The Groundwork to Establishing Pack Structure with Adult Dogs

Written by

Ed Frawley

After 50 years of training dogs, over 30 as a professional dog trainer there are a few sayings that make a lot of sense to me:

1. "Dogs don't know how to be good unless we show them."
2. "You create your dogs value system."
3. "People don't give birth to a brat!"
4. You can feed, water, and love your dog and he will like you, but he very well may not respect you.
5. Dogs know what you know and they know what you do not know.

This article details how I establish pack structure with an adult dog. This is especially important with dogs that are predisposed to becoming dominant or aggressive.
The information you are about to read is the way we introduce new dogs in our home here at Leerburg. It also explains the way I have gained control over some very tough and dangerous dominant dogs that I have owned over the past 45 plus years of breeding, owning, and training police service dogs.
Becoming a pack leader involves adopting the attitude of a pack leader. It does not involve aggression towards a dog, it doesn't involve rolling him on his back, hard leash corrections or even raising your voice to the dog. It involves adopting a leader's attitude. This is something that new dog owners must learn how to do.
Every dog knows a leader when he is in the presence of one. They can sense a leader. They don't need leash corrections to consider their owner a pack leader. In fact inappropriate corrections often result in a dog looking at the offender with contempt rather than respect.
There is an old saying; Dogs know what you know and they know what you don't know This article is going to explain how I show my dog what I know. It is also going to explain how I establish responsibility and limits to the relationship I build with my dogs.
The content of this article will mean more to you if you take a minute and read the article I wrote titled My Philosophy of Dog Training.

Love is Not Enough

The vast majority of behavioral problems are caused by mistakes that were made in the basic foundation of how relationships were set up between owners and their dogs.
I call these "mistakes in ground work (GW)" and I define ground work as "that work which involves establishing pack structure with a new dog."
Many people think that loving a dog is enough to form a good relationship. These people are dead wrong.
Unconditional love is never enough. Love has conditions and boundaries along with mutual trust and respect. Unless humans deal with the respect issue in love they will never have a relationship with a dog in which the dog looks at them as a pack leader.

What is "Ground Work?"

When I talk about GW, I am not talking about training a dog to come, or heel, or sit. I am talking about teaching the dog how I plan on living with it. I am talking about how I establish pack structure with a new dog.
The way we handle a dog in our day-to-day life will teach that dog a great deal about yourself, your pack, and your pack rules.
How and when I do anything with the dog -- whether it is grooming, feeding or exercising him -- along with my general attitude when I am around him will tell the dog volumes about our future relationship.
I call these the first steps to establishing a family pack structure.
When we bring a new dog into our home the decisions we make on how we live with that dog and the methods used to train that dog have long term implications on what kind of relationship we develop with the dog.
I tell people they may not think of themselves as a dog trainer, but the fact is every time we are around our dog we are teaching the dog something. The question is are we teaching it something good or something bad? Some people don't know the difference? Hopefully this article and my DVDs along with my web site will help people get off on the right foot.

The Solutions to Most Behavioral Problems

The solution to almost all behavioral problems lies within changes owners need to make in the way they live with their dogs.
Unlike humans, dogs live in the present. Human psychologists almost all focus on the past to find answers to current problems. This is fine for a human but it's a mistake to think that this is how to fix a pack animal.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that modifications to training don't need to be made for a dog that was truly abused. The fact is the term "abuse" is used far too often when trying to explain behavioral problems.
I always tell pet owners that I never change my philosophy of how to live with or train a dog just because it had a bad experience in the past.

It's Never Too Late

I want to make a point here and that is if you currently have a problem with your dog it's never too late to consider making changes on how you live with your dog.
In fact if you have a problem it's imperative that YOU DO MAKE CHANGES because the way you have been living with your dog has allowed these problems to develop.
Never forget what I said: Dogs live in the moment and they miss nothing. The old adage about not being able to teach an old dog a new trick is just that  bad, old information.
So it's never too late to turn things around. It's never too late to start to do things correctly. You just need the patience and confidence in what you are doing to fix your problems.



Judi Singleton is a free lance writer she writes 20 blogs a week, you can advertise in her blogs for $5. a ad per blog