Since the email pen pal I mentioned in my post, Northern Breed Dogs and WolfDogs – How do you know the difference? had given me such a great resource, the contact info of a person that worked with pure wolves for 10 years and WolfDogs for 15. I decided to ask this person some burning questions:
When I trained Petie the only obedience trainer I found in the area taught using the Koehler method. It’s an extremely domineering method of training, and really went against my usual nature. I was yelled at a lot when practicing in public places for being cruel, though I was only doing what was taught in class. I had never trained a dog before, so I didn’t know of any alternatives. I do know how unpleasant it can be to have the dogs run the house, so I continued.
When Petie was four I took him to another class hoping to solve Petie’s dominance issues. I had heard of clicker training, but couldn’t find anyone who teaches it (I do better with an instructor than simply reading about things). The second class I took with Petie was supposed to be a “positive training” class. It was much gentler, but it wouldn’t be considered to a “positive reinforcement” class. We had the option of using a choke chain, prong collar, Halti or just regular caller. The first couple of weeks we would “show” the dog how to sit, lay down by moving their body and then saying the word we wanted them to associate with the action and after that if the dog didn’t respond to the command we administered “corrections”.
In the first class the instructor advised that I roll Petie onto his back on a regular basis, and when he shows aggression to roll him on his back, grab his throat (not squeezing just holding), and stare at him while growling back. In the second class the instructor told me that when Petie shows aggression to other dogs that I should stare him in the eyes until he submits, that I have him watch me eat dinner before serving him his, and that I walk through doors before him. Would you use any of these suggestions on a wolf or WolfDog? What do you do to maintain dominance over a WolfDog?
We never get into pulling contests and the wolves walk more nicely on leash than most dogs, due to the training methods we use. It’s all fun, positive, and broken down into more steps than is needed with a dog or low content wolfdog.
I have heard about the Kohler stuff – it’s nightmarish! Any wolf subjected to that would bite the heck out of the handler! *grin* And all that “alpha roll” stuff is junk! Even wolves don’t act like that. They use the least amount of force that is necessary, most of the time.
To maintain my dominance I basically give commands and expect them to be followed (this is with dogs and low content wolf dogs.) I control all the resources, and the dogs don’t get to push me into doing something, such as pawing me to get petted, get food, etc. When THEY demand it. They sit before meals, before going out gates, to get anything they want. I don’t care if I eat first or not, but I don’t reward pushy, demanding or bratty behavior. If I want them to move out of my way, I make them. (Alphas control space too, so I don’t walk around or over my dogs, I make them get out of my way.) If they are someplace I want to be, I tell them to move. I use food rewards to motivate them, and lots of praise, but I don’t reward or allow obnoxious behavior. If they jump up and down and scream for food, I wait until they are sitting quietly, even if it takes a long time.
With the wolves we start out dominant as we raise them from pups. Pups automatically submit to parents, and will to human foster parents. To prevent dominance challenges we don’t go around rolling them on their backs, staring them down, acting tough and aggressive. We do reward them for offering submissive behavior by rubbing tummies. We start this when they are tiny. If an adult wolf tries to start something with us, by staring or growling, we often change the subject. For instance, if I see a wolf growling or staring at a person, let’s call him Bob, I may pick up a stick off the ground and start playing with it, in a way to get the wolf’s attention. I make it look like I am having soooo much fun he had to come see what I am doing, and forgetting he wants to challenge Bob. If a wolf is staring at ME I may do the same thing too. Or I may put my hands in my pockets, look up at the sky and sort of pretend the wolf doesn’t exist. Most often this is plenty to diffuse the situation. If not, I rely on my other human backup to distract the wolf. (This is why we NEVER go in a wolf pen alone, even with just one wolf.) In worst case scenarios we may have to restrain a wolf while the target of their aggression leaves the pen. It’s better than a physical confrontation and very rarely ever goes this far.
We also do lots of other non aggressive things when introducing a new staff member to the wolf pack. In one case a young male wolf named Miska liked to threaten or even nip new people. But, Miska liked to eat, and he was a little intimidated by the wheel barrow we used to bring the meat in the pen with. So, we would have new staff members come in either with the wheel barrow, or even pushing it. We’d dump the meat out, and have the person hang around, staying near the wheel barrow enough to use it as a barrier or to even move it a little to keep Miska at a safe distance. Of course we had experienced staff members there to intervene if necessary. Over time, Miska got used to the new people and even started interacting nicely with them. I did something similar with a wolf named Socrates. He had begun to threaten people, including a friend of mine who helped raise him. (She was gone away to college for a while, and came back.) To get him to like her again, I had her join me when I did fun training things with Socrates. Eventually he began to associate Lara with fun stuff and now likes her a lot. (This also goes to show just because you raise a wolf doesn’t mean it will always like you. She was gone a few months.)Basically we try to come up with non-confrontational ways to stay dominant and stay safe. We never roll the wolves over “to show them who is boss.” We don’t use aggression against aggression, but we don’t submit either. We just “change the subject.” Often this requires pre-planning but works great.
We try to not let new people come in the pen wearing clothes the wolves would want to chew, or carrying things they’d want to bite or take. We may even spray some clothing with something like Bitter Apple spray, so the wolves didn’t directly associate any one person with making them stay away from certain things like shoe strings, etc. It’s all about prevention, knowing what wolves are like and not getting into dangerous situations with them. Wolves like to guard things they want, and when these things include your shoe, it can get ugly very fast. So making the shoe undesirable is wise. We also teach trading, where we trade the wolf something we have for something it has in its mouth. We teach the command “mine” where from about 3 weeks on, we use that to take the wolf’s mouth off something, like a hand, shoe, or anything we don’t want them to chew. They may never stop chewing with just the verbal command, but they learn “mine” means we are going to work on taking their mouth off something.
Every time you use a forceful method to “show dominance” you run the risk of the wolf fighting back. It only has two choices, either to submit or to fight back. It’s not good odds, and one day it’ll fight back. Even if it doesn’t right away, it’s not a very nice relationship with the animals. By using our “change the subject” method the wolf doesn’t get aggressive feedback, nor submissive, and it often is confused and stops threatening. We don’t even stare back at them if they try to engage us in a staring match. So we stay dominant without using aggression or winning any silly fight.
Some good books for working with leadership would be How to Be the Leader of Your Pack, by Patricia McConnell, and other stuff by her.