There’s been a recent resurgence in the use of the alpha roll, and most people I’ve observed have been doing it all wrong. Hopefully some of them will get a chance to read this. If not, feel free to give them your input...
Last week at the dog run at 72nd Street in Riverside Park here in New York City I saw a dog walker actually pick up a dog, then throw him onto the ground as hard as he could from three feet up in the air! And the dog hadn’t really done anything wrong, at least nothing a quick, “Hey, knock it off,” wouldn’t have solved.
Why did he think this was the right thing to do? I can’t say for sure, but he probably thought he was doing an “alpha roll,” though he wasn’t really.
So what is the alpha roll exactly, and how does it work?
It’s a way of either pinning a dog on her back and forcing her to roll over on one side, or giving her the down command and then forcing her into a “submissive” position. This is given the name alpha roll to suggest that it imitates the way an alpha wolf will discipline a subordinate pack member to establish his leadership. In dog training it is said to work by communicating your position as pack leader to a dog through his inherited instincts to obey the alpha wolf.
The technique was first popularized in the 1970s by the Monks of New Skete. Their version involved not only the simple movements described above, but grabbing the dog by the throat, throwing him down hard on his back and screaming “No!” in his face.
In The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren gave us a kinder, gentler version: “You should deliberately manipulate and restrain your dog on a regular basis, placing it in a position that, for wild canids, signifies submission to the authority of a dominant member of the pack.” Yet around the same time that I read Coren’s advice I saw a documentary about wolves on TV. At one point in the film a papa wolf (supposedly the pack leader), rolled over on his back, ‘signifying submission’ to the puppies, and encouraged them to jump on his stomach and chest and even allowed them to nip at his ears and nose. I began doing this myself, pretending to be submissive with my own dog and some of the dogs I trained, and it always made them more responsive and quicker to obey.
So who’s right, here? Stanely Coren and the monks, or an actual papa wolf?
It might help us understand this better if we knew a little more about how a wolf pack really operates. There are four basic elements of life in the wild for a real, genuine wolf pack:
1) The Hunt, where wolves work together as a cohesive social group in order to hunt and kill large prey.
2) Den Life, where the wolves sleep and rest up for the next hunt.
3) Play, which prepares young wolves emotionally, and to some extent physically, for hunting. And…
4) Mating, which is the process whereby new wolves are created so that the pack can continue hunting.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Everything in pack life is either directly related or eventually ties back to the need to hunt as a group.
So where does the alpha roll fit into these areas of life in the wild? It doesn’t. This behavior simply doesn’t exist in wild wolf packs. The original study that gave us the idea that it does has long since been discredited. Some scientists are now saying that when it does occur (in captive wolves, not wild wolves), it’s actually initiated by a weaker pack member; he rolls over in submission, the stronger wolf does not force him down. Others say in wild wolves this behavior is a prelude to actually killing or at least maiming members of rival packs.
Nice, huh?
So why does it seem to work with dogs? Certainly there are some who swear by it. Cesar Millan is convinced that dogs see him as the pack leader when he does this.
Here’s the problem though. Wolves don’t have pack leaders, not in the traditional sense. The only thing that makes other wolves follow one pack member rather than another is that there is always one member of the group who’s steadier, better able to adjust quickly to change, and is cooler under pressure. But like a martial arts master, such an animal never needs to “enforce his authority” through acts of aggression, which is what the alpha roll really is. It seems to me that leadership is really attained through having more ability to control or respond quickly to changes in the environment than other pack members. And I don’t now if you’ve noticed this, but you have more control over your dog’s environment than he does. Who has the keys to the house? Who knows how to operate doorknobs and elevator buttons? Who knows how to use a can opener? Clearly, your dog already perceives you as superior.
So why doesn’t your dog listen to you the way the dogs on TV listen to Cesar Millan? Well, for one thing there’s a lot of stuff going on that ends up on the editing room floor. Plus, to his credit Millan is always relatively cool under pressure. But ultimately he acts more like a predator toward dogs than he acts like a pack leader.
