Dogs are not pack animals???

[Good_Karma]

Would love to hear some opinions on this topic.

Excerpt from "The Dish by Darcy"
To crate or not to crate? | The Dish by Darcie

Dogs are not pack animals.

Dogs, left on their own, might hook up with another dog now and then but it doesn’t last. I know it’s a popular myth made up by some people to sell certain forms of training to the mass public but it’s just not true. Dogs like the company of other beings as long as there is food to eat and learn to live with others but they don’t have to live that way to be happy and healthy if they have enough food to eat on their own. More often than not, wild dogs and those who have run away from home or have gotten lost, stay on their own. Dogs are more like us in this respect….we don’t have to constantly have another person or more than one person, or dog, around us moving in the same direction to be happy, safe or contented. That lifestyle would kill me and my dogs, I like my alone quiet time, they like their alone quiet time. All of us, including the dogs, need some alone time. If we don’t get that, if there is always someone else near us, touching us, talking to us, even breathing in the same room all the time, we become truly dependent on that. It’s not healthy. It’s one of the ways that separation anxiety starts and that is a terrible, awful thing which can be very hard to fix. There will be an emergency some day and we may have to leave our dogs for a little while, they should be calm and quiet, sleeping and restful until we return. That is peace.

Don’t believe that your dogs aren’t pack animals? Go out into some deserted place with your dogs for an extended period of time, say 30 days. Without food. How long will the dogs stay with you if you’re not feeding them? Will they hunt and feed the food to you? If you’re really the real leader of the pack, of course they would. They won’t. You’re not fast enough or strong enough to be the leader of dogs under those circumstances. Dogs don’t have pack leaders. Wolves pack, dogs don’t.

People are not dog pack leaders, no matter how much you train and insist that the dogs obey you. You will never be a “pack leader” without fail unless it’s under a controlled experiment like inside houses with doors, yards with fences, and collars with leashes. We teach our dogs that life is good with us, we bond with them the best that we can and we keep them corralled. Yes, there are dogs, I’ve had them, that would rather come with me than do anything else but we all know when we get back home, we’ll have some dinner that I put together.

If all is well and we don’t have to go out into the forest to fend for ourselves, the dogs will probably still keep coming back to the door to be let in to get petted and fed. Personally I like it that way and hope that my dogs and I never have to go out into the wild to make a living like that. I’d miss them when they take off on their own to find something to eat…leaving me behind. – Darcie

[Samba]

I have heard that pariah or feral dogs do not pack in the way that wolves do.

[JazzNScout]

Dogs are pack animals. They are very social animals. Feral dogs do often form packs. Dogs have been known, of course, to wait in one place for days on end waiting for their people to return.

What is this woman's background?

[Samba]

Some wild dogs who don't appear to pack up...

Are Dogs Pack Animals?

[DogGone]

Originally Posted by Good_Karma

More often than not, wild dogs and those who have run away from home or have gotten lost, stay on their own.

I get the impression that the type of people that write this type of article have lost touch with reality and haven’t watched dogs and wolves in their natural state. From what I’ve seen most dogs given time, choice and the opportunity will form packs. It’s not particularly noticeable in areas where there is good animal control. However in areas that don’t have decent animal control and/or that are having economic downturn that often results in a lot of dog suddenly becoming stray; between governmental cutbacks in the sudden surge of strays can overwhelm animal control infrastructure. Since the economy is taking a dive I’m seeing more and more dog packs in suburban and urban areas. I think that’s another reason that some areas are seeing a surge of dog attacks on humans. I’ve seen some dog packs of about 20 dogs; and almost half of them were pit bulls like dogs in urban areas. I’ve heard of dog packs using the same techniques that coyotes use out West; were a pack will often send in a single dog/coyote (often in heat) out to lure in unsuspecting pet from a careless owner. The lure dog/coyote will lead the dog into the concealed pack where it will be ambushed. From what I understand this behavior in the typically mostly happens in the country when there is a drought and natural food is in short supply.

Dog attacked by pack of dogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5YUrUoaoE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5YUrUoaoE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5YUrUoaoE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N5YUrUoaoE

Two people injured by dog pack.
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=0c49ff29-1e76-4796-a862-72828412f05e

The last time that I was in Detroit I saw a dog pack in a depressed urban area. The last time I was in Toledo I saw several dog packs. The last time I was in Portsmouth, I saw a dog pack. When I went to the poor urban areas of Mexico it was the exception, not to see a dog pack. Given time and opportunity dogs will often form packs. Just like wolves in the wild most are social animals that form packs; some prefer to be solitary/independent. I even was watching the animal control show on animal planet that was an urban setting with the cute blonde animal control officer and she was complaining about how many wild packs were running around the city and how many of the dogs in those packs were pit bulls. If I recall correctly that was New York City.

[alaman]

The author is wrong

[BowWowMeow]

I used to live up in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico. In addition to the coyotes, there was a pack of wild dogs that lived up there.

I don't think that wild dogs spend _all_ of their time with the pack but I do think dogs are pack animals.

[Jax08]

My guess is this woman has never owned a German Shepherd or a Doberman. Had both...neither let me go to the bathroom without company.

I have watched documentaries on feral dogs. If I remember correctly, they don't form a pack like a wolf pack. They will live in the same area but the dynamics are different. I'll look for the program I watched to see if it's online anywhere.

[Jax08]

This is interesting. Sounds like when they have fully reverted to being feral they do form a pack similar to a wolf pack.

Feral dog management and control

[Catu]

Some things on the article are true, yet it doesn't mean dogs are not pack animals. That they don't form the close family related pack wolves do is on thing, that they want to spend some time alone is another, that dogs are not pack animals is to stretch the subject a looooot...

Were I live there are stray dogs by dozens. They are not always together, like a school of fish moving on the city, but they do gather, and have sort of a rank system and friendships, specially at night.