Recent posts on social media included a brief video of a dog walker with eight dogs; one of them was dragging, and the walker responded by yanking the teenage dog to the ground. The rest of the group gasped in fear.
This kind of abuse is fairly widespread, but it is not, as usual, to be caught in the process of doing it. Yes, it is a kind of abuse. It is not appropriate to treat pets in this manner.
The news is unlikely to have reached you if you are still of the mindset that one must be the alpha dog or the leader of the pack at all times. Even today, the guy who brought this to life expresses sorrow for his actions.
While studying wolves in captivity, David Mech, scientist and wolf researcher, discovered that they did have a dominance hierarchy while in captivity, and he believes that this is the case.
However, he asserts, as does every other wolf and dog researcher, that wolves in the wild do not live in packs and do not have an alpha wolf to guide them. Puppies are raised in families, their own family, and only until they reach the age of maturity when they may leave the family and start their own family.
They do not live in multi-family groups, and there is no alpha wolf or pack leader in charge of them. The implications of this are that dogs do not need or require an alpha in their human family pack.
Given that this notion has been disproved, no dog walker should proclaim themselves as the pack leader, and no dog should accompany their owner on a group walk. It’s a pet peeve of dogs. Do you still not trust me?
The next time you see a bunch of dogs traveling on tight leashes, with limited space to smell or observe what’s going on around them, pay attention to their facial expressions. This is what you may expect to see.
Lip licking, whale eyes (in which the whites of the eyes are visible), drooping tails, ears back or sideways, facial tightness, panting, even on a cool day, and stiff tense bodies are all characteristics of a stressed animal.
They are not strolling around cheerfully, taking in the fragrances or taking in the landscape. They’re in a bad way. When you come across a group of dogs, keep an eye out for these symptoms of worry.
Watch the full video below…
