Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can't figure out if one of my dogs is the Alpha dog. Not that it really matters, but I am curious, because most multiple-dog households seem to have a distinguished alpha.
Odie gets huffy with Lanie if she stands over him on the bed, or if she is afraid of something and panting, or if they have to share the backseat of our car. Odie has shown food aggression with other dogs, but dog food isn't an issue b/w Odie and Lanie. He gets upset over people food though, which is one reason they rarely get any. He also nipped her at the pet store when she was getting all the attention.
But Lanie growls in her sleep and Odie gets freaked and leaves the bed. If he is laying on one of the dog beds, she will either back into him and try to sit down (he gets up). In the yard, she mostly follows his lead, if he barks she will bark once or twice then look at him to see what they're barking about. Sometimes she gets excited and starts wagging her tail, biting herself and then barks (it's the only way she "plays"). Odie runs away when she does this.
When it comes to getting our attention, they both push each other out of the way to make sure we're not petting one more than the other.
Is it possible to not have an alpha dog? Or could they share the duty?
Do they engage in any "mounting behavior"? If so the one on top is exibiting the alpha. Same would be true if one lays his/her head over the other's neck and doesn't want the other to move.
Is one always the first in and out the door, as in, the lead dog?
Neither has ever mounted the other - nor has either mounted any other dogs. They practically knock each other over to get inside and outside, and there's no pattern to who goes first.
As far as the list of behaviors, they both display a few of the same dominant traits. it seems like Odie has a dominant stance more often, but maybe it's just my perception because Lanie is scrawny next to him. I will have to start paying more attention.
There are people who feel the concept of dogs living in a pack with a strict hierarchy is incorrect. Thinking of the pairs of dogs I've had over the years, there was a lot of back-and-forth as far as who mounted whom, who went out the door first, who appeared to dominate in play. The only thing that was consistent with every pair of dogs was that when push came to shove, there was always one dog who could control the toys if s/he he was in the mood to really insist on having one of them to... gee I was going to say him or herself but it's always been a female in our family now that I think of it. And oddly it's always been the smaller of the 2 dogs, although my females now are very close to the same size.
There are people who feel the concept of dogs living in a pack with a strict hierarchy is incorrect.
Yup, and I'm one of them. Especially for neutered domestic dogs, it really doesn't matter. There is give and take, mutual mounting, one upmanship, etc. The upper tier of wild dog packs is different.
Sometimes people at dog parks get bent out of shape if they think there dog is being dominated for even a second. The dogs rarely care but I think it's an image thing for the owner, especially if they have a large dog.
Dogs playing reminds me of pickup soccer, about half the dogs want to compete as hard as they can, and will win some and lose some and enjoy it all. Other dogs just want to watch and hang by their owner's ankles, that's cool too. A small minority can't handle it and are at risk to deliver a real bite... they usually stay on leash (sometimes older dogs who hung up their cleats, or 'some' Pitbulls and Rotts/historical fighting dogs).
My main point? Dog owners chill out, let your dog have fun however it looks. I've seen many 'smiling' dogs pulled away from dog parks cuz they were mounted a bit.
I can't figure out if one of my dogs is the Alpha dog. Not that it really matters, but I am curious, because most multiple-dog households seem to have a distinguished alpha.
Odie gets huffy with Lanie if she stands over him on the bed, or if she is afraid of something and panting, or if they have to share the backseat of our car. Odie has shown food aggression with other dogs, but dog food isn't an issue b/w Odie and Lanie. He gets upset over people food though, which is one reason they rarely get any. He also nipped her at the pet store when she was getting all the attention.
But Lanie growls in her sleep and Odie gets freaked and leaves the bed. If he is laying on one of the dog beds, she will either back into him and try to sit down (he gets up). In the yard, she mostly follows his lead, if he barks she will bark once or twice then look at him to see what they're barking about. Sometimes she gets excited and starts wagging her tail, biting herself and then barks (it's the only way she "plays"). Odie runs away when she does this.
When it comes to getting our attention, they both push each other out of the way to make sure we're not petting one more than the other.
Is it possible to not have an alpha dog? Or could they share the duty?
