How to Do an Alpha Roll

There’s been a recent resurgence in the use of the alpha roll. But most people I’ve observed have been doing it all wrong. Hopefully some of them will get a chance to read this. If not, feel free to give them your input...

The Proper Way to Do an Alpha Roll

Don't worry. This isn't the right way to do it. 

Last week at the dog run at 72nd Street in Riverside Park, near where I live in New York City, I saw a dog walker actually pick up a dog, then throw him onto the ground as hard as he could from three feet up in the air! And the dog hadn’t done anything wrong, he was just acting a little too energetic.

Why did this idiot dogwalker think throwing the poor dog down on his back like that was the right thing to do? I can’t say for sure, but the guy probably thought he was doing an “alpha roll.” 

So what is the alpha roll exactly. And how is it supposed to work?

It’s a way of either pinning a dog on her back and forcing her to roll over on one side, or giving her the down command and then forcing her into a “submissive” position. It’s given the name alpha roll to suggest that it imitates the way an alpha wolf will discipline a subordinate pack member to establish his leadership. In dog training it is said to work by communicating your position as pack leader to a dog through his inherited instincts to obey the alpha wolf.

The technique was first popularized in the 1970s by the Monks of New Skete. Their version involved not only the simple movements described above, but grabbing the dog by the throat, throwing him down on his back and screaming “No!” in his face. (They’re lovely, those monks.)

In The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren gives us a kinder, gentler version: “You should deliberately manipulate and restrain your dog on a regular basis, placing it in a position that, for wild canids, signifies submission to the authority of a dominant member of the pack.”

The funny thing is, around the same time I read Coren’s advice I also saw a documentary about wolves on TV. At one point in the film a papa wolf (i.e., the pack leader), rolled over on his back, ‘signifying submission’ to his puppies, and encouraged them to jump on his stomach and chest and even allowed them to nip at his ears and nose. Right away I began doing this myself with my own dog. I got down on my hands and knees, did a play bow, started batting my hands at his body, getting him riled up and in the mood to play, then I rolled over on my back, pretending to be submissive.

“Oh no! You got me! You killed me! You’re the king dog!”

He loved it! First he jumped on top of me, then he tried to get lower than me! Then he began to twist around the way dogs do when they’re rolling around in the grass on a nice spring day. When he was done he raced to find one of his bones and began chewing it, quite happily.

Later, on our evening walk—as he wandered a bit too far ahead of me—I sort of absent-mindedly gave him his recall signal, expecting him to do his usual routine: cock his head, look at me, look back at whatever he’d been sniffing, and then slowly trot back to me.

Instead he turned and came running back to me at full speed, ending in a perfect sit right in front of me. I was astonished! I tested him further by quickly giving him the down command. He dove into position as fast as he could, eager to hear what I wanted him to do next. This was totally amazing and unexpected. I had no idea why this happening until I realized that for some reason, when I’d acted “submissive” toward him a few hours earlier I’d changed something about the dynamic between us. As a result he was immediately far more obedient to all my commands, plus his response time went from semi-lackadaisical to lightning-fast!
Over the next few months I tried my “submissive” act on some of the dogs I was training, including a great Dane. And in every single case it made them far more responsive and much quicker to obey. (Though I wouldn't try this with just any dog off the street—it has to be a dog I trust and who trusts me.)

So why did my acting “submissive” have the seemingly strange result of making all these dogs more obedient?

It might help us understand this better if we knew a little more about how a genuine wolf pack really operates.

There are 4 basic elements of life in the wild for a wolf pack:

1) The Hunt, where wolves work together as a cohesive social group in order to hunt and kill large prey.

2) Den Life, where the wolves sleep and rest up for the next hunt.

3) Play, which prepares young wolves emotionally, and to some extent physically, for hunting.

4) Mating, which is the process whereby new wolves are created so that the pack can continue hunting.


Do you see where I’m going with this? Everything in pack life is either directly related or eventually ties back to the need to hunt as a group.

So where does the alpha roll fit into these areas of life in the wild?

It doesn’t. There is a behavior called "pinning," which sometimes occurs in wolf packs. But it's usually part of a highly aggressive contest for physical supremacy, one that would be quite easy for a human to win if he or she were interacting with a small breed of dog, but could be very dangerous if attempted with a large German shepherd or Rottweiler. Even a Chihuahua is liable to bite back if treated this way. And even it weren't dangerous, it's not the best way to engender a spirit of cooperation between a dog and owner.

When dogs “misbehave” they're basically showing us that they don’t know what else to do with their energy. The alpha roll at its most violent teaches the dog to be defensive about how she uses her energy, and builds up feelings that in humans we would think of as resentment. Her energy may seem to be under the owner or trainer’s control, but will often simmer inside and come out as aggression toward others, or be directed inward, and express itself as fearful behaviors or a general lack of interest in life. 

 

But even when the alpha roll is done in its gentlest form, with the dog obeying the down command, and then being gently rolled over on her side (which is not a good way to reward her for obeying your commands, by the way), the exercise does nothing to teach the dog how to use her energy properly. It only puts a lid on it momentarily.
So what is the proper way to do the alpha roll?

If there is a proper way, this is it!

Technically, there is no proper way to do an alpha roll. If anything you should do the exact opposite, as I did with Freddie. 

However, if you want to be a true pack leader just imitate the papa wolf—have fun, play hunting games with your dog, get down on her level. Remember, wolves hunt by working together, which is one instinct that really does exist in both dogs and wolves. And as for exerting control in a pressure situation, a dog who routinely plays tug and fetch and chase me with her owners is far more likely to respond properly in a crunch than a dog who’s merely had a lid clamped down on her emotional pressure cooker and pushed over on her side in a nonsensical display of some mythical instinct that doesn’t actually exist.

LCK 
“Changing the World, One Dog at a Time”
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