Packs - Dogs, Wolves, and Human

As I watch our dog with a disability, Avalanche continue to make progress over the past year; it seems that his desire to remain a member of his "pack" is crucial to his persistence and preseverance. He wants and really needs to belong to his pack and as such continues to push himself to remain a part of the pack. For awhile I was trying to sneak off in the morning with our puppy, Diva to do a long walk with her first before walking the boys. He caught on to this strategy very quickly and now positions himself either by the door, so I can't get Diva out without going past him, or he acts like he needs to go out and then positions himself in the garage so I couldn't possibly walk one dog without him.

In the wild, he would have been left for dead with his paralysis; but since he belongs to a human pack as well, he has learned to work both packs for his own benefit. My husband and son have been having difficulty getting him to eat his dinner. They take it to him and try to get him interested and when he ignores them or gets up and leaves where they are, they get frustrated and don't want to be responsible for feeding him. He needs his dinner to be a part of his social interaction. If you sit with him, talk, and scratch his face; he feels that he is a part of his family and then he will play the eating game. Without the interaction or you could call it foreplay, he becomes extremely stubborn. This is the only dog, we have ever had that you have to work at feeding. My dobermans have always been waiting for dinner; while this Husky needs mealtime to also be playtime.

As you start to think about packs of animals such as wolves, you realize that our children also belong to their own packs. Even as adults we have our social order and packs that we operate under. We might change the name to "peer group" or social group, but the reality is that these really are our packs, and the behavior we exhibit when we are in our pack; is dictated by a hierachy of social order. This even fits into what I am experiencing with my female doberman, Diva. She is intent on protecting me. A friendly lab gave me a big sloppy kiss this morning, and she growled at him. She gets upset if I am "too" friendly with dogs we meet out on our walks. She expects me to growl and bristle like she does while she is assessing the situation. I certainly hope as she matures, she is able to mellow, since when she is with her "pack", she is far more aggressive than when she is doing a solo walk. As I say her brothers make her a crazy bitch! What a perfect word for a female dog! But that will have to be another topic for another day of blogging.