# Whatever Happened to the Term ?Alpha Wolf??



## Daryl Ehret (Apr 4, 2006)

*Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Does a "dominant" dog really periodically test its owner for pack leadership status....? Not in my experience.



> Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?
> 
> L. David Mech, International Wolf, Winter 2008
> 
> ...


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## Daryl Ehret (Apr 4, 2006)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

........


> Given this natural history of wolf packs, there is no more reason to refer to the parent wolves as alphas than there would be to refer to the parents of a human family as the ”alpha” pair. Thus we now refer to these animals as the male breeder and female breeder and as the breeding pair or simply the parents.
> 
> So how did science get so far off track for so long and refer to the parent wolves as alphas? The answer is an interesting story that nicely illustrates how science progresses. Several decades ago, before there were many studies of wolves under natural conditions, scientists interested in animal social behavior thought the wolf pack was a random assemblage of wolves that came together as winter approached in order to better hunt their large prey. Thus to study wolves in the only way they knew how, these folks gathered individual wolves from various zoos and placed them together in their own captive colony.
> 
> ...


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## Chad Byerly (Jun 24, 2008)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Daryl we're in sync because I had just linked to this article in this NEWS thread _Dr. Mech on "alpha", 1970 and now_
:grin: 
Thanks for posting a text only format.


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## Daryl Ehret (Apr 4, 2006)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

I saw that immediately after I made this post 

On that thread, I'll repost my question.


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## James Degale (Jan 9, 2009)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

That a cool job, studying wolves for a living.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Parts of this I agree with.....other parts bring to mind anthropomorphism. The number of times Meck says " just like in human families" makes me wonder. They are not human families. One paragraph they are together for protection from neighboring packs, in another, the lesser females get bred by lesser neighboring lesser pack members. Of course they don't coinsider that it was a lesser male from her pack because the modern"theory" is that they are programed to avoid inbreeding genetically. I wonder if they are aware of this new theory. From what I have seen, littermate will breed in a heartbeat.I do think much of the new theory is based on a different mindset of the ones doing the studies. Any communal group of animals has a leader. If all of the wolves were just running around breeding at randon, there would be total chaos and the males would be killing each other. Likewise, if the dominate leader of the pack enforced the rules of the pack through violence, the pack would fall apart. His mere presence maintains most of the order. Two dominate males will not tolerate each other. The dominate pack leader recognizes the the upcoming possible dominate males and they are out of there before they are a problem. At one time I wondered why my dominate males were hammering year old Odin when we were out hunting, I found it curious because they never bothered lesser dogs. Well, they did it because he is now the one that would be kicking butt if they were yarded together. Theynsense these things early on and it is worked out so the pack is not destroyed through infighting in the wild. Personally, I think Meck is laying the groundwork for a new book. Is the Yellowstonme pack so large because they were captive bred or is their ample food to support a large pack? Survival of the fittest will not back up all this random breeding they say is taking place. Much of the rest of this is simply sematics.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Oh, another thing I don't believe. They don't fight for pack leadership, they fight for breeding rights pure and simple. the best babes even in a red neck bar go home with the toughest wolf. If someone else wants it, they are going to have to fight for it. In this article, they make wolves appear to have devolved to the point people have. With people now, it has nothing to do with physical strength, it has to do with who has the Armanti suit and thye Rolex as the determining factor of who goes home with the alpha babes. In the wild, there are two base instincts. Survival and sex....errr I mean procreation. I keep forgetting we are talking about wolves not us dogs.


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## Jack Krizman Jr (Dec 27, 2008)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Males fight for breeding rights, females fight for breathing rights.


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

Males joke, females choke


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## Butch Cappel (Aug 12, 2007)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

This would seem to indicate that the "Alpha/Dominance" theory is based on an artificially structured study that would not occur in nature. 

So is the Pack Drive/Rank Drive concept based on a false premise? 

Does this mean the Scientific world of dog training is no longer flat?


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## David Scholes (Jul 12, 2008)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*



Butch Cappel said:


> This would seem to indicate that the "Alpha/Dominance" theory is based on an artificially structured study that would not occur in nature.
> 
> So is the Pack Drive/Rank Drive concept based on a false premise?
> 
> Does this mean the Scientific world of dog training is no longer flat?


Yes, but they are still wolves put in an artificial environment that may be similar to what some dogs are put in. So, it doesn't relate to wolves in the wild because they would avoid the grouping but it does relate to dogs being placed in similar situations. Most things aren't flat once you dig into them.


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## Butch Cappel (Aug 12, 2007)

*Re: Whatever Happened to the Term “Alpha Wolf”?*

That would only apply to adult dogs. Pups are raised in the pack with the "Breeding Pair" 

Mech stated that wolves forming what he called a "Synthetic" pack with young adults from various packs getting together to form a new pack the leaders are chosen through "Ritualistic Display" and the leaders seldom change. 

This makes me wonder, with the increased number of people talking about PSD's biting the handler, and because this would be an 'un-natural' pack, with an adult dog, coming into the strange pack, could the 'Physical Dominance' be causing the problem?


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