The Alpha Factor

OK ladies, time for a little lesson.

If you also keep up with me on facebook, and I can't imagine why you wouldn't, given the important info that I give out daily, you'll notice that I got a flood of comments from the "Them and Me" post, most of them smelling of defeat! Comments such as "you'll never win", "I'm losing the battle too", etc. Ya'll must not have seen my last line, about the Alpha Dog.

So it's time for a little lesson called the Alpha Factor. By the way, I got this sound doctrine from one of our former pastors, Mark Saunders, and anything that comes from Mark Saunders must be true, right?

So here goes, listen carefully, and be inspired:

Let's start here:

Regardless of your reason for acquiring a puppy, you'll have to win it over. You, not your dog, will have to be the leader of the pack if your pup is to develop into a well-mannered family member instead of a burden.

Now sure, they're saying puppy, but aren't kids very similar? They can't bathe themselves, they poop where they shouldn't, and well, they just demonstrate tons of other animal-like characteristcs too.

Let's keep going:

They are pack animals by nature. Every pack has a leader, known as the alpha animal, who dominates and leads the other members of the pack. The alpha is the boss who makes decisions for the entire pack. Usually the pack will have an alpha male and an alpha female. All the other members of the pack form a hierarchy of dominance and submission where everyone has a place.
It is your responsibility to establish yourself in the alpha position. If you fail to do this, your dog will do it as a natural behavior.

That's right, establish yourself in the alpha position!

A pack animal becomes a full fledged member of the group by a process called subordination. With dogs, subordination begins shortly after the third week of life and continues throughout early development. Most normal, healthy puppies are basically pushy animals, and will try to advance as far as possible within the social order of the pack. The key to successfully rearing a puppy is to establish yourself as the pack leader and then maintain that position for the life of your dog.

Once you establish this relationship, your dog will seek you out. He will want to be with you and will treat you with respect and affection. After he learns to submit to handling, all other tasks such as grooming, nail clipping, cleaning ears, and medicating will be easier to accomplish.

The article where I'm pulling this sound information lists many exercises you can to do establish yourself as the alpha dog, such as the The Stare, pinning them to the ground, etc., but I'll let you google it.

Oh, one last thing they noted that seems to be important:

If your dog growls or snaps and you are afraid to discipline him, seek professional help. Don't ignore the incident; a dog allowed to threaten his family can easily become a biter.

There you go, your parenting lesson for today. Now ya'll get out there and get those kids to submit!