First , what is a pack, scientifically speaking?
A pack is not just any group of animals living together. Scientifically, it has very specific characteristics:
- A stable, cohesive social unit ,usually of carnivores , where individuals associate persistently over time
- Members coordinate movement, foraging, and territory as a group
- There is a structured social hierarchy controlling access to food and reproduction
- Usually built around a dominant breeding pair — the only individuals who reproduce
- Members cooperate in hunting prey, defending territory, and raising young
Animals that form packs include wolves, African wild dogs, spotted hyenas, and some primates.
But here is the key word: conspecific. Pack members are all of the same species. A human and a dog are two completely different species that have evolved alongside each other. By scientific definition alone, we are not a pack.
The alpha wolf myth and how it was debunked
The alpha and dominance theory in dog training comes from a study conducted in the 1930s and 1940s by Swiss animal behaviourist Rudolph Schenkel. He observed wolves in captivity at Zoo Basel in Switzerland and concluded that wolves constantly fought for dominance, with an alpha winning through force and fear.
The problem is that these were captive wolves — unrelated animals under extreme stress, forced to share a small space. It had nothing to do with how wolves actually behave in the wild. And yet his conclusions leaked into dog training culture and have stayed there for nearly a century.
The person who corrected it was L. David Mech, one of the world’s leading wolf researchers. Early in his career, Mech helped spread the alpha wolf concept. But after 13 summers observing wild wolves on Ellesmere Island in Canada, he published a landmark paper in 1999:
Mech, L. David (1999). “Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs.” Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77(8): 1196–1203.
His conclusion? The typical wolf pack is a family. The adult parents guide the group through cooperation and experience — not aggression and force. The “alpha” is simply the parent.
Mech spent years trying to get his earlier work corrected and has publicly asked that the term “alpha wolf” be retired from scientific use. Even the man who popularised the theory spent 25 years saying he was wrong. And yet dog trainers are still charging people money to teach them to dominate their dogs into submission.
What about feral and street dogs?
This is where it gets really interesting, especially for me, coming from Italy.
Luigi Boitani and Paolo Ciucci of the University of Rome La Sapienza spent years studying feral dogs in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. Their research compared the social ecology of feral dogs and wolves, and the findings were striking:
- True feral dogs — fully independent from humans — represent only around 2.5% of the world’s free-roaming dog population
- When feral dogs do group together, those groups are temporary — lasting typically just one to two and a half weeks
- They do not form the stable family structures seen in wolf packs
- Feral dogs suffer high rates of juvenile mortality and depend indirectly on humans for food and space
- Street dogs (semi-dependent on humans) show even less pack structure — tending to be solitary or forming loose, opportunistic groups of 2–5 dogs
Even dogs that have been abandoned — in Italy, South America, Eastern Europe — don’t form wolf-style packs. They drift back toward humans. That is how deeply the bond runs.
Source: Boitani, L. & Ciucci, P. (1995). “Comparative Social Ecology of Feral Dogs and Wolves.” Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 7: 49–72.
What the science says about dogs and humans
The dominance theory applied to dogs and humans has been officially rejected by major scientific and veterinary bodies worldwide, including the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
Modern behavioural science is clear: dogs do not see their human families as wolf packs. They do not scheme for dominant status. The behaviours that dominance trainers label as “trying to be alpha” — pulling on lead, jumping up, not coming back — are simply untrained behaviours or responses to stress, pain, fear, or misunderstanding.
Research from the Family Dog Project at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest has shown that dogs have evolved specific cognitive abilities to read human social cues — facial expressions, pointing gestures, emotional signals — that wolves do not possess, even wolves raised by humans. Dogs were selectively bred over thousands of years specifically to understand us.
They are not failed wolves trying to take over. They are a species that evolved to live with us, read us, and cooperate with us.
So what are we, if not a pack?
In my household, there is no pack structure. What there is, is relationship — individual, fluid, and always evolving.
Jock is a bully sometimes. He puts on a big bravado face with dogs he thinks will let him get away with it. Tay is the most tolerant, most submissive dog you’ll ever meet — until he’s had enough, at which point he bites, and then Jock backs off completely. Kite wants to apologise to everyone all the time. Kes is a proper madam. Hester, our oldest girl, doesn’t care about any of it as long as she has food and a warm bed.
There is no leader among them. Their relationships are individual and they change — with age, with hormones, with circumstance. Much like people.
As for me? I don’t fight my dogs for resources. I don’t eat first to establish rank. I guide them. I provide for them. I help them navigate a world we created and placed them in. That is not dominance. That is guardianship.
I don’t mind the word leader, actually — as long as it means “the one who guides.” We have a duty to help our dogs develop the skills and understanding to live in the world we put them in. That is what we signed up for when we chose to bring them home.
I call mine a family. Everyone is an individual. Everyone has different needs, different preferences, different quirks. And it is my job — and my privilege — to understand each of them.
Further reading
- L. David Mech (1999) — “Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs,” Canadian Journal of Zoology
- Luigi Boitani & Paolo Ciucci (1995) — “Comparative Social Ecology of Feral Dogs and Wolves,” Ethology Ecology & Evolution
- Family Dog Project — Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
All links and references are in the podcast show notes.
Listen to the full episode Spotify
