There is an unfortunate enduring mythology that dogs are essentially pack animals like their ancient ancestor that they evolved from, the wolf. Thousands of years of evolution through cohabitation with humans and selective breeding have elapsed, making dogs very different from their ancient ancestor. They are far more complex than that, and trainers/dog parents that subscribe to the training through dominance and submission, are misguided and outdated, and are more likely to cause more harm than good.

In this listener email inspired episode, Dr. Roger discusses the marked differences between wolves and dogs, why training from a pack perspective is inappropriate at best and harmful to the dog at its worst; and how to select the best trainers the have follow the most modern understandings of canine behavior.

Dr. Roger Welton is a practicing veterinarian and media personality, CEO/attending veterinarian at ⁠⁠⁠Premier Veterinary Care⁠⁠⁠, and author of the top selling book, ⁠⁠⁠The Man In The White Coat⁠⁠⁠.  Dr. Roger selects listener emails to be addressed on the air, so if interested in having your voice heard on the podcast, email comments or questions to comments@web-dvm.net.  For more content from Dr. Roger visit his blog at ⁠⁠⁠Web-DVM.net⁠⁠⁠ and you can also follow his public Facebook profile by friend requesting "Roger Welton DVM".