Question about canine behavior.

[Cuban_Liberal]

We have two dogs, Grover and Brody. Grover is 2, and Brody is almost 7 months. Both are male, and Grover is the 'alpha'. Any way...

Both have chosen a human: Paddy is Grover's human, and I am Brody's. When I'm alone with the dogs, as I am now, they interact with me differently than they do with Paddy. With me, Brody is pretty full of himself--- bold and fairly assertive, albeit nicely so--- while Grover is more affectionate and sedate --- 'love on me, Tony'. It's just the opposite when Paddy's alone with them.

What gives? :shrug:

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. Kick

:shrug:

[achtung_circus]

2. dogz

If I have figured out the connections correctly your household comprises 2 bonded people/dog pairs. When one of the humans is absent that person's dog partner becomes low dog on the totem pole, being outnumbered 2 to 1 by the other sub-pack.

This is typically manifested in submissive behaviour, "love on me, Tony".

Fairly straightforward pack behaviour.
on edit BONDED pairs, not what I first mistyped.

[Cuban_Liberal]

6. Wow! How cool!

That thought never occurred to me. Thanks! :)

[Richardo]

3. Sounds like the closest available human is alpha

That human's dog (Brody, for you) is "Beta";
and the OTHER human's dog is "Gamma" (Love me PLEASE?!?)

We see these shifting ranks all the time among the lower tiers of our seven dogs. Alpha, Beta and Gamma are pretty well fixed, but sometimes Delta, Epsilon, Zeta and Eta make a move among themselves, OR for one of the top three (but this is rare).

[Cuban_Liberal]

7. Good thing I do love on Grover, eh?

I'd hate to give him an inferiority complex; he's much too nice a dog for that. Belly rubs and ear scritches it shall be! :)

[Richardo]

10. You're a good man, Charlie Brown, and Grover's a lucky dog...

:thumbsup:

(Now if I can just move up to at least "beta" I'd be happy :D)

[Cuban_Liberal]

13. I love them both a lot.

I even love our semi-smartass cat, Sid. :P

[Eureka]

4. I recommend a book called The Truth About Dogs

by, I think, Stephen Budianski.

I don't have any psychology training, but the psychology view of how dogs work is quite interesting as presented in the book.

And, having read it and tried out a few of the theories, he's fairly close to the mark on some bits of it I think.

It sounds to me like they are just trying to get ahead of each other with each of view, but because they view each of you differntly in pack terms their behaviour is modified accordingly.

If I were you, I'd arrest them and interrogate them for hours to find the truth :-).. oh and then take them to the park to play frisbee

[Cuban_Liberal]

8. LOL!

My hnadcuffs are much too large to interrogate them effectively. Maybe we'll just go straight to the frisbee, and hope they confess. :P

[roguevalley]

5. My guess, after fifty years with multiple dogs, is that they are reacting

in their hierarchical behavior with whomever they are with. They will be one way with one, one with the other. It depends on which dominant
'doggie' --ie, human-- they seem to be with. :) They are relating to you in the context of hierarchy and one feels higher with one of you and lower with the other.

[Cuban_Liberal]

9. So Paddy and I are 'Alpha' and 'Beta' to the dogs?

Interesting thought... :)

[Richardo]

12. Yes - the humans are always alpha and beta, except in our house...

...where Mrs Richardo is alpha and I swear I'm outranked by at least three of the dogs :eyes:

[Cuban_Liberal]

17. LOL!

Don't sell yourself short--- you're the 'power behind the throne'. ;)

[geniph]

19. They almost certainly regard you as the alpha pair

as they would the alpha pair that leads a pack of wolves. I doubt they differentiate between which of you is alpha male and which is alpha female in their book; in a pack, all the others are subordinate to both members of the alpha pair. They may try a bit more fancy footwork around the one they think is the alpha female ("Mom") but many will not test the hierarchy.

Just a minute, let me ask a dog:

"BARK BARK BARK BARK WOOF BARK BARK BARK WHINE BARK YIP BARK BARK BARK"

Didja get all that?

[WoodrowFan]

11. pack behavior

Ok, my dog prefers jumping on my lap to my wifes. But if he jumps on the bed at night he always jumps up on her side, not mine, does he see ME as the Alpha or my wife??

[Richardo]

14. If your wife moves to accompany him, you're alpha and HE'S beta...

Better keep an eye on that guy!

[WoodrowFan]

16. she doesn't

she moves him down to the foot of the bed, but he does come when I call better than if my wife calls him.

[Cuban_Liberal]

15. Now that you mention it...

Grover always sleeps between us, while Brody sleeps at my feet after jumping up on Paddy's side of the bed, and giving him a kiss. Hmmm...

[izzie]

18. Why they are acting just like animals!!!!!

I do not even understand one dog.

[xchrom]

20. ok now analyze huskies

because they have figured out to confuse doggie behaviorists -- i swear!