By Nancy Hudson, TLC Greyhound Adoption Vice President
and Training Director

The pack: An interactive family unit with a well defined hierarchy
Pack animals: Wolves, Coyotes, Dogs
Instinctual drives: Pack Drive - to group together as a cohesive unit
Prey Drive - the pack goes hunting

In the wild, all activities of canine (wolf) daily living were/are governed by pack hierarchy. There is an alpha male and an alpha female. These are the only pack members allowed to produce offspring. They are always the first to eat. They get the best, they are the best, they are the king and queen.

After puppies are weaned, the entire pack cares for the pups, feeding, cleaning, guarding and teaching them. There is also a pack order in the litter. Usually the largest male or the loudest female is the pack leader. This allows the pups to practice their social graces.

Overall pack behavior is controlled by the beta (second in command, the vice-president, if you will) male and the beta (second in command, etc., etc.) female. In other words, the betas control the pack and the alphas only have to concern themselves with controlling the betas. Any challenge to leadership has to go through the betas first. In this manner pack order is maintained. If the betas are even tempered animals, the pack operates smoothly with little trouble. If the betas are a little feistier, they are many skirmishes within the pack.

Reaching back through the ages, our modern dogs maintain this ancient pack orientation. The inherited instinctual prey drive is also alive and well. Years of selective breeding have certainly altered the appearance and modified the mental response of some dogs, but a dog is a dog is a dog is a wolf.

Dogs have been successful for thousands of years due to their interactive lifestyle. This is also what predisposed them to domestication, or from the dog’s point of view, why they accepted humans into their pack. Domestication has not diminished the pack instinct in greyhounds. Even with domestication, they have been maintained in packs for centuries. This continues today at greyhound farms and racetracks. How often we notice how well our greys do in groups; how easy they are to maintain together in the household!

Your dog will view his/her pack as your entire family unit. If your dog does not see a strong pack leader, he/she will step up to the plate. If your family has a strong alpha, he/she will look to the beta position, and so on….. Dogs MUST have a definite pack order to be able to function. This is how they are wired. SMALL CHILDREN ARE THE PUPPIES.

Pack order is a fluid, changing thing. If the pack leader leaves (for instance when you go off to work for the day, or go shopping), the pack re-adjusts to a new leader. There ALWAYS has to be a leader. (This is kind of like the order of succession for the presidency) When the leader returns, the pack adjusts again. A new dog will usually be at the bottom of the pack order for a few days; then he/she will try to move up to find his/her position in the pack.

Your dog is always watching and learning. If you allow him/her to sleep on the furniture while you sit on the floor, if you detour around him/her instead of making him/her move out of your way, if you allow him/her to charge through doorways ahead of you, if he/she has a lot of toys and wins every game because you tire of the game and allow him/her to keep the toy at the end, if you allow your dog to sleep in bed with you (I am guilty as charged on this one, but they do wait for an invitation) you are signaling to your dog that he/she is in charge.

Since your dog views children as puppies, they are not even considered in the upper hierarchy of the pack. This is why it is a very bad idea to allow children to discipline the dog, to attempt to drag him/her outdoors to potty or to try to get him/her to do anything he/she doesn’t really care to do at the moment. Dogs with a strong pack drive or dogs who already know they are alpha types are NOT GOING TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. They are going to warn the puppy (child) with a warning growl or snarl. Have you ever watched a mother dog discipline her puppies? With much drama she towers over them, may take the back of one’s neck gently in her mouth and she growls ferociously. The puppies usually squeal as though they are being killed, the message is received and no one has a scratch. The puppies are smart enough not to do whatever elicited this scolding from mom, EVER AGAIN, and the lesson is learned.

Unfortunately human children are not this smart. Not that I am advocating allowing your dog to growl and snarl at your children. But the children DO NEED TO BE TAUGHT HOW TO BEHAVE AROUND DOGS. And ALL interactions should be monitored. That’s right, if you can not watch your young child or toddler with the dog EVERY MINUTE, one or the other needs to be contained.

From the dog’s point of view: Child is taking dog’s food or toy away. Dog growls and/or snaps. Dog gets in trouble! Child gets off scott free. Dog doesn’t understand why child (puppy) is so important. Pack order is not being followed. Dog is confused.

Next time the dog will probably react with more violence, maybe an inhibited bite with a scratch mark on the child (don’t forget, the dog could tear the kid’s head off if he/she wanted to, have you looked, really LOOKED at those teeth?). Somewhere in here, the dog is going to decide that the child is definitely bad news and not to be trusted. Then you have a dog who is growling at the child every time it comes near the dog. This is when the dog goes to the pound, or bounces back to the adoption group. Not a match made in heaven, this home needs to be reassessed. Are the people ready for this commitment? Is more education in order? Was this dog selection flawed? Does this family really need a gerbil instead?

Our greyhounds are usually adopted as adult dogs who have never seen a human child before. They need to learn…they need you to teach them. The children also need to learn and they need you to teach them. Most greyhounds are sweet, loving, gentle creatures. They make a wonderful addition to a family.

If you have small children, do not select a greyhound that has been a brood momma, unless you want your children disciplined, because she will do it. Do not select an elderly dog that has aches and pains and can not tolerate a child stepping or falling on him/her; this would also apply to an injured dog. Do not select a dog with alpha tendencies. Do not select a dog with a strong prey drive. This drive could be triggered by a running, screaming child.

Whew, there are a lot of things to consider! Work closely with an adoption group that is hands-on with their dogs and knows their personalities. If you have small children, NEVER pick the dog that runs to you ahead of all the other dogs and jumps up on you. This is an ALPHA dog. Never pick the dog that hides in the cage or runs away. This is a potential fear biter. Most greys are extremely correctable, but occasionally we will find one with very strong instinctual drives or one who is handicapped by shyness from non existent socialization as a puppy. These dogs take extra training and sometimes remain in our prison training program for a year or more, but they all eventually find the right, happy home.

We often list a dog on our web site as needing a family in which everyone is 36 or 48 inches tall (just like a ride at the amusement park). This is either due to personality or to wild whippy wagging tails. If we don’t think a dog will be good with children, we put that on the web too. This also applies to homes with small dogs and cats. We have many, many successful greys living in homes with children, small dogs and cats. A few have birds, gerbils, hamsters and at least one has a rabbit as a pet.

Greyhounds are true pack animals. To this day, they are maintained in packs. They recognize and respond to their own kind. Given the chance, they will even segregate by color (I did not believe this until I saw it in my own home). For this reason, it is commonly believed that they do better in pairs. We have many successful greys living in households with no other dog, or with another breed of dog or another type of pet. But, if you have room in your home and heart, please consider two greys. If you could watch them run and play together you would understand. And please do not adopt if you are not ready to be a responsible pack leader to your dogs and your children!

CONTACT US:

TLC Greyhound Adoption
323 2400 Ave
Solomon, KS 67480
TELEPHONE: (785) 655-2208

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Site last updated: August 3, 2007