kokopelle | Work Hard, Play Hard

The puppies get to practice being aggressive/assertive when they go about their play. I haven't seen this captured before in photography. Photographers do love to get pictures of adults with teeth bared, but as I'll mention below this gives a mis impression of the wolf/wolf-dog.

In yesterday's picture session I got a glimpse of outright puppy aggression and the results are below. The irony of this play is that such shared "aggression" is muted when they grow up. The older wolf-dogs have to follow the lead of the alpha, and it is typically only the alpha who shows a degree of assertiveness when appropriate. In fact, actual teeth bared (IME) is a rarity amongst even the alphas. The only exception is during feeding perhaps, but we've seen this to be very very rare with the wolf-dogs. Usually only a growl is needed from an alpha to warn off a subordinate. It is interesting that the pups are given permission to "practice" aggression and hence sort out their present and future ranking, and perhaps this is the natural way of things.