The Importance of being ALPHA

 We see them all the time, and they are easy to spot in a room full of people. The ALPHA! 

It was very unexpected when I got to see this up close, in person, and anything but comfortable yesterday. 

A friend and his family were out of town for Christmas and asked my daughter to feed their dogs for a week until they got back from vacation. We both tend to spoil our dogs; they are members of the family. They eat when we eat, go where we go, and get lots of love and attention every day. Leaving these "attention dogs" at home for a week did not seem like a very good idea. Silly me, I suggested that bringing them here for a week would be better than having my daughter visit them every day. 

The dogs walk both of our daughters all the time, so they were not strangers, and they all played well together. So what could it hurt to have four large, male dogs with us for a week? 

The alpha dogs - that was it. 

Cadman - a purebred black Labrador, a follower and mine. He gave up ever taking the alpha position within the first week of joining our family, and has just lived every day since chasing birds and being a sniffer.

Moose - a mixed breed rescued from the shelter. A 145 pound Pyrenees mix. In our home, he is 100% the alpha among the two. He is an anger management dog. Moose happily joined the family and immediately took on the alpha role. 

Buddy - one of our visitors, an Australian Shepard/Blue Healer mix. He is the alpha in his home, although he is deaf. No one is allowed to eat until he picks out the bowl he wants. No one is ever allowed to walk through a door until he has walked through it. No one is ever allowed to drink from their water bowl, PERIOD! Did I mention that this alpha is deaf? 

Prince - one of our visitors, a purebred Australian Shepard. His job in life is to take care of Buddy and his special needs due to his deafness. 

Unfortunately, I found out that there is a difference between leash walking and free roaming in the house (which I knew to some degree). The two alphas spend the day fighting over top position. It was very funny. When one of them would lay down, the other alpha would wait until he was comfortable and then challenge him for the position. 

Each would drink from the other's water bowl, looking at each other like they were happy to "take over" the other's territory. 

We have two cats that were previously part of the household and pretty much ignored by the dogs. Our visitors also have a house cat that is also ignored by the dogs. But no, when you put two alphas together, the poor cats become "leaders". The cats win every time, but you could never tell that to the two alphas. 

The whole day was spent on ALPHA ARGUMENT with the two of them, while Cadman and Prince spent the whole day chasing each other or catching balls. But the two alphas spent the day "stalking". They puffed out their chests and proved they were the ALPHA. 

No blood was spilled and no wounds were inflicted. But they both spent their day proving who they were and that they were better than the other. Last night they all slept soundly. I guess the day they had to prove who they were wore them down. 

What about the other two? They slept curled up in a huge sleeping bag, happy, peaceful and most content. 

When we got up this morning, we found that the alphas had not figured it out yet and were already working themselves into a fighting frenzy over the last four hours - the other two were eating their oatmeal and happily playing with each other. 

Hmmm, is there a lesson here? Not that everyone should be a follower, because we all need a "leader"- but does everyone need to spend every waking moment of the day proving their ALPHA ROLE? 

Find your place in what you do. Do your job to the best of your ability and let all those "ALPHAS" feel the heat and the burden of being at the top of the chain. 

Watching these four guys yesterday made me realize this. The alphas are so worried about "losing their power" that they do not notice the joy of life around them.