Woah!!! What breaking news. Is that what they mean about wolf pack theorry? I thought that some new amazing find had been discovered.

Anyone who has accidently switched on a wildlife documentary or done so out of choice will know that wolf packs are made up of the parents at the top doing what parents do best and maybe the odd outsider that has been accepted after many months or years of being in the periphery and having to prove themsleves but these are very rare.
The same is true in African Hunting dogs but they never get mentioned to my surprise.

In the pack belong to my dad is the leader, the alpha male and a leader I respect and admire. One day I will take over that role (in many ways I already have) but I have done what many adolecent wolves do and I have left the confines of the pack to set out and look to start a pack of my own. I am allowed back into the pack though unlike adolecent wolves once they have left.

Anyone who thinks that wolves scrap and fight and challenge for the leadership role are pretty misinformed. If the parent wolves are injyred or killed during a hunt then the lower wolves will only take over if the injured parents are unable to provide and the survival of the pack is in jeopardy.

When you take on a dog you are it's surrogate parent but you have to earn its respect just like you would if you adopted a child. You can't force yourself to be a leader as then you rule out of fear and when you rule by fear there will be parties within the group that will share a common interest to see your leadership status taken away from you. If you are elected as leader out of respect then nobody questions why you are there but who questions their parent's actions when they are first learning about the world? If they say an egg is a aeroplane that that is how it is inprinted on your mind. It might be wrong to everyone else but it is correct to your pack. Setting a bad example does not have to mean that you act like an idiot, it could mean that you don't lay down any ground rules that are to be respected.

You set the rules and you enforce the rules. You say when and where affection is given. You say when and where is ok to play. You say and where you are going out. You say how fast you are travelling and what direction. You say who can and can't be greeted. You say when and where they get fed.

This is for the dog's safety as you are the decision maker but you also allow the time for your dog to express freedom of thought and time to do all of the things it wants to do. It's not a dictatorship it's a family that works on respect.