Dogs have descended from wolves. Wolves live in packs with a rigid hierarchy within the pack. As pets, dogs consider their owners to be the pack they belong to. As they grow older, they try to establish their place in the pack’s hierarchy. Tito had instinctively assigned me the position of the pack leader, the alpha male. Alka was next in the hierarchy. Then came Dumpy, his sibling. Didu (my mother) and Delhi Abu (Alka’s father) were friendly outsiders not pack members. Tito contended with Dumpy for a higher spot in the pack hierarchy. Tito’s behavior at home was also impacted by his need for security. If I was in the house, he would literally follow me around, unless he thought I had left the room for a short while and would return. Tito became my shadow. He would sit outside the bathroom door when I went to take a bath. If I was working on the computer, he would either be under the computer table near my feet or lie down a bit further away from the table. He’d be on the floor beside the bed when I slept. We noted that Tito had developed an uncanny instinct about my return from trips away from Ahmedabad. Tito would sit right behind the front door, perfectly anticipating my arrival just before I reached home from the airport on return. We could not figure out how he predicted my coming. He most likely gleaned the knowledge from Alka and Dumpy’s actions or chats. During my absence from home, he would follow Alka about the same way he followed me. He would follow Dumpy if neither of us was at home. Tito was cautious in his interactions with Didu and Delhi Abu. He was protective and would sit next to them, but never in such a way that they felt uncomfortable.
Tito’s rivalry with Dumpy expressed itself in an intriguing way. When the three of us sat on the lawn, Tito would be content to sit away from us, usually facing us, if Dumpy did not sit close to me. However, if Dumpy shifted closer to me, within a foot or so, Tito would immediately get up and come from behind us and force us to make room for him in between us. Tito would do the same at home. If Dumpy and I sat next to each other on the three-seater sofa, Tito would climb onto the sofa and use his enormous head to push Dumpy from behind so that he could insert himself between us. If Dumpy resisted being pushed away, he’d try to climb on my lap. While doing all these jealous moves, he wagged his tail and acted contrite, as if to say, “I know I’m being a jerk, but I can’t help myself. When I’m around, Dumpy cannot sit that close to you!”
While Tito competed with Dumpy, he was also incredibly protective of Dumpy. We realized by chance that if I ever disagreed with Dumpy, Tito would always side with Dumpy. We would engage in fake arguments with loud voices once we learned that. Wherever Tito was, he would rush to the site of the ‘battle’ between us, raise his head, gaze at me, and begin barking, telling me flatly, “How dare you get upset with Dumpy?” Dumpy and I had a lot of fun fooling with Tito by sitting next to each other and acting out fake disputes. We never failed to elicit the expected response from Tito. He never grew wiser about the game we played!
Dumpy was his best friend. While he would not climb on our bed until invited, Dumpy’s bed required no invitation. Tito would climb onto Dumpy’s bed and insist on sitting or lying down next to him. If he sensed Dumpy wasn’t sleeping, he’d start pestering him by licking his ear, neck, or head butting him and demanding him to get up. If Dumpy was indeed asleep, Tito would lie down next to him without troubling him any further. He would however eventually climb down and lie down on the floor next to the Dumpy’s bed because the floor was much cooler than the bed and Tito always preferred to lie on a cooler surface.