How many dogs make up a pack?

If you have two or more dogs, you have a pack, and only one can be the Alpha. In any family situation we have someone who usually has the final say about important issues. In the animal kingdom they have their Pack Structure. The top dog for instance is called the Alpha, the second on the next rung down, is the Beta, and so on throughout the pack with each dog taking its place within the structure. This is PACK STRUCTURE, people from the very top, downwards, think of it as a ladder, on every rung is a person with a certain job to do, or in the case of dogs, a certain place in the pack. In a domestic situation where you have more than one dog, watch them and you will see that they have a pack structure/pecking order also. It becomes the Ladder of life, it should be adults then teenage children, then dog, then any young children. The dog must always recognise the human pack leader, this person should automatically become the leader of the whole pack, dogs and people. Any other dogs in the pack will follow the top dog in all things.

Wild dogs are highly social animals that live in packs of between 2 and over 20 adults with their dependant young. Packs of over 40 wild dogs do occur occasionally although they don't last very long and tend to split up into smaller groups. A 'pack' is defined as having the potential to breed i.e. there must be at least one male and one female. Single sex aggregations of individuals are referred to as 'groups' and are not properly a pack until a member of the opposite sex joins them. Each pack has a dominant female, the 'alpha female', and a dominant male, the 'alpha male'.