Alpha - Who is the Alpha female and the Alpha male out of my pack of dogs?

Who is the Alpha female and the Alpha male out of my pack of dogs?

i have 7 dogs, my eldest 12yrs had pups and we kept one boy, now 3yrs. He mated with our 2yr old dog and we kept 4 pups from that litter.

So now we have 2 males, father and son. The rest are females. Is my eldest dog the Alpha female? Ive always thought the older male is the Alpha male but recently his son has started getting very sure of himself around the others. Could he overtake his fathers position in the pack?

Public Comments

oldest doesn't always mean alpha. so yes the son can & probably will take over as alpha.
the eldest dog ov either sex is not nesecerrily the alpha dog..

mine certainly are not..my 6 year old female is alot more dominent thn my 11 year old for example.

so age doesnt matter.
Age doesn't decide alpha... It can play a big part, due to strength etc, but it won't decide who will be alpha. I think your two males are going to start go go after one another. 2 intact males in a house full of girls, you can have big problems if you aren't on top of them..
the alpha status has nothing to do with age, the younger one can overtake his fathers position... i would try and make them all submissive dogs, and you and the other humans alpha and higher positions in the pack... theres only one alpha and it should be you to avoid problems, that and most dogs don't want the responsibility of being the alpha. contact a trainer if you need help
It's the personality of the dog that determines leadership - not age, size, gender, etc. Even though aging dogs do tend to lose some status.
The alpha member can be either sex.

Age is not a factor in packs - verility and inner strength is far more of an issue - nature favours the strong.

I am a little confused by the ages and relationships of your dogs, and without knowing the breed, or breed type it is harder to guess, but, yes, young males will challenge older males for head of the pack - and this often goes unnoticed, because, unlike what is commonly mis-quoted, an older dog will often willingly hand over the reins to a younger member, if th older dog feels the yonger dog will protect the solidarity of the pack better then him or herself.

Not all dogs want to be alpha, but every dog wants to live in a secure pack.

Can't say who is who in your pack, but this might help you decide yourself...and you should support the alpha role of whoever the pack has appointed - but remember, the 'alpha' MUST respect YOU as superior, if the rest of the pack is going to.

Good luck =)
If you are Lucky, you are the Alpha for the pack! which means that the dogs listen to you and stop any activity that you do not like. Alpha means leadership, and generally leadership is enforced by physical confrontation. The last dog standing in a face off is the ALPHA. So when the males walk around each other which one sits or lays down first, they are sending body language that they are subordinate to the other. Most of the time personality decides who will try for the alpha spot and who will be the omegas.
I'm going to possibly confuse you a bit here.

The way that you are using these terms is a bit misleading. Especially to yourself.

The terms were originally attributed to wolf packs and then mistakenly applied to dogs. That's another story.

At one time, we had seven Rottweilers in our house. The top dog was the second oldest female. That's usually what you see in households is a top dog (not necessarily a top male and a top female). And then a pecking order from there. In many, many households it is a female that is typically the top dog.

The major thing that you always need to be concerned about in these types of households is movement of the middle individuals up the ladder. That's when you can start getting aggression between individuals.

In wolf packs the alpha male is dominant over ALL other members of the pack. The alpha female is dominant over all other members of the pack, except the alpha male, including other lower class males.
I think this is a problem they have to work out themselves. The dogs will fight for the rank they want, so let them be in charge.
Your youngest will probabley become the new Alpha male. Age has little to do with it. Older males are usually displaced by the younger, stronger and bigger males of the pack since the stronger the leader directly relates to a packs ability to survive and thrive. The same usually applies to the females.