About Dog Training (the Wolf Pack Mentality Is Not Quite Rightly Applied)

Cesar Millan will frequently argue that dogs need to be taught as if they’re simply members of a wolf pack. He says we need to be our dog’s pack leaders as though dogs adhere to this type of hierarchy. The truth is there is recent and credible science that shows Millan’s hypothesis is wrong. Millan’s ideas are based on an archaic understanding of wolf behavior that wolf researchers have long-since discredited.

It turns out that wild wolves — the ones our dogs descended from — achieve “leader of the pack” status by maturing, mating and producing offspring, as one of the world’s leading wolf experts, L. David Mech explains in my upcoming book, Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution. Those leadership roles are actually parental roles, and the pack structure is much like a human family.

It concerns me that many mainstream trainers are still promoting ideas that have long been rejected by the very experts who study this topic most. Any training ideology that relies on your being a “pack leader” or an “alpha” instead of a loving parent to your dog is misguided. The fact that this myth has persisted for so long in the face of science that shows otherwise means that there is much work to do to enlighten the public.

Most pertinent point:

So what is the answer? Real teaching is about communication, not domination. We need to treat our dogs with respect and promote a strong, loving bond with them through positive reinforcement, not punishment. As I demonstrate in every video on my YouTube channel, we need to teach our dogs to think for themselves and behave a certain way because they want to, not because we are forcing them to do so.

Please see next post on Dr Sophia Yin’s top 10 dog training tips.