Last Updated on October 11, 2018

Of all the questions that people ask us about being a dog owner, “how to become the pack leader” is the most prominent! This is easily the most important question, as many dog owners need to know how to convince your dog that you are in charge. The pack leader as the decision maker – where you should go for the walk, how to behave in certain situations and how to respond to all the weird and wonderful things that are out in the big wide world.

Once you know how dogs packs work you soon understand this importance, that pack leader makes all the decisions. If you leave the decision making up to your dog, then there a good chance that your dog is going to get things very wrong and make a mistake!

In order to understand how to be the pack leader, you must first recognize that the following means nothing to your dog….

What sort of car you drive, the size of your house, how much money you make or even if you’re a celebrity! Your dog would happily trade all of that for a nice piece of bacon!

Making your dog sit before his dinner falls way short of what you really need to be doing to be the pack leader.

And dominating your dog is not the way to become the pack leader either. In fact, this can backfire on you later on if you teach your dog that physical strength means dominance.

So what do you have to do to become the pack leader? All dogs, regardless of breed, use the same exact ways to establish the pack leader. The critical areas to take command include:

• The pack leader must be in total, calm control when your dog barks and alerts you to danger. This could include anything that your dog considers dangerous and barks at in and around the property. It might seem like nothing to you but your dog considers it important enough to warn you about.
• When walking your dog, it should not pull you at any stage, even the beginning! Learning to walk your dog properly can only really be learnt through video or with personal instruction too!
• If you are the pack leader, the inn your dog should be able to relax when inside the home. If your dog is always switched on and can’t relax then it’s on pack leader duty!
• Getting your dog to switch off is directly connected to how you greet your dog when you arrive home.
• Lastly, your eating ritual will establish who is the pack leader.