Principle 9 for achieving balance: be the pack leader





Woman walking a pack od dogs

Dogs are social pack animals with a leader and followers.

In the wild, most dogs are followers, but if they don`t have a leader to follow, a dog ` or dogs ` will attempt to take control of the situation. The lack of strong leadership leaves the dogs in an unbalanced mental state, and they will do whatever they have to do to fulfill their needs. In nature, this can create chaos in a pack.

The same can happen in a human-and-dog pack where humans don`t fulfill the dog`s instinctual need for a Pack Leader. The dog`s unbalanced state can result in all kinds of unwanted behaviors, including anxiety, destructiveness, excessive barking, and aggression.

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Too often, humans attempt to correct such issues in human ways. For example, we try to reason with our dogs, as we would with a five-year-old child. `It upsets me when you chew on my furniture,` we scold. `No! No!` The problem, of course, is that we cannot explain things to a dog in intellectual terms because dogs are instinctual beings. We can`t change a dog`s behavior until the core issue ` the dog`s instinctual need for strong human leadership ` is addressed.

Another way that we can fail to provide leadership is by the mistaken idea that any kind of discipline is `mean` to the dog. Instead, we have a tendency to give our dogs nothing but affection, perhaps thinking that `love will find a way.` The problem here is that dogs instinctually need exercise, discipline and affection ` in that order. An overabundance of affection creates an imbalance in the dog, who is seeking direction and protection from his Pack Leader.

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Your dog wants and needs you to be his Pack Leader.

By learning and applying the 5 Natural Dog Laws and 5 Pack Leadership Techniques with these 10 Principles, you will provide the leadership that your dog instinctually needs. It means recognizing that your dog is an instinctual being who lives in the moment and communicates with energy. It means working with Mother Nature, using body language and honoring your dog`s instincts. It means: setting rules, boundaries, and limitations and always relating to your dog with calm, assertive energy.

As you do, you will get to know your dog better than ever and come to an almost intuitive understanding of what her needs are from moment to moment. When you achieve this, you, like your dog, will be living instinctually and will enjoy the strong bond that develops between dogs and their leaders.

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