com My secret channel: ??? follow me on twitter or “like” me on facebook to find that one:) Is pack theory the best approach when dealing with our dogs?
@zakgeorge21 I found your video today, and I thought you might be able to help me. I just lost my pug of ten years, so a friend thought it might be nice to find a new dog for our family. We now have Frank, a dachshund that is two years old. He is a sweet dog, most of the time. I am having a problem with him, however. He nips at my two boys, once now making skin contact with my five year old. I never had a problem with any of my previous dogs, so I have no experience. In the interest of not maki
Thank you for talking about how dropping your dog off to be trained by someone else is not a good idea! I love the artwork in the background…did you do it? When you say “we are connecting” in the video, I don’t think you also realize you are not just connecting, you are establishing yourself as the leader/dominant one. If that was NOT true, the dog would not comply with your request. Either way, u say leadership is important, and that is true in any situation working with animals. Cheers.
You talk of easy word like connecting, I look to it eyes but it does nothing lol
but yes interaction with them is good
I taught my brother’s dog and it seem his dog see me more as a Master LOL
I would agree letting my dog go. I taught it 5 tricks. I let it go, it doesn’t even come back to me LOL, it just went away like I was nothing lol
@krystlejade
I would agree using your voice would be better.
Hi zak! I have a 10 yr old medium sized mutt (abby) who is very calm and pretty well trained and loves to? be with humans but when she sees a dog, she goes nuts. After she’s seen a dog, she wont listen to anything I say. She knows and always obeys commands like “leave it” except when there is another dog. This aggressive behavior is hard to deal with outside and it is also stressful to both of us. Please let me know if there is a way to teach her that this is unacceptable behavior. Thank you!
Have you ever noticed that people like Ian Dunbar are behind the podium most of the time in a suit and are rarely training a dog. When there is that rare video, it’s the worst bit of dog training I have ever seen.
Oh and when Mr Dunbar takes on an aggression case, the story typically ends with, “yeah the dog was euthanized.” I am sorry but this better way of training lacks a lot of elements. I am sure there are a lot of dead dogs that would agree. Oh yeah…..they are dead…they cant.
Dogs and wolves are not identical, otherwise dogs would be called wolves.
I think you are trying to make a mockery of the suggestion that dominance exists.
You are wrong there. If you have multiple dogs in your household and have never seen any act of dominance, you haven’t truly connected with your dogs.
One dog will push the other out of the way to get attention. One dog will wait while another drinks. Dominance is situation based and dynamic. To say it doesn’t exist is wrong.
Holy cheese, this is revolutionary!
@ABengelke so roving wild dogs don’t form packs?
Visit my channel and watch all of my great videos!
Also, some of the people that base their methods on alpha-dog training may not know about that it was proven wrong, as was the case with me.
I think you are amazing. I have to apologize because I thought the wolves did have an alpha, I based everything on it. Luckily I do not have a dog so no member of the canine society suffered from my misjudging. It’s good to know that. Somebody (I forget who) said that you must choose one alpha in the family, and we had disagreements when trying to choose one. Do you think there should be one leader, or can many people train a family dog? Please respond!
@jimlupi
It can be, but not necessarily. I don’t believe dogs live in packs, so there is no such thing as a pack leader! Besides, it’s not just pure terminology, I’m considering what comes attached to these words. When people think pack leader they usually think harsh, punitive, aversive. But when they think TEAM they remember partnership and teamwork. It changes the owner behavior and that’s what is all about.
Hey, I just wanted your opinion on this question, What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a border collie. And is your show “who let the dogs out” going to air in the U.S… If it is when?
Hey, I have two dogs, a 3 year old golden retriever and a 1 year old golden doodle. I am trying to get them interested in playing frisbee since they need some excercise, however if i take only one out the other starts crying and vice versa. And with both out it makes it very hard to keep either one interested when the other comes running full tilt at us. How might you suggest I go about getting my dogs more interested/easier to play with individually as you demonstrate with your dogs so well?
Hi Zak,
All of your videos are great and I prefer your training method more than any other Pro. dog trainer (no offense to other dog trainers) and I was just wondering that by any chance can you make a video explaining how to train a dog to search for anything or anyone. Thank You
/watch?v=1NzQqwvp9IY CHALLENGE ACCEPTED?
Ni kissing up, but I think that you are best dog Trener on youtube…:)
Being rather a stickler for semantics, and also towards the end of making your videos shorter and/or more concise, I suggest that you edit videos such as this so that you can (1.) stop and check a thesaurus to find more appropriate words for what you are trying to convey and (2.) offer examples to back up some of your statements. Overall, you are a good speaker and of above average intelligence. Good stuff.
Wow, just went through all 117 comments. There are some good ones and some terrible. I think it’s good to shift the focus off CM and onto some traditional dog trainers, who really are all about forced dominance and constant correction with little or no R+. Some of these people falsely claim to use CM’s methods, and others do not, and are much worse. There is some misinformation presented in the video as absolute fact, and that is disturbing. But overall it was pretty good.
Great video!! I would like to add that training is not the only way of connecting. As a trainer that’s your (Zak’s) main focus in the vids but I’m sure you agree that there are other important things too? Cuddles (gentle – no beating on top of the head and thinking that’s nice!), enjoying a walk together by paying attention to the dog rather than chatting away among humans and ignoring the dog until s/he “misbehaves”, sleeping in the same room, nose-games, hide and seek (not in fear period)…
Great video Zak. I have been thinking a lot about ‘opening channels of communication’ – through training (whether formal or informal) and all interactions we have with our dog. I feel you are talking about exactly the same idea here with referring to connections we make with our dog. If we can communicate clearly and helpfully to our dogs, and if we give them the opportunity to communicate with us, and are open to that communication then we have a relationship. Without that we have nothing.
I totally believe in your philosophies Zac, thanks for all you do!!
@ABengelke
isn’t that semantics? LOL people are so politically correct its sickening