Natural History

Source.

What I am about to write is something quite heretical, but it’s something that I found that virtually all the literature seems to miss in dog behavior.

We tend to get focused on this hierarchy stuff. It’s mind numbing in how all dog behavior gets reduced to bosses and underlings, but if you ask the average person about dog or wolf social behavior, you get the same answer. Dogs are pack animals, and one animal leads.

However, I’ve found in my own experiences with groups of dogs that no all dogs relate to each other in this fashion. I know of two pairs of dogs in which status issues didn’t seem to exist at all.

The first of these were two dogs belonging to my grandpa. One was a JRTCA Jack Russell and the other a beagle cross rescued from a dumpster in Myrtle Beach. Both dogs were dog aggressive, but both dogs also loved to go on hunting excursions.

This love of hunting changed their relationship. The JRT would bolt the rabbits and groundhogs that went underground or in pipe, while the beagle’s superior nose would find their trails. After this relationship formed, I never saw the two dogs show any aggression or dominance displays to each other.

Both were bitches, and both would fight another bitch if they had the opportunity. However, they never fought each other.

The other two dogs that I saw develop this sort of relationship were my oldest golden retriever and the golden boxer.  The golden boxer could be aggressive towards other strange dogs. She was aggressive toward her own mother at times, but she was never aggressive to the older golden retriever. When the golden boxer was younger, the older golden retriever had the upper hand, but as the boxer cross got bigger, the golden began to allow the golden boxer more liberties. By the time the golden boxer was three or four, the social differences between the two were nonexistent.

The only time I remember the golden boxer acting aggressively or showing dominance displays over this golden retriever was when the golden retriever developed brain cancer. When that happened, her behavior totally changed. She wasn’t a normal dog anymore. She did not have the full communication skills that she once had, and this greatly perturbed the golden boxer.

But while they were healthy, these two dogs were a partnership.

That whole concept is very foreign to the dog literature. I’ve not seen it discussed anywhere.

However, I did find a hint of it in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’s  The Hidden Life of Dogs:

Suessi and Windigo were almost equal in height and weight, and the social differences between the two were almost imperceptible [They may not have existed at all]. They spent their lives together, always in perfect friendship. They never fought each other… (66-67).

Thomas goes into a discussion about dominance issues in that part of the book, but that little relationship between two husky brothers should cause us to pause and think for a minute.

I remember reading in Jim and Jamie Dutcher’s book The Wolves at Our Door that there were two wolves that had relatively equal rank. These wolves did nothing but fight each other.

But these domestic dogs I discussed seemed to develop relatively egalitarian relationships, so dogs may be capable of developing relationships that wolves are not.

Now, I had never heard of anyone developing a partnership with a dog in this fashion until I read Merle’s Door. Merle and his owner develop a very interesting relationship. Merle is given freedom once he’s learned the rules of the neighborhood, and through this freedom, the man and dog develop a partnership that is not unlike the ones I’ve seen between domestic dogs. Merle is not 100 percent obedient, but he  is allowed to develop his skills and talents as a dog to their fullest extent. Even though Merle is a Labrador cross, he is not required to be a bird dog. Bird dog activities don’t interest him. He’s far more interested tracking elk and going cross country skiing.

Man and dog are partners. The dog makes some decisions. The man makes some decisions. It’s give and take.

That’s a concept that I don’t see discussed very much, but it is a relationship that we could have.

But in order to do so, we’re going to have to leave our egos at the door.

And unfortunately, dog culture is about about ego. If your dog isn’t 100 percent obedient, then the dog is stupid, and you’re a failure as a trainer.

Yes, dogs have to learn rules. We all do. However, we also have to allow them to be dogs. Finding the balance is the key toward taking this relationship forward– as partners, not underlings.