Pierre Jouventin: the dog and the hierarchy
A CNRS ethologist on why refusing the pack-leader role leaves a dog — a wolf “around the edges” — to take it instead.
“There are debates today among behaviorists... some say the hierarchy is not true... They are wrong... You have to get into the hierarchy. If you don't do your job as a pack leader, you're going to be in trouble. When you know the dog well, there is no questioning. It is not for the dog to decide where he goes, what he eats... It is not he who should be the leader, because if you give him room, and if he is a bit of a wolf around the edges, he will take the place of the pack leader and you will have nothing more to say. You have to accept the hierarchy.”
Pierre Jouventin, former Director of Research in ethology at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Director of its ecology laboratory.
Extract from « Les Mardis de l'Espace des sciences ».
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