What Makes A Good Alpha?

Calm and Consistent

The best alpha remains calm and consistent no matter what!

What do I mean by calm?

To remain calm means to avoid panic, a raised or angry voice, excessive excitement and loud actions. In times past, bad behavior from a dog would be reprimanded by a loud "No!", a smack on the bottom with a newspaper or throwing them into a crate to "learn the lesson". Does these methods actually work? No. Shouting, hitting or imprisoning dogs will not produce obedience or stop bad behavior. Rather, it can produce aggression, or timidity. Angry outbursts towards a dog will NOT make you the Alpha, but it WILL make you the bully. When your dog gets a little nippy in the evenings, or starts whizzing round the house destroying anything in sight, calmly, silently and gently, take the dog by the collar, walk him to his crate, close the door and cover the crate. If the dog settles to sleep, then he was clearly over tired. If he calms within a few seconds or minutes, but isn't yet sleepy, then silently readmit into the room and ignore for a few minutes. Get your dog to THINK! He needs to think "what do I have to do to stay with my pack?" Calmly dismissing/turning away from or giving "time out" in the crate from the bad behavior gives your dog the chance to think and learn.

What about excessive excitement? When a dog sees you flapping around, with a high pitch voice, calling "come on boy", "who's a good boy?", "fetch the ball", "I'm home", what does he really see and hear? "Woof, woof, woof, woof woof". Translated: "Hello Alpha. I love you Alpha. Come and play Alpha. I'm a puppy in need of attention and direction Alpha." Yes, it's true, over excitement around your dog actually lowers your rank within the pack. The response from your dog will either be to join in the excitement as a fellow litter mate, or to turn away and assume the role of Alpha in your place. When you come home, turn away from your dog's attention seeking. Allow your dog at least five minutes to calm down and walk away/settle down before calmly calling him to you and greeting him.

What about loud actions? If your dog sees another dog on a walk, he will have a natural desire to either run at it, or run away from it. Either way, as he pulls on the leash, our natural tendency can easily be to pull back and yank the dog in the other direction. The more we tense on the leash, the dog can feel our panic and tension, this will increase the dog's panic and cause him to pull even harder. If your dog is particularly reactive to other dogs, avoid narrow areas that could make your dog feel trapped between leash and dog. When he sees another dog, observe his body language. Are his eyes fixated on the other dog? Does he immediately try to charge the other dog, barking and lunging? Or does he try to run in the other direction, tail between his legs? The safest option for a reactive dog is to calmly, yet quickly retreat. Use the command "this way" and confidently walk in the opposite direction. Keep your voice calm and your actions fluid. Avoid jerky movements, tension on the leash and either too high or to loud a voice.

CALM VOICE*CALM ACTIONS*CALM ATTITUDE

What does it mean to be consistent?

Dogs enjoy and thrive on rules and the law of the pack! A good Alpha will set the rules and ensure that the pack sticks to them. Every pack member has a role to play and they know what is expected of them. The Alpha has clear signals or commands for various tasks to be fulfilled. These signals leave the pack in no doubt about what the Alpha wants. There are clear signals when directing the hunt, facing danger, moving on or staying still. So when training our dogs, the whole family needs to agree on what each command will be. If using a whistle or hand signals, keep them universal for the family. If there are rules about where your dog can access, sleep or run free, stick to the rules. If you feel that a certain aspect of training is either taking too long, or not working, do not give up! Try to understand the reason why it may not be working or why it is taking so long. Be patient. For example, I often hear that toilet training "just isn't happening". When I ask the client about their toilet training routine, the problem is never the dog. It is usually as simple as the owner being impatient or inconsistent with their routine. Remember, in the wild, a wolf would certainly not be permitted to join the hunt at only 4 months old. Most young wolves will stay close to the alpha female and the den until almost 6 months of age. Before they can become hunters, they then remain close to the alpha female and other wolves learning all that they need to know to be ready for the hunt. Some wolves do not hunt before a year old. Other wolves will never hunt but take on other roles within the pack. Yet we expect our puppies to walk perfectly on and off leash wherever we go as soon as they have had their injections. Be patient with your pup. Socialize him and begin with the basics, how he should behave at home.

MAKE THE RULES*TEACH THE RULES*KEEP THE RULES

Is being calm and consistent all there is to it?

These are merely the primary qualities required from an Alpha. To be the best Alpha, you will need to understand how to establish your leadership. For more tips on how to be a good Alpha, read the article 5 Steps to Establishing Leadership.