Sigh...I HATE the term "Alpha dog" so lets use terms that are a bit more accurate. That would be dominant and submissive personality type. Yes - if you have 2 dogs that exhibit submissive tendencies its certainly likely that neither will try to dominate the other (i.e. no alpha dog). A well trained dog should look to YOU for guidance no matter what their personality type is. I have a Chessie that definately has a dominant personality but she is not allowed to dominate our other dogs or obviously DH or myself. She is also not allowed to go "Kujo" on a disrespectful dog that we may come across on a walk. Thats just good manners as far as I'm concerned. Mariah will never be submissive but she knows that we will also not allow her to be dominant. That keeps peace in the household and the neighborhood!
Personally, I think it's the dogs' business if they dominate each other. As long as nobody's getting snarky, which VERY rarely happens, and nobody's stealing someone's food, we stay out of it. And we've always had dogs who had excellent relationships with each other, including our current 2 female bully breeds. I don't believe in micromanaging the "pack" unless there's a serious problem to work with.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,779,335 times
Reputation: 7185
I believe that a multi-dog household is necessarily going to have a pecking order, but remember that "alpha dog" is really a personality archetype rather than a title or a position. It doesn't sound like you have a pair of really dominant dogs (are they bored?). Dogs of the opposite sex can be less prone to jockeying for position with one another, but that really boils down to meaningless generalization. The short answer is YES, you can have two dogs in one house that never work out who is subordinate to whom.
It sounds to me that they are behaving according to gender roles. For many years I had strictly female dogs - I just liked their personalities more, I thought. Then I got my male GSD and he is an entirely male personality, something that never really occurred to me until I had so many years of dealing only with females.
My female GSD is bigger than he is and she could whip his butt if she wanted to. But she won't - because he is the male. They play together and sometimes it gets out of hand, in that one dog or the other will knock the other in a sore spot or something, and then male if he is on the receiving end will immediately 'curse' at her (it sure as heck sounds like cursing) and she will immediately drop her head, and just take it. Not only that, she will follow him around in a 'please don't be mad at me, dearest. I'll make you your favourite dinner. If we weren't neutered, I'd put out for you.'
It makes me crazy on a personal level that equality between the sexes is non-existent in their world.
If he is on the couch with me, and she wants to be there because she is so attached to me, she will give him little side-long glances, and he knows full well that she wants him to move but she wouldn't ever insist. And while he knows this - because he knows she wants to be next to me - he won't let her.
He will sometimes leave his food untouched and neither of my other two girls will dare to approach his bowl even if he isn't in the room. What he did in the beginning is leave his food bowl untouched, wait until the girls had finished their bowls, and then he would disappear into the hallway.
After a minute or two he would suddenly whip around the corner and just glare at them as if he had caught them in the act of 'stealing' his food. He just loves to play that game of leaving his food untouched and sitting far away from it while the girls are longingly eyeing it, but not daring to touch it no matter how long it sits there.
He also insists on sitting in the passenger seat most of the time when we go for a ride. In other words, in general because he is the mister, he gets to choose everything first.
There are certain things though that he just doesn't care about and if he doesn't care about it, then the girls can do what they want. He is also scared of thunder whereas my girls are not. But my female GSD has started reacting to his reaction to thunder and becomes nervous because it is otherwise out of character for him to be afraid.
She definitely takes her ultimate cue from him as to perception of danger.
I think that this is the case in the animal world because I notice the same thing between my horses - I have a very girly girl horse who always flirts, and one plain jane girl of a horse, and a gelding. Boy parts removed or not, when push comes to shove, he rules because he is the male.
We had two boy dogs, and a girl, who were not always living in the same house, but one belonged to me, one to my Mom, one to my Grandmother, so we were always taking care of each others dogs, or whatever...So they were pretty much a "pack", The largest dog was a GSD/Shepard mix, he was pretty much the "boss", but it did not seem like it...because the girl dog would eat his food, take his toys, sleep in his bed, run the yard...until he felt like he had to care about it, because most of the time he did not, after all, there was plenty of food, plenty of toys, plenty of dog beds...So, once in awhile, he would just jump on her, and bite her neck. And she would immediately lay down. The other boy dog, Sam, was really just too goofy to care about anything...who knew who was the boss of those two? He would jump on Colonel, bite him, Colonel would just nip him back. What was interesting though, was the cat...he was the boss of everyone. Mickey would sit on the table, and whap away at anyone who came up to him. He would also hiss at anyone who tried to get at his food, he scared the dogs. He would chase the dogs around the house...was he the boss? The dogs would lick the other cat and play with him, but stayed a healthy distance away from Mickey.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
