Understanding their Natural Instincts
Narrated from: General Info
It can be hard to believe that your precious puppy is descended from wolves. If you sit back and watch some of the things they do you can still see some of the wild characteristics wolves have. Some of these habits are so engraved in our pets’ minds that they simply cannot help themselves. The really cool thing is that when you come to understand these habits you will end up with a much better understanding of your pup.
It helps to know that the wolves in a pack always formed a hierarchy that kept the stronger wolves at the top and the smaller and most submissive wolves at the bottom. They hunted together for reasons of safety and they always traveled together. The pack was extremely important. Your pet or domesticated dogs still carry that pack mentality. If you have a group of dogs as pets you can see them working out disputes amongst themselves but you should be at the top of the hierarchy. If you have just one dog he will still see you as his leader. Maybe you have had a dog or known someone with a dog that is completely out of control. The reason for this is that the owner is not holding and maintaining a leadership role.
Socialization is so important to dogs. No matter what type of dog you have he should be well socialized with other dogs and with people. This way the dog is able to exercise his pack mentality with other dogs and if they are socialized early enough in life they have a lot of fun playing with other dogs. Being pack animals, dogs always look to their leader for approval. As long as you are reassuring and approving he will continue to exhibit the behaviors you want him to. Because dogs are pack animals and they seek approval from their pack they make great family pets. It is also the reason they can annoy us!
Dogs dig, and this can be extremely annoying to us as owners. Please understand that this is a normal thing for dogs to do although it can be trained out of him by a good trainer. Imagine for a moment that you are a wolf, the weather is unbearably hot and you need to cool off. In the wild you would dig a hole to reach cooler ground to lie in and cool off. Female wolves dig large holes to have their litters in; this keeps the pups contained until they are big enough to venture outside of the den. Another thing that happens often, and it is very annoying, is having a dog that has accidents inside your home. Unneutered male dogs always “mark” their territory by strategically urinating in certain spots. This is so that all other dogs who pass will know that the area is “owned” by your dog. Neutering your male dog will almost always cure this problem.
Barking is another very annoying habit some dogs have, but this one too is directly related to wolves. They have an instinct to bark to keep intruders away. They also use barking to let other members of the pack know their location. They have different barks with different urgencies. They can be alerting other packs to impending dangers. This, as well as other features of wolves can usually be trained out of our domesticated pets.
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