Alpha Dog

I've been thinking alot about dogs. The first dog I owned (as an adult) "came to me." Little did I know at that time, that she was the alpha dog and that's what alpha dogs do. And boy, was she an alpha dog. I couldn't take her anywhere. First of all she was probably 90 pounds of pure muscle, and beautiful as she was (she was a gorgeous white shepard with a golden brown streak across her back) she was completely unmanageable. She was just alpha all the way and I couldn't take her places, couldn't let her near other dogs, and couldn't hear myself think if she was in the car and happened to see another dog. (In those days, we didn't have Cesar.)

The next dog was another rescue, but she had unfortunately had a bad lot in this life and was extremely abused. Chained and starved, she probably would have liked to enjoy life (she was a sweet soul) but she didn't trust it enough to try. She couldn't be taken anywhere either, but not because she was alpha, simply because you couldn't get a leash on her and you couldn't get her in the car.

But now we have a new doggie-wog member of our family and it's really different. She is well-trained, walks nicely on a leash, is adventurous and fun loving and totally sociable. This is a dog you can take to the dog park and around other dogs, and she's excited to make friends and play. There probably isn't an alpha hair on her body, she's just a delight.

Now that I have this experience of these three types, I have been thinking about how much nicer it is to be around social dogs, and how much less stressful it is. AND how similar that is to people. It is so totally not fun to be around alpha people - bossy, demanding, controlling, always have to have it their way compared to easy-going, relaxed, and playful? Who wouldn't want the latter?
It just seems to me that there is way too much emphasis in today's world on the adversarial, alpha dog, eat 'em up and get to the top mentality. Is that really something to aspire to? The friendliness that comes out, the smiles, the sociability, the kindness of people when you're with a fun-loving and social dog is just amazing and so much more humanly fulfilling than all the conflict you encounter with the alphas.

It's a good reflective thought flow though - because it makes me constantly more aware of my own behavior. You can't really go around saying you want fun and love in your life if you're growling like an alpha dog and ready to tear someone's jugular out! Just something to think about... :-)


Blessings.
- Darshan









© Darshan F Jessop