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establishing and keeping alpha position



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 6th 07, 01:15 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
jackie
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Posts: 4
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

Hi All
I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish
and keep the alpha position over my dog?

  #2  
Old April 6th 07, 01:37 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Mort
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Posts: 2
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

On Apr 5, 5:15 pm, "jackie" wrote:
Hi All
I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish
and keep the alpha position over my dog?


Maybe the most important thing to do, Jackie is mean what you say when
you give the dog a command. You are in charge. The dog will respect
that if you *mean* it. If you tell the dog to stay, you must make it
stay by going and getting it if it moves and putting it back where you
said stay.

At 2 1/2 YO your dog is about out of the puppy stage and will be a
happier dog if you give it commands only if you mean to make it do
what you say.

Mort

  #3  
Old April 6th 07, 03:29 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Jeff Dege
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Posts: 144
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:15:08 -0700, jackie wrote:

Hi All
I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish and
keep the alpha position over my dog?


Best article on dominance I've seen:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/tsuro/_articles/yielding.html

Yielding
by Dick Russell

[...]

The ability to cause other animals to Yield space (ie, to move out of
the way) seems to be a matter of force of personality rather than one
of physical size or strength, though they sometimes go hand in hand.

Along about this same time, I was becoming disenchanted with the usual
dominance exercises that we dog trainers had been taught and were
teaching. Many (most) of them were, imo, more confrontational than was
needed, desired or even helpful. What we were doing was not the things
that happened in a stable group of dogs. Living with a stable pack of
dogs for any length of time, and observing them, will teach you that
appeasement is a much more prevalent mode of interaction than
confrontation. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the
United States, Sam Rayburn, D Tx, once said, "to get along, you go
along." Dogs figured this out long before people ever did. A dog's aim
is simply to get through the day as easily and with as liitle hassle as
possible. This is achieved by appeasement rather than confrontation.
Dog trainers, most at least, had missed this. They, along with
behaviorists and etiologists, had completely missed what was really
going on.

Case in point, as an example, the alpha roll. There is no such thing.
There is a cinnamon roll, there is a Parker House roll, there is a rock
and roll and there is a roll mighty river roll on, but there is no
alpha roll. What there is is a beta roll. The higher ranking dog,
except by his personality and presence, has nothing to do with this
behavior. It is physically initiated and performed by the lower ranking
animal as an act of appeasement. Dog trainers who have attempted alpha
roll techniques with dominant, ready to fight, dogs have learned and
have the scars to prove, that this is a really spiffy way to get
yourself bitten.

[...]

--
I am myself persuaded, on the basis of extensive study of the historical
evidence, that... the severity of each of the contractions - 1920-21;
1929-33, and 1937-38 - is directly attributable to acts of commission
and omission by the Reserve authorities and would not have occurred
under earlier monetary and banking arrangements.
- Milton Friedman

  #4  
Old April 6th 07, 03:36 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Marcel Beaudoin
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Posts: 703
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

"jackie" wrote in news:1175818508.751984.271030
@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Hi All
I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish
and keep the alpha position over my dog?


Caveat - I am not a trainer.
Suggestion - Go see one.

Unless your dog, by some miracle of spontaneous evolution, has figured out
how to feed and water himself, you already have the tools at hand to ensure
that your dog knows that you are the one in charge.

another suggestion - Do a Google search for NILIF. As I mentioned, I am not
a trainer, so I don't know which of those is the best version for you.

While it may not be right for you (it isn't right for me) without more
information, there is not much more that people can suggest to you.

--
Marcel and Moogli
  #5  
Old April 6th 07, 12:11 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Janet Boss
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Posts: 4,368
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

In article .com,
"jackie" wrote:


I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish
and keep the alpha position over my dog?


Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but true.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com
  #6  
Old April 6th 07, 12:14 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
diddy
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Posts: 1,077
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

in thread : Janet Boss
whittled the following words:

In article .com,
"jackie" wrote:


I have a 2,1/2 year-old black lab and was wondering how to establish
and keep the alpha position over my dog?


Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but true.


Alpha/leader = symantics
regardless - Training is the answer, simple but true.
  #7  
Old April 6th 07, 12:50 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Jeff Dege
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Posts: 144
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:14:23 -0500, diddy wrote:

in thread : Janet Boss
whittled the following words:

Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but true.

Alpha/leader = symantics


Leadership is a matter of body language and attitude, not physical
strength.

--
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work.
- Thomas A. Edison

  #8  
Old April 6th 07, 01:07 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
pfoley
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Posts: 1,285
Default establishing and keeping alpha position


"Jeff Dege" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:14:23 -0500, diddy wrote:

in thread : Janet

Boss
whittled the following words:

Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but true.

Alpha/leader = symantics


Leadership is a matter of body language and attitude, not physical
strength.

--
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work.
- Thomas A. Edison

================
I agree.



  #9  
Old April 6th 07, 02:42 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
pfoley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,285
Default establishing and keeping alpha position


"diddy" wrote in message
...
in thread news whittled the following words:

On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:14:23 -0500, diddy wrote:

in thread : Janet
Boss whittled the following
words:

Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but
true.

Alpha/leader = symantics


Leadership is a matter of body language and attitude, not physical
strength.


That is true. And I still contend that Alpha is not necessarily strength.
I had an alpha male. at 14 he was a doddering old man. I had to help him
up and down the two steps on the back porch. Even at 14, he was still the
Alpha male, even when strange dogs came in for foster/transport. He even
withered a mature intact Great Dane with his body language, who could have
easily killed him. But the doddering old man conveyed, this is MY
territory, and these ARE the house rules. And i never saw a dog that
didn't respect him, and comply. He commanded sensibility and respect

===============
The same thing happened to me. I had a Chow for 13 years that could hardly
stand up and at the end of his life, when I adopted a 5 year old Rottweiler,
dominant type female. I also had to help the Chow up and down stairs. I'll
never forget the Chow standing ground, trying to stand up with attitude,
teeter tottering, when he met the Rottweiler. The Rotty could have blown
him over, but respected the old Chow and always gave him his space.


  #10  
Old April 6th 07, 03:14 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Lis
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Posts: 40
Default establishing and keeping alpha position

On Apr 6, 7:50 am, Jeff Dege wrote:
On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:14:23 -0500, diddy wrote:
in :Janet Boss
whittled the following words:


Forget alpha, think leader. Training is the answer, simple but true.


Alpha/leader = symantics


Leadership is a matter of body language and attitude, not physical
strength.


Correct. And that's what being alpha is. Have you not seen cases where
the smallest and least physically powerful animal has achieved
dominance? I have. Heck, Cesar Millan has built a very profitable
career out of helping people who have allowed dogs, sometimes very
small dogs, to take total control of the household--and also helping
small, not very strong people to take control of their big, powerful
dogs that may outweigh them and are certainly more willing to throw
their whole physical strength into a struggle.

Alpha/leader=symantics.

Lis

 




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