A predator?
Yes. Just picture the way he stands and looks down at a dog. The level of gaze he has seems quote magnetic to dogs, correct? Is that because they see him as a pack leader, whose eyes are always on the same level as the rest of the group? Or is it because he’s acting more like the wolf’s only natural predators (other than man) which are the same animals wolves prey on—moose, deer, elk, etc. And what does a wolf do when a moose suddenly turns and looks down at him, brandishing his antlers? He stops in his tracks and behaves exactly the way dogs do when Cesar Millan enters a room. The alpha roll serves a similar purpose. It scares a dog—something a real pack leader (if there were such an animal) would never need to do.
Let’s put Cesar Millan aside for a moment. Many people use the alpha roll, and probably think they’re getting good results from it. But are they? It certainly stops a dog from misbehaving, at least momentarily. So what should they do instead to get real, lasting behavioral changes in their dogs?
When dogs “misbehave” they're basically showing us that they don’t know what else to do with their energy. The alpha roll at its most violent teaches the dog to be defensive about how she uses her energy, and builds up feelings that in humans we would think of as resentment. Her energy may seem to be under the owner or trainer’s control, but will often simmer inside and come out as aggression toward others, or be directed inward, and express itself as fearful behaviors or a general lack of interest in life.
But even when the alpha roll is done in its gentlest form, with the dog obeying the down command, and then being gently rolled over on her side (which is not a good way to reward her for obeying your commands, by the way), the exercise does nothing to teach the dog how to use her energy properly. It only puts a lid on it momentarily.
So what is the proper way to do the alpha roll? There isn’t one. If you want to be a true pack leader just imitate the papa wolf—have fun, play hunting games with your dog. Remember, wolves hunt by working together, which is one instinct that really does exist in both dogs and wolves. And as for exerting control in a pressure situation, a dog who routinely plays tug and fetch and chase me with her owners is far more likely to respond properly in a crunch situation than a dog who’s merely had a lid clamped onto her emotional pressure cooker and pushed over on her side in a nonsensical display of some mythical instinct that doesn’t even exist.
Next time: The Eyes Exercise, a great technique to replace the alpha roll.
Why did he think this was the right thing to do? I can’t say for sure, but he probably thought he was doing an “alpha roll,” though he wasn’t really.
So what is the alpha roll exactly, and how does it work?
It’s a way of either pinning a dog on her back and forcing her to roll over on one side, or giving her the down command and then forcing her into a “submissive” position. This is given the name alpha roll to suggest that it imitates the way an alpha wolf will discipline a subordinate pack member to establish his leadership. In dog training it is said to work by communicating your position as pack leader to a dog through his inherited instincts to obey the alpha wolf.
The technique was first popularized in the 1970s by the Monks of New Skete. Their version involved not only the simple movements described above, but grabbing the dog by the throat, throwing him down hard on his back and screaming “No!” in his face.
In The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren gave us a kinder, gentler version: “You should deliberately manipulate and restrain your dog on a regular basis, placing it in a position that, for wild canids, signifies submission to the authority of a dominant member of the pack.” Yet around the same time that I read Coren’s advice I saw a documentary about wolves on TV. At one point in the film a papa wolf (supposedly the pack leader), rolled over on his back, ‘signifying submission’ to the puppies, and encouraged them to jump on his stomach and chest and even allowed them to nip at his ears and nose. I began doing this myself, pretending to be submissive with my own dog and some of the dogs I trained, and it always made them more responsive and quicker to obey.
So who’s right, here? Stanely Coren and the monks, or an actual papa wolf?
It might help us understand this better if we knew a little more about how a wolf pack really operates. There are four basic elements of life in the wild for a real, genuine wolf pack:
1) The Hunt, where wolves work together as a cohesive social group in order to hunt and kill large prey.
2) Den Life, where the wolves sleep and rest up for the next hunt.
