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I remember Henning objecting a great deal when I tried to brush his tum at Butteller, I have much respect for you for persevering with it! I hope you wore gloves & body armour ;-)

Our two seem to have learnt the word 'No' and also 'Drop', which we use when we want them to let go of the toy on a piece of elastic. This is in addition to 'Up' which I think that they actually think means 'cheese' :-), (though sometimes they get a treat that's good for their teeth & gums instead of cheese now). Bacchus initially objected to me trying to teach them 'Drop', until I pointed out it could be very useful if we ever see them with something they shouldn't be swallowing in their mouths.

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They are usually *fairly* good on 'no' when applied to stuff they shouldn't be eating, but I was very impressed that it actually worked on Henning when he was in mid-chase, which I think is a more all-engrossing kind activity. It certainly is for Az, I don't have a hope of getting him to break off from chasing once he's started...

Could this mean that Henning actually has more brains than Az...?

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Could this mean that Henning actually has more brains than Az...?

I would have though that was definitely true ;-)

Ours have also been teaching us 'cat'. 'Nnnyep!' means 'Come and dangle the bell on a string for me to play with NOW!' :-)

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Perl certainly has more brains than Az, but I'm not so sure about Henning. He's not known for his problem-solving skills...

Perl certainly makes a lot of noises, but I fear we haven't been terribly successful in decoding them.

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Lindy makes it easy, she Nnnyeps very loudly while looking directly at you then runs to the bell on a string and stands in front of it patting it with her paw and Nnnyeps again. If that doesn't work she'll pick the string up in her mouth and bring it to you, drop it and Nnnyep again :-)

Flossie's Rrrrrrs are harder to work out, they mainly seem to be used as punctuation as she runs & jumps round the house :-)

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I'm sure Lindy is working on a Human Training program!

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It wouldn't surprise me...

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How often does it change? Are there constant fluctuations, or sudden power shifts?

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I think there are both, but I'm not sure we always pick up on the subtler shifts. I think cats are more status oriented than dogs.

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But to some extent, dogs just see their owner as top dog, and status apart from that doesn't matter quite so much. IMHO. FWIW.

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I understand from people who have large packs that status become more important with dogs once you get up to 4 or so in the house. So perhaps I just see it more with cats because we have an ample supply of them.

Mollydog is definitely boss dog when we meet up with my mum's 2 dogs for a walk together. That doesn't seem to shift at all, but it could be that none of the others are interested in changing their status.

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My father has 6(-ish - the number varies from time to time), and I haven't noticed particular vying among themselves - but they live in separate kennels, with one or two to a kennel, and in three different blocks, and my father is very definitely the pack leader.

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It's less competing, more that the top dog will get (often very subtle) recognition from the rest. You'd tend to notice it in situations where the dogs are interacting with one another in the presence of resources like beds, toys or food, less so when they are actively working, I'd have thought, or doing something directed like walking to heel on a lead.

My mother's collie Ronnie has the collie tendency to get very wound up, complicated by really crap early socialisation followed by too long in a kennel environment (collies: not good kennel dogs). He normally barks or bounces about in the car. Mollydog won't allow that, all dogs must sit quietly. We *could* get Ronnie to sit quietly if we weren't doing anything else, but it's hard to do when you are driving, or even when you are in a front seat and he's in the back. He has so many triggers - cars, tractors, lorries, people on bikes, and he gets very wound up. As Mollydog doesn't drive, she makes an excellent Ronnie-supervisor, and after the first time, when she scruffed him, she doesn't need to actually make contact to do it. She just gives him The Look. :-D

Mum's other dog, Smudge, has some minor nervous aggression problems - she spent her first 6 months chained in a barn, and tends to see approaching strange dogs as scary. Mollydog, having been a racer (and also quite large and fast enough to get herself out of trouble), is confident with strange dogs and people, and when she is about, you can see Smudge picking up on that confidence. If we stop somewhere, Mollydog will usually lie down and have a rest. She's not making a point about being top dog, she is just generally relaxed. But Smudge, being Smudge, will bustle round her submissively rolling over or licking her face. She loves Mollydog in the manner of a slightly nervy teen with a crush on her teacher.

It's less obvious with Az, but if you see them training together, you can spot it at once. Given a choice, Az will always imitate what Mollydog is doing. Because he's such a scaredy, there are many situations where she's perfectly happy and he's terrified. Walk along a busy street and Az will be trying to hide underneath Moll half the time.

I'm guessing that not only are your father's dogs not showing many overt signs of hierarchy because they are kennelled separately and in a very structured environment, but I assume that they would have had a normal, wellsocialised start in life too. You could argue that none of our 4 really got the best start in life, but you can also see why in that particular group, their backgrounds put Mollydog in the position of natural leader, even though she rarely does anything very obvious to put herself there.

It seems to be her natural position though, because very often dogs will show submissive behaviour to her (eg lip-licking or rolling, or presenting their behinds for her to give the first sniff), even if she's done nothing obvious to provoke it.

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Somewhere or other I've got a huge book of photos of dogs interacting, with interpretation of their interaction by a behaviourist. It's strangely fascinating.

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