For thousands of years dogs have lived in social groups
called packs and each pack member has his own position or rank in the pack.
Once puppies are able to walk and interact, they try to determine their
position in the litter. A puppy soon learns if he is submissive, the other
puppies will push him away from the food. If he is larger and stronger than
the other puppies he will most likely be the one doing the pushing. As
puppies get older they will have to figure out their position in the pack.
After a puppy is adopted into his new human pack, he has to re-establish his
position. If he was the bully of the litter, he may try to bully his new
pack members. If he was submissive with his littermates, he will probably
start out being submissive. As he grows older and larger he will try to
determine where he fits into this new human pack. His ultimate rank will
depend on how his human pack members respond to his actions in various
situations.
When first introduced to his new family, a puppy will usually act somewhat
submissive. When greeted, your new puppy may roll over on his back and
urinate or he may squat and urinate. He is sending you a message in dog
language which says, “don’t hurt me, I am not a threat to you.” If he
submits in this manner, do not scold him or you will make the problem worse.
As a puppy grows older he will take his cues on how he should respond to his
new owners by the way they react to his actions. For example, a puppy is
chewing on his favorite chew toy or rawhide and a child approaches the
puppy. The puppy uses the body language he learned from his littermates to
warn the child not to come any closer. These warning signs may be a low,
soft growl, a curled lip, raised hackles or a nip directed at the child. If
the child heeds the warning and backs away, this puppy has just learned that
a threatening growl is a good way to keep his prized possessions away from
this particular child. The puppy also learns that his rank or position in
his new family is higher than this child’s.
Sometimes children are not able to interpret a puppy’s body language and
they do not back off when warned. After several such incidents, the puppy
feels he has given enough prior warning and he bites the child. Other
members of the family may not witness the earlier incidents when the puppy
growled and did not bite the child. When the child finally gets bitten, the
mom or dad will often say the puppy bit the child for no reason, with no
previous warning and they may want to get rid of the puppy.
If a puppy gets away with threatening a child or younger member of the
family, he will usually try the same thing when other family members come
near one of his favorite possessions. If the family member gives the puppy a
stern correction and lets him know he should never growl at humans, the
puppy has just learned that his position in the new family is lower than the
family member who corrected him but still higher than the child he
threatened. Over time, similar incidents will likely occur with every member
of his new human pack. The response of each family member to the puppy’s
actions will help determine his ultimate ranking
