The Pack Concept E-Book

Uli Köppel

• Herausgeber: Cadmos Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 119

Beschreibung

This book presents some amazing new truths about dealing and communicating with dogs based on behavioural biology. Uli Köppel, a pupil of kynologist Eberhard Trumler, focuses on relationship training for the human-dog team in place of exploitative training. To help us understand the special relationship between humans and dogs, he traces back its origins and discovers the dog as he was meant to be. Through the concept of pack behaviour, he explains that species-appropriate dog training should involve a responsible emotional relationship. This will provide the basis for a successful human-dog relationship.

Leseprobe

Copyright of original edition

© 2008 by Cadmos Verlag GmbH,

Im Dorfe 11, 22956 Brunsbek, Germany

Copyright of this edition

© 2008 by Cadmos Books, Great Britain

Translation: Andrea Höfling

Cover design: Ravenstein + Partner, Verden

Photos: Uli Köppel; Thomas Brodmann, Christiane Krieger

Editorial: Dorothee Dahl, Christopher Long

All rights reserved: No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-85788-636-1

www.cadmos.co.uk

Data conversion eBook:

Kreutzfeldt digital, Hamburg

www.kreutzfeldt.de

Satzweiss.com Print Web Software GmbH, Saarbrücken

www.satzweiss.com

8Prologue

The human

11and his responsibility

12Upbringing inside the pack

13Why do I want a dog in the first place?

13The right time for taking a puppy home

How does an intact

17dog brain think?

18Species-appropriate disciplining

20The human as the dog’s role model

21The dog in a surrogate pack – the family

23Developmental phases

24The socialisation phase

25The pecking order phase

28The pack order phase

31The puberty phase

33A question of dominance

34Well-defined structures and clear rules

36Consistency and disciplining

37Tabooing

Species-appropriate

41play-based learning

44The fight game

46Learning games

46     Searching for a toy

47     Variations of the search game

48     Searching in snow and sand

49     Searching up high

49     The training of perception and reflexes

49     Developing strategies

50Communal games

50     Searching together

50     Walking together

Basic training: the

55concentration exercise ‘sit’

56The meaning of the exercise

56Execution

Using the method

of the pack concept

61for tracking training

62Step by step towards the object of the search

65Increasing the search distance

67Having fun as a team

69Feeding your dog sensibly

71Dry, raw or boiled?

72A dog needs more than meat

72The correct food

For dog breeders and

those wanting to become

75dog breeders…

The most important recommendations

76for the breeding of pedigree dogs

76     Strict selection by the breeder

78     Honest reporting by breeders

78     Searching for the causes

78     The nonsense of limiting litter sizes

78     Continuous training for breed wardens

79     Incestuous mating for test purposes

79     Rethinking the selection criteria

80     No obscuring of genetic defects

80     Reviewing breeders’ decrees

81     Putting the biological breeding approach into practice

Popular misconceptions

and a new approach to

83understanding dogs

84Gestures of appeasement and their meaning

85The meaning of the elevated position

85Who walks through the door first?

86Neck shaking and snout grip

87Neutral expression

89Sneezing as a destressing mechanism

91The final chapter

92The laws of nature

82A difficult decision

94What’s left are the memories

The human and his dog – the epitome of friendship and trust? Or: The human and his dog – the epitome of brutality, martyrdom and oppression?

No other animal has lived in such close proximity to humans for millennia. There is no other animal that has been adored and loved, and hated and kicked about, as much as the dog. Is it perhaps because he is so close to us, and because you can draw conclusions about a human by looking at his dog? But maybe it is his origins that are to blame; his ancestor, the wolf, who is the subject of numerous myths and fairy tales, is branded as evil and a child-eater by some, while being revered as good and even holy by others.

In order to be able to understand this special relationship, we should consider our attitude to the whole of the natural world. In a bygone age, there were more humans who saw themselves as part of nature, living with nature. They offered nature the necessary respect because they knew that they could not survive without her. This applied to all aspects of nature: the ground, the water and the entire range of fauna. Humans even turned to nature for advice, particularly from animals. To this day, many peoples still consider certain animals to be holy. But as technical progress and urbanisation advanced, people started losing their orientation on nature. With the spreading of intellectual ‘enlightenment’, according to which one should only believe in things that could be seen and were quantifiable, the spiritual and naive (in the sense of honest simplicity) heritage was lost, and with it the knowledge about animals. In the old days, it was well known that in a dog you were dealing with a predator, a seizer of prey who had to be treated as such. Nowadays, he often has to make up for all sort of deficits, being used as an object for sport and utility, and even as a surrogate child or partner.

We have to return to the roots and see our dogs as dogs, and nothing else, to see them as they are: emotionally, socially and intellectually highly developed, but with reference to their own species. We have to stop ‘training’ them in an exploitative manner with a view to utility that stultifies them in the process. Relationship training is much more than a collection of methods and techniques for the training of dogs. It is an inner attitude, the readiness to enter a new communicative plane with a highly social animal. The dog has to be able to realise that we understand his language, as well as his needs as a pack animal, and that he is in good hands in this mixed pack with we two-legged creatures that are, after all, alien to his species. Then the first sentence of this prologue would have an exclamation mark instead of a question mark!

One should begin to treat dogs as dogs from the time they are puppies, in order to develop a species-appropriate relationship with them. (Photo: Köppel)

Looking at the ‘dog scene’ of our day, it is striking to see how confused and confusing it has become of late. It almost seems like a new book about dogs is being published every other day – each, of course, propagating a revolutionary new method, purporting to be based exclusively on ‘well-founded’ theories about learning. Even if most of these ‘new methods’ are old hat, who cares? Sporting an upbeat layout, and endorsed by ‘dog trainers’ who are mostly good at marketing themselves, many of these books have become bestsellers.

