German Shepherd Dog Forums - View Single Post - How do you define "being alpha"....
View Single Post
Old 12-24-2009, 12:07 AM   #39 (permalink)
BuoyantDog
Senior Member
 
BuoyantDog's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Northern California, USA
Posts: 354
Default Re: How do you define "being alpha"....

I am reading a wonderful book called, Never Cry Wolf, by Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat, who spent a summer working for the Canadian government in order to research the supposed extinction threat to caribou induced by wolves. He spent a summer living metres from a real, wild wolf pack.

My favorite passage from the books describes the alpha male of the wolf (George) pack he studied...
Quote:
Quote: George was a massive and eminently regal beast whose coat was silver-white. He was about a third larger than his mate, but he hardly needed this extra bulk to emphasize his air of masterful certainty. George had presence. His dignity was unassailable, yet he was by no means aloof. Conscientious to a fault, thoughtful of others, and affectionate within reasonable bounds, he was the kind of father whose idealized image appears in many wistful books of human family reminiscenses, but whose real prototype has seldom paced the earth upon two legs. Georg was, in brief, the kind of father every son longs to acknowledge as his own.
__________________
Buoyant Dog
A Dog Anthology
Glory, BGSD b. 2/07, rescued (me) 2/9/09
BuoyantDog is offline   Reply With Quote