Alpha, Doors and Dogs

There's this theory that you should always go out of doors first, before your dogs, because wolves that are leaders of their packs do that. I don't think that's some kind of genetically built response, I think that's more a learned behaviour, send the strongest in first, so I don't think it applies to dogs. Also, dogs definitely know humans from other dogs, we can tell that because of the way they treat us versus other doggies. They definitely don't play as hard with us and don't sniff our bottoms to identify our individual scents! I just thought up another reason though that we should go through doors before the guys. Because the door is the access to the outside and rabbits and such, we should associate us with letting them go outside and not the door. So if I open the door and let them just run outside, they might eventually think that it's the door that's opening to let them outside, and not the person who opens the door. I think that's more the case with our guys at least :) So, I've started doing that for a while and they seem to love me more for it! I make them sit for a while and if they are good, then I go through the door and let them follow me. They still don't understand the Heel command, but they are getting used to the bread and the doggie treats that they get when they are close to me.

Tags: BORDER COLLIE GERMAN SHEPHERD ALPHA DOOR HEEL TREAT DOGS