DOG DAY AFTERNOON

An article publish in the Kennel Club Accredited Instructors Scheme newsletter ‘The Standard’ talks about this years latest fad ‘Yellow ribbons’. The editor Annie writes as follows; “The buzz words this year have certainly been ‘yellow’ and ‘ribbon’. Put them together and you get the latest fad of tying a yellow ribbon to the dog’s lead. Why? Because you, the owner, feel that your dog needs space. The yellow ribbon is supposedly for the dogs safety and well-being. You tie it on the lead to show the world the dog is post-op, unwell, in season, old and grumpy, nervous, a pup in training, etc. and i don’t deny these are all laudable reasons on paper. However yellow ribbons plus any one of the above reasons means you are placing the dogs welfare on the shoulders of the general public and this is neither fair nor is it right. The owner/handler is the person who is both morally and legally responsible for the welfare and behaviour of the dog at all times; well or unwell, young or old, in tr

The Pack Rules theory was created in order to prevent the domestic dog from becoming the ‘Alpha Leader’ of the pack in the home. The ‘Alpha Leader’ would dominate the rest of the pack by intimidation. But where did this theory of dominance come from? According to Barry Eaton in his book “Dominance in Dogs ”, Dominance theory comes about from the following steps. Wolf social structure is entirely explained by a linear dominace hierarchy in which there is a constant battle to be alpha dog and dominate the rest of the pack. Domestic dogs are descended from wolves so the same must apply to them. Domestic dogs are trying to dominate us. We should issue a preemptive strike and dominate dogs by enforcing strict rules harshly. Lets look at number one from the list above. This idea of a linear hierarchy producing the ‘Alpha wolf’ came from studies published by Rudolph Schenkel a prominent Swiss Biologist and Behaviourist. These studies were based on a population of captive w