Upon further investigation, however, it quickly turns out that the respective styles of dog training are in complete contradiction with each other; and you, as a dog owner, who only wants the best for his dog, are supposed to make sense of all this confusion!

At the same time, hardly a week goes by in which there isn’t a mauling incident being reported by the press, or at least some kind of negative event regarding the relationship between human and dog – not to mention the dogs who ‘just want to play’ and who will jump up at you as you are jogging, cycling or hiking past, while barking insecurely, or who may even take a snap at your posterior.

The first rule must be that a dog, no matter how big or small, should never become a risk to humans. We are not just talking about maulings. If your dog does not wholly accept you as his pack leader, and as a consequence you are not able to control him at all times, then this is already a precarious state of affairs. Such a dog will determine what he will do next with reference only to himself. Even if he ‘only’ runs to meet a dog friend of his, which involves him having to cross the road, there is a great risk of an accident. This is only one of many examples. Supposedly, the dog is meant to be our friend and partner who accompanies us wherever we go! He can only do this if, from his perspective, everything regarding his pack is well in order.

Dogs possess a highly social family system and system of upbringing. Let’s emulate the father dog in order to enable a harmonious relationship between dog and human to develop. (Photo: Köppel)

Upbringing inside the pack

The reason why there are so many badly behaved dogs (despite the number of dog schools that seem to have sprung up all over the place) is simply the conveniently forgotten truth that there is a predator attached to the other end of the leash. This predator of the canidae family, as he is known in scientific terms, has to be brought up in the same way as he would have been with his original family in the pack. The methods used by the pack are: play-based learning, species-appropriate disciplining, tabooing and benign consistency.

In order to bring up a dog in a speciesappropriate manner, we don’t need any exploitative utility-related training, but rather an emotional relationship that is based on these foundations. Whether you are bringing up a puppy or you have an older dog, the only way to develop a species-appropriate relationship based on what the dog is asking of you, and therefore understands, is to be prepared to take the responsibility of thinking and acting like a dog.

This is why every dog owner, and those wishing to become one, should be aware of their responsibility.

Collect your puppy at the age of eight weeks in order to be able to make the best of the all-important socialising phase in regard to your dog’s upbringing.(Photo: Köppel)

Why do I want a dog in the first place?

That is, admittedly, a self-critical question: why do I want a dog in the first place? Or, to put it another way: have I actually got what it takes for this responsible task? This means only those who are sure that they don’t want a designer object to add to their chic home and model family (possibly even a expensive model of the currently trendy dog breed, without regard to compatibility), and those who don’t need to satisfy a neurotic need to fuss over, to overfeed and overindulge, without any regard for the dog’s needs. You should ask yourself this question just as seriously as you should ask yourself which breed and which size dog will really be compatible with your family, your flat, and your experience.

In the socialisation phase, a dog learns that it is better to act as part of a team rather than to act in a selfish manner. (Photo: Köppel)

The right time for taking a puppy home

The next question is: when is the right time to collect a puppy from the breeder? There are increasing numbers of breeders, especially those breeding the larger breeds, who, as a rule, will only hand over their puppies after the age of twelve weeks. Their argument is that the puppies ought to spend the socialisation phase between the eighth and the twelfth week of life with their mother, and in their familiar surroundings. This would offer them the opportunity to realise their awakening urge to play and scamper about in the company of their littermates, and as a result they will be more mature by the time they arrive in their new home.

Looking at it from a behaviourist perspective, you will arrive at a different conclusion. In the pack, the mother dog will invariably hand over the puppies to the father around the eighth week. The puppies quickly accept this change in circumstances without any problem, a fact that can easily be ascertained, because from that moment onward they will eagerly follow in their father’s wake, instead of their mother’s, even though she is still their primary source of food. Because most breeders don’t keep male dogs – and, in any case, most certainly not the father of the puppies – this natural process cannot take place. This means the mother is forced to take on the father’s role to the best of her ability. As a consequence, at this stage of their development the puppies have to form a renewed bond with their mother, even though their biological parameters are set to experience this with the other parent. Then after week twelve they are handed over to their new owner. Thinking of these natural processes, it can easily be imagined what a deep impact on the dog’s psyche this represents.

The conclusion: nature has prepared dogs for a separation in their eighth week of life, and, rather sensibly, this is also the time when their nervous system can withstand the most stress. Hence this is clearly the best time for them to move to a new home.

The second important argument is that the above-mentioned socialisation phase takes place between the eighth and the twelfth weeks. At this point I’d like to clear up a widespread misconception: the ‘socialisation phase’ does not mean that you have to expose your puppy’s senses to an ever increasing number of new and strange impressions and stimuli, as is being suggested in many puppy schools.

No, its primary function in the pack is to teach the puppy how to transform himself into a social being, a part of a team. The father dog plays an important part in this. He demonstrates to his charges through species-appropriate play that togetherness and teamwork offer fun and pleasure, and lead to a collective experience of success. This is the elementary basis for the successful survival of the pack in the face of the hardships of nature. A change of owners at this point means that the human enters a puppy’s life as the most important personality, taking the place of the father dog. If we want to do everything right from the start, we will accept this position with all it involves, proving to be a ‘father dog’ who is one hundred per cent dependable!

The puppy will give us his trust, which we must not disappoint under any circumstances by not relating to his needs. So we will offer him something he would expect from the adult dog as well: play-based learning! Exactly how this is going to work will be discussed later, but for now let’s have a look at how a dog actually thinks.