Monts de Gueret Animal Park
The wolf pack howls on average for 85 seconds. It is usually started by a single wolf, after which other wolves may join in. The pack leader, the alpha wolf, usually uses a lower-pitched howl and howls more frequently than wolves standing on the lower rungs of the pack's hierarchy. Although some functions of the howling are still unknown by scientists, they believe that wolves may howl to scare off other wolf packs from their territory and to gather their own pack, as wolves possess perfect hearing and their howling can be heard for up to in the forest and in open space. Researchers have found a relationship between the number of times a wolf howls and the strength of their relationship with other pack members. According to Friederike Range, co-director of the University of Vienna's Wolf Science Center, "the strength of the relationship between wolves predicted how many times a wolf howled."
Pack (canine)
One of the most persistent theories in dog training literature is the idea of the "alpha wolf", an individual gray wolf who uses body language and, when needed, physical force to maintain its dominance within the wolf pack. The idea was first reported in early wolf research. It was subsequently adopted by dog trainers. The term "alpha" was popularized as early as 1976 in the dog training book "How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend" (Monks of New Skete), which introduced the idea of the "alpha roll", a technique for punishing unwanted dog behaviours. Psychologist and dog trainer Stanley Coren in the 2001 book "How to Speak Dog" says "you are the alpha dog...You must communicate that you are the pack leader and dominant".