3) Play, which prepares young wolves emotionally, and to some extent physically, for hunting. And…
4) Mating, which is the process whereby new wolves are created so that the pack can continue hunting.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Everything in pack life is either directly related or eventually ties back to the need to hunt as a group.
So where does the alpha roll fit into these areas of life in the wild? It doesn’t. This behavior simply doesn’t exist in wild wolf packs. The original study that gave us the idea that it does has long since been discredited. Some scientists are now saying that when it does occur (in captive wolves, not wild wolves), it’s actually initiated by a weaker pack member; he rolls over in submission, the stronger wolf does not force him down. Others say in wild wolves this behavior is a prelude to actually killing or at least maiming members of rival packs.
Nice, huh?
So why does it seem to work with dogs? Certainly there are some who swear by it. Cesar Millan is convinced that dogs see him as the pack leader when he does this.
Here’s the problem though. Wolves don’t have pack leaders, not in the traditional sense. The only thing that makes other wolves follow one pack member rather than another is that there is always one member of the group who’s steadier, better able to adjust quickly to change, and is cooler under pressure. But like a martial arts master, such an animal never needs to “enforce his authority” through acts of aggression, which is what the alpha roll really is. It seems to me that leadership is really attained through having more ability to control or respond quickly to changes in the environment than other pack members. And I don’t now if you’ve noticed this, but you have more control over your dog’s environment than he does. Who has the keys to the house? Who knows how to operate doorknobs and elevator buttons? Who knows how to use a can opener? Clearly, your dog already perceives you as superior.
So why doesn’t your dog listen to you the way the dogs on TV listen to Cesar Millan? Well, for one thing there’s a lot of stuff going on that ends up on the editing room floor. Plus, to his credit Millan is always relatively cool under pressure. But ultimately he acts more like a predator toward dogs than he acts like a pack leader.
A predator?
Yes. Just picture the way he stands and looks down at a dog. The level of gaze he has seems quote magnetic to dogs, correct? Is that because they see him as a pack leader, whose eyes are always on the same level as the rest of the group? Or is it because he’s acting more like the wolf’s only natural predators (other than man) which are the same animals wolves prey on—moose, deer, elk, etc. And what does a wolf do when a moose suddenly turns and looks down at him, brandishing his antlers? He stops in his tracks and behaves exactly the way dogs do when Cesar Millan enters a room. The alpha roll serves a similar purpose. It scares a dog—something a real pack leader (if there were such an animal) would never need to do.
Let’s put Cesar Millan aside for a moment. Many people use the alpha roll, and probably think they’re getting good results from it. But are they? It certainly stops a dog from misbehaving, at least momentarily. So what should they do instead to get real, lasting behavioral changes in their dogs?
When dogs “misbehave” they're basically showing us that they don’t know what else to do with their energy. The alpha roll at its most violent teaches the dog to be defensive about how she uses her energy, and builds up feelings that in humans we would think of as resentment. Her energy may seem to be under the owner or trainer’s control, but will often simmer inside and come out as aggression toward others, or be directed inward, and express itself as fearful behaviors or a general lack of interest in life.
But even when the alpha roll is done in its gentlest form, with the dog obeying the down command, and then being gently rolled over on her side (which is not a good way to reward her for obeying your commands, by the way), the exercise does nothing to teach the dog how to use her energy properly. It only puts a lid on it momentarily.
So what is the proper way to do the alpha roll? There isn’t one. If you want to be a true pack leader just imitate the papa wolf—have fun, play hunting games with your dog. Remember, wolves hunt by working together, which is one instinct that really does exist in both dogs and wolves. And as for exerting control in a pressure situation, a dog who routinely plays tug and fetch and chase me with her owners is far more likely to respond properly in a crunch situation than a dog who’s merely had a lid clamped onto her emotional pressure cooker and pushed over on her side in a nonsensical display of some mythical instinct that doesn’t even exist.
Next time: The Eyes Exercise, a great technique to replace the alpha roll.
—LCK
|
« Previous Chasing Squirrels |
Next » How to Stop Puppy Bites |
Be the first to post a comment!
