Pack Leader = Exercise, Discipline, THEN Affection

So many people write to me describing themselves as “dog lovers,” but then think that the term means their dogs should have no disciplinary consequences for anything they do. It’s often hard for me to communicate to them that for any dog, “love” must include exercise, rules, boundaries, and limitations first. Affection comes after that.

As hard as it is for us to admit sometimes, often we choose to own a dog for our own emotional fulfillment and forget about fulfilling the needs of the dog. So when people define themselves as an emotional figure, for example, a “dog lover,” without playing the role of the dog’s leader first, that dog will automatically compensate for the lack of leadership and become the pack leader. It’s impossible for a dog to ever be happy living this way because there’s a constant question as to who the true leader is.

The Power of a Dog’s Energy

In the animal world, energy equals language and communication. It’s the first thing an animal can pick up about another animal. There is a ripple effect throughout any natural environment based on the energy that the animal is projecting. You may notice how one particular dog out walking in a neighborhood can trigger a reaction from seemingly every other dog in the area. That’s not your imagination. It’s absolutely true that the energy of just one dog can set off a response from all the way down the street.

It works that way in the human world, too. If I am projecting a calm and assertive energy, I can influence other people to also stay calm or follow me. If I am in a crowd acting agitated, I can change the energy of the entire crowd. In the same way, if a dog is walking through a neighborhood projecting intense, fearful, or excited energy, every other dog inside a house or behind a fence is able to sense that instability. If the dog is in a calm, submissive state, those same dogs are also able to read his energy without a desire to challenge it.