One of the most common questions I get asked is: "Who is the pack leader after you?" — and my answer is that there is no pack leader, because we are not a pack. In this episode I break down what a pack actually is, why it doesn't apply to dogs living in a human household, and what the relationship between us and our dogs really looks like.

We cover:

• The scientific definition of a pack and why humans and dogs don't qualify
• The alpha wolf myth: where it came from, and how it was debunked
• What feral and street dogs in Italy, Eastern Europe, and South America actually do (and don't do) socially
• Why dogs evolved to live with us, not to dominate us
• What our household really is — and why that matters for how we train and relate to our dogs

• Pack (canine) — Wikipedia
• Pack Structure — Wolf Haven International
• Packs (Zoology) — EBSCO Research Starters

• Mech (1999) full paper PDF — wolf.org/USGS — L. David Mech, "Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs," Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77(8): 1196–1203
• Mech (1999) — Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Scientific Self-Correction: How Mech undid the alpha wolf concept — Science Arena
• Debunking the Alpha Dog Theory — Whole Dog Journal
• Alpha Dog Theory Is Dead. Science Killed It in 1999. — Dogly

• Boitani & Ciucci (1995) — Tandfonline — "Comparative Social Ecology of Feral Dogs and Wolves," Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 7: 49–72
• The Ecology and Behavior of Feral Dogs: A Case Study from Central Italy — ResearchGate
• Feral Dog overview — ScienceDirect

• Dog Dominance, Alpha and Pack Leadership — VCA Animal Hospitals
• The Truth About Dominance — Positively.com

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