Dogs aren't pack animals they are gregarious, which is completely different!
Becky

I think it is quiet difficult to categorise dogs since domestication. Left to their own devices I think they would live in packs, but that the true pack mentality is probably not an appropriate structure to base domestic dogs on.

But I do believe that basic dog communication/signals/ behaviour is, as Roger Abrantes states, evolved from the need to live in harmony with other animals of the same species and to that extent, at least some of 'pack' mentality does apply.

However, it does make me wonder if, as dogs spend more time with humans and less with just other canines, their ability to communicate with each other, e.g. giving and understanding submissive/calming signals etc., is diminishing.

Domestication will always get in the way of things such as that because it is not something that we usually select for. If we selected dogs for breeding based on just how well they communicate with other dogs then I wonder what they would look like! A bit like the silver fox experiment!
Becky

But there been some big studies on village dogs that are left to their own devises. And yet they did NOT form packs. They simply co-existed.

Are these dogs allowed to breed as & when they want ?? If not then they were really not left to their own devises. There is a bond between puppies & their mother even after they have "left the nest" & between siblings.

My Wu hadn't seen his brother for nearly 6 months yet when he met him he greeted him in the same way he greets his sister(who he has regular contact with from 6 weeks of age)he does not act this way with any other dogs-not even the ones he has grown up with, which include his full sister

I liked what the 'celeb' said about aggression vs. dominance because I see that happening with my SBT.

There have (unfortunately) been a couple of incidents where she has had a scrap with another dog. Being the breed she is she could easily have done a lot of damage to the other dog, but she never has. She makes a lot of noise and tries to get over the other dog or to pin it down (shock - dogs do actually do that). But she has never put her teeth on another dog.

That to me is the difference between dominance and aggression. She is not aggressive because she's not trying to injure the other dog. She is being dominant in that she is trying to subdue the other dog.

Hope that makes sense and it's just my interpretation of what has happened.

I think that is hardly surprsing for a number of reasons, the main ones being (1) they came from a domestic background (2) I suspect they survived predominatly by scavening rather than hunting.

My understanding of the definition of a pack is a group of animals that hunt together. When animals need to co-operate more with each other (e.g. for food) they need to be able to communicate and form a closer bound than animals who are merely together for social reasons.

If animals who are together purely for social reasons do not get on, they can simply go their own way, but for pack animals, leaving the pack could mean starvation/death.

Personally I think that many dogs do still have pack instincts but that this is stronger in some breeds than others (and likewise between individual dogs). But over time I think more and more dogs will lose these instincts as they are no longer essential to their survival.

yes.

Dogs can have a bond but not necessarily be in packs.

No, these village dogs do not come from domestic backgrounds. They have co- existed with man for thousands of years. They do scavenge and have not needed to hunt for thousands of years. I wonder if dogs (not the wolf) ever hunted.

That is your experience then.

Did this study include all the puppies remaining with the mother ? Again if it didn't then the study isn't valid.

The dogs scavenged then they were dependant on man for food & not totally left to survive on their own. I know of a lurcher that lived by hunting it's own food for three months until he latched on to a friend & her two dogs & now he lives in a very closely bonded relationship with her one remaining other dog(third dog was PTS last year due to old age)