Our faithful; readers can by now attest to the fact that our pack consists of three Shetland Sheepdogs and a Collie. The shelties are Lily, Lyric and Declan...with the latter being the alpha dog. Declan (Deckie, for short) rules with an iron paw. He always want to eat first, get a drink first, etc., although we try to hold his aggressive tendencies in place as best we can.

However, our newest pack member, one-year old Douglas (Dougie, for short) doesn't quite understand doggie ettiquette and goes to class on a daily basis with Deckie who acts as teacher, principal and, most often, disciplinarian.

I believe the messages are being delivered, since Dougie seems to be developing a deep-found respect for Deckie...

When I get home from work in the evenings I take the pack out into our yard where they proceed to run all over the place at full speed. For the past few evenings, Deckie & Dougie have been running neck & neck during our interludes. As they race, Deckie has a very angry look on his face, lips curled, while Dougie lopes along, drool slobbering out of his mouth, but at the same time casting wary glances at the pack's unofficial alpha dog.

This is probably because every few laps or so, Deckie extends his head just a little bit further and attempts to take a nip out of Dougie. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn't.

But, the message is apparently  being delivered to Dougie. When we go into the house and the two of them walk near each other, Dougie gives Deckie p..l..e..n..t..y of room; he doesn't dare try to brush against Deckie, nudge him or cavort in any other way.

Deckie herds Dougie.