Although it is difficult to fathom, that adorable little, wrinkled English Bulldog puppy you just brought home will one day be 50 pounds and capable of powerful strength. Is that when you will start teaching him that you are his pack leader or will you start instilling this idea in him when he's but a cute wee thing?

You read article after article that advocates training of dogs and after a point you even ask yourself, is all this necessary? If I just give my dog plenty of food, water, love and take him out regularly that's enough, right?

Dogs are Pack Animals

This thinking, humanizing a dog, is what leads to more aggression in dogs, dog bites and dogs not respecting his or her owner. Will an untrained dog love his or her owner? Yes, but respect him he or she won't! Dogs are pack animals, you may read this all the time, but may not understand what it means.

Members of a pack have their place and are ranked. From a human perspective this doesn't make sense. Putting your children in a particular order is something that we assume happens because of age and order of birth. The oldest is assumed to be the most responsible and often the one asked to baby-sit the others when the parents go out for the evening, etc. Of course, on occasion, the oldest ends up being irresponsible, thus requiring one of the younger siblings to step up to the plate.

Pack members don't operate this way. Order of birth has little to no bearing on who the pack leader is. If there is a human in the picture, he or she is the pack leader, or should be and although there might be some in fighting to determine order, eventually one is established.

Things That Cause Aggression in Your Dog

Among the biggest reasons dog trainers get called to homes is to mediate between dog and owner who are seemingly at a stand still. Common complaints heard by owners are:

• "Zeus growls when I touch his food bowl while he is eating."

• "Puff Puff jumps all over my guests. I can't control her."

• "When I open the door, Spot rushes ahead of me. She doesn't respect me."

• "No matter how many times I say no, Tinkerbell jumps on the bed!"

When the trainer arrives to the house he seemingly has none of the problems with the dogs that the owner reports. The owner says, "I am not crazy. I know what I see and experience." So, not wishing to convince the owner she isn't in touch with reality, he asks her to take out the vacuum or feed her dog. In other words, emulate the problem and see what happens. As you might suspect, Zues growled at his owner for stepping near his food, Spot ran out the door and was down the street before the owner could react, Puff Puff jumped on the visiting neighbor and despite her protestations, Tinkerbell didn't listen and jumped on the bed.

Your Dog's Side of the Story

If the trainer were able to get into the dogs' minds, he would be able to extract the following information:

• "The reason I growl at my owner when I am eating is because that is what I do to other pack members if they try and steal my food. Is she my pack leader? She didn't tell me that."

• "I run out the door because it's fun and I saw a squirrel I wanted to chase."

• "I jump on my owner's friends because I am hyper and I can't help myself. Besides, nobody ever made it really clear that I am not supposed to."

• "The cat sleeps on the bed, why can't I?"

Although these are rather different excuses for committing each of the offences, they all derive from the same issue. If pack leaders don't make it clear from day one who the boss is, a pack animal will assume he or she is. It is really quite simple.

If you could go back in time to the day you brought your puppy home, things you would do differently might be the following:

When feeding Zeus, make him sit patiently until you put his food dish on the floor and until YOU say, "Zeus, eat." Another trick you can do to further instill your position as leader of the pack is that before he eats, you hold the food up to your mouth and appear to eat out of it first. The communication he gets is, "Pack leader eats first and can even eat my food as well."

Another thing you can do while Zeus is eating is get down and put your face in his food bowl. Don't move him out of the way, just let him know that you can move in if you wanted to. If he growls, immediately stand up, make him sit and take the food away until his ears go back, thus showing you submission.

When the doorbell rings, make Puff Puff sit before you open the door. If she attempts to jump, stand between your friend and Puff Puff and say calmly, "no jumping." A dog should NEVER jump on anyone. It is a sign that she thinks she is pack leader and that if left unchecked will turn into aggression.

Before exiting or entering the house, always make Spot sit. Open the door and after Spot is seated at the door, you exit or enter first. A dog should not be walking through any door before his or her owner. If Spot doesn't get it or if you were wavering in your voice, call him back and continue to try it until you both get it right.

There are different schools of thought on whether to allow dogs onto furniture. If you do allow yours on the furniture, she needs to know it is a privilege and not a right. As such, she must be invited up there and should never decide on her own when to jump on and off the furniture.

By addressing these issues early when your dog is still a puppy, they alleviate you the problems of trying to negotiate with a 50-pound adult dog.