Alpha Pug

We have finally determined that Dora is the alpha pug in our household. Dog behavior is fascinating. Although Ruby can be quite controlling around the food bowl, Dora really is the top dog. Ruby acts submissive to Dora by rolling on her back and letting Dora lick her, but we have never seen Dora submit to Ruby.

This finally explains our biggest mystery: whenever Phil picks up Ruby in the presence of Dora, a nasty fight always breaks out. It doesn't happen if I pick up Ruby in front of Dora, or if we pick up Dora in front of Ruby. It's so strange. But we finally figured out that Dora gets mad when Ruby is physically lifted above her by Phil (who she probably sees as the "alpha" person) because it throws off their pug hierarchy.

So maybe this is jibberish to most of you reading this but it makes a lot of sense to me. We read that in order to prevent fights between the two of them, we need to respect Dora's alpha position by feeding her first, petting her first, and letting her outside first. This way there will be no confusion between Ruby and Dora about who's alpha.


And thus we've added a new nickname to Dora's already long list of nicknames: Alf.