Leader of the pack
Friday, September 19th, 2008For a long time now I have become more and more convinced that my pointer dog, Maxie, looks upon me as being like a father figure or an older brother. He was always very loyal and loving, but over the last few years, he has become even more so. He seems to want to protect me and sometimes I feel that he is a little jealous of the children and even my wife. He has never shown any aggression towards them, or even close to it. I just feel that he would like me all to himself. I felt that it was responsibility to talk to my family vet about it, so I gave her a call. She told me that what had happened was that the dog, in his own way, had appointed me as leader of the pack, of which my wife and children were also members. She assured me that the dog would never do anything to harm his fellow pack members, but would get a little put out if he felt that anyone else in the “pack” was getting undue attention. I called a family (or pack) conference and we discussed this surprising new development. We all agreed that we would now treat Maxie with the same love and respect that he had been treating us. When I asked the kids if they would also treat me as leader of the pack, they politely declined.