The Alpha Leader
by Kenneth Lloyd
Wolf Handler
UK Wolf Conservation Trust
It’s just the first letter in the Greek alphabet
Alpha is an outmoded concept of how a Wolf pack is structured in a pyramid of “top dog” down. It belongs in the same museum as Barbara Woodhouse’s choke chain where dog training is concerned.
Thankfully lots of dog trainers who once believed in this concept of imposing yourself as a pack leader have seen the light. The notable
exception being Cesar Milan whose wide TV coverage is helping propagate the myth with dog owners. As far as I am aware Milan has no background of working with or studying Wolves, his experience is with watching the interaction of semi feral dogs in the Mexican village where he grew up. Although sharing a common ancestry the Wolf and the domestic dog are only comparable in the same way we are comparable with apes.
Dr. L. David Mech of The University of Minnesota, who's been studying wild wolves for longer than Cesar Milan has been alive. He's revolutionized our understanding of pack behaviour. In his paper “The Outmoded Notion of the Alpha Wolf” he explains it like this:
The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature at least partly because of my book
"The Wolf: Ecology and Behaviour of an Endangered Species," written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in
paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it.
Although most of the book's info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the
last 40 years then in all of previous history.
One of the outdated pieces of information is the concept of the alpha wolf. "Alpha" implies competing with
others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle. However, most wolves who lead packs achieved
their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely
breeders, or parents, and that's all we call them today, the "breeding male," "breeding female," or "male parent,"
"female parent," or the "adult male" or "adult female." In the rare packs that include more than one breeding
animal, the "dominant breeder" can be called that, and any breeding daughter can be called a "subordinate
breeder."
I think we need to move towards the model that Mech outlines and away from the once trendy Milan
theories of achieving a “pack balance”.
The very notion of balance is to suggest that there is imbalance, a need to correct an opposition of forces.
This is certainly not the case in a properly functioning Wolf pack. The pack thrives on cooperation between the
individuals within the pack. Harmony is a better way to portray how pack dynamics work. In a true Wolf pack
there really is no pack leader, at least not in the traditional sense.
Now Mech concedes that this is not necessarily how captive Wolf packs behave. Here I must say that this
is where my experience is based, in captive Wolves. I have worked with them closely for coming up to ten years.
In all that time I have never felt the need to “Alpha Roll” (a Milan stock in trade) a Wolf – a shortcut to A&
E. I have owned or been surrounded by dogs since childhood. Again, never have I felt the need to behave like a
dominant canine and force them onto their backs and growl in their face. How silly would you feel doing that in
public?
The way that unwanted behaviour is controlled with the captive Wolves I work with is by using a five-step
aggression to calming technique.
Let us assume that aggression is divisible by five. A one might be just stepping outside of the acceptable
behaviour while a five is an all out attack. The way most people would deal with (for example) a level three is
by responding with equal measure or more often ramping themselves up to a four. One of the consequences of
doing that is that the Wolf (or dog) may escalate to a five. Where have your options gone now? If you go up a
notch you are going to lose. Better then to actually calm things by responding at a lower level. The Wolf or dog
is a thinking animal and will react to this de-escalation by lowering his response. I hope you can see the
difference here in the response between deflecting confrontation and instigating it with things like Alpha Rolls
and growling.
Other techniques that have been used for a few years and that are now losing favour because of the
consequences are things like the “Rattle Bottle”. This is an aggressive action towards the dog just as much
as manhandling it. Used with a fearful dog it will aggravate the situation and possibly cause it to lash out at
the person as a form of redirected aggression.
Back now to some of the myths that have come about as a misconstrued adaptation of Wolf behaviour.
You must go through the door before your dog
This one amuses me no end. That is not at all how Wolf hierarchy works, quite the reverse in fact.
The lowest ranking Wolf, or sometimes just the boldest, is the one who confront unknown situations.
Very rarely would the pack risk one of the breeding pair in such a situation. On going to the door with your dog
he does not know what is on the other side so is protecting you from the unknown and not disrespecting your
position. Though at this point I would stress the safety issue. You should train your dog to sit patiently at the
door as you open it if only to prevent you being yanked off your feet or scaring the hell out of the postman
coming down the path. Both good enough reasons, but nothing to do with hierarchy or being the Alpha.
You must eat before your dog
Maybe, if you are sharing a deer carcase on the kitchen floor you should insist on having first dibs, if only for
hygiene reasons. Personally I eat at the table and my dog eats from a bowl on the floor. That is all the division
I require. In reality I would prepare the dog’s food and put it down when I am going to eat. That way I don’t
get a dribbling hound at my feet while I am eating.
Comparing our companion animals to their wild cousins is about as useful as comparing ourselves to apes.
Banana anyone?
Copyright © Dogs & Co 2009 unless otherwise stated
Updated July 2009