I've seen him do things that just blow my mind, considering he's just then meeting the dog for the first time. My theory is he stomps around in dead things and washes his hands in blood before meeting new dogs...so he smells like an alpha coming back from a kill.
I've gotten some good tips from that show. Watch that show. I still can't keep my dog from bolting out of the gate and stop and sniff an area. He is too powerful for me to stop him from bolting. He is getting better though. He doesn't run after cats anymore. THANK GOD!
It works. My dog is over 1 1/2 years old, but he learned how to behave (jumping, goofy yellow lab) from us implementing those tactics.
My dog acts like a big baby around us. He always listens to us and never acts out or tries to be the boss. I mean litterally he is a big baby/oaf. Maybe you are right with the "This is my human, find your own" mentality he has. On
Going through issues right now with my new choco lab. We picked her up on the side of the highway 3 weeks ago and she is definitely an alpha. Here's what we do... We do tons of heel, sit, down. We do it at home and in public... the big pet stores and Home Depot are good places to socialize and get them paying attention to you. When she does something bad that we can't immediately correct her in a way that she would understand, we immediately go into a few rounds of heel, sit, down. If a stranger comes by, we have her go into a sit. If she gets goofy and wants to jump on the stranger, we reinforce the sit... we don't criticize her for jumping, we criticize her for not holding the sit. She has a spot where she has to be most of the time. We don't let her choose where she gets to lay down or sleep because that would be reinforcing her alphaness. She has to sit before getting fed and I usually have my youngest daughter feed her because the dog currently thinks she is higher in the pack then my kids. Mostly, we try to be consistent. If your dog thinks they are an alpha, life's no good... you can't play and you have to watch out for all the other pack members. With our dog, this manifests in her inability to stay outside. She literally runs to pee or poop and then runs back to the house... she can't stand it if she doesn't know where every member of the pack is. This drives us all crazy, but through repitition and consistency, I can see her slowly getting the idea.
Clearly, the dog has no discretion! Man, I was so lucky with The Wonder Dog. He had discretion in spades. I never saw him bite or snap at someone, but saw him scare the living hell out of a lot of people who deserved it. He would never back down from another dog. Never. Didn't matter how big the other dog was, either. He was live and let live, unless he thought you (another dog) were encroaching on his territory, or decided to threaten him (or me, or friends of his). Then it was World War III. He weighed 50 lbs, and was a Labradoodle. At the time, I noticed that he didn't shed, and didn't really smell like you'd expect a dog to smell. I didn't know anyone allergic to him. Many years after his death, this whole Labradoodle thing became a big deal. Freaky.
just as i thought, i flipped my dog over and pinned it and it acted like a complete biotch. I don't think mine is an alpha dog, he just crazy.
