Social organisation : the pack
Wild dogs have always impressed natural historians with their efficiency as communal hunters and their highly social behaviour. Wild dogs communally rear offspring in closely related kin groups known as packs. A pack is defined in terms of its potential to reproduce; i.e.; it must include at least one adult male and female. Occasionally a pack is as small as a single pair, but most are larger, averaging seven to eight individuals. The pack should be thought of not as a static social unit but as a group with continuously changing membership. The dogs that originally form the pack remain constant as long as they survive (secondary emigration is infrequent), but throughout the year a pack will typically decline in membership as individuals of various ages who were born into the pack either leave or die. In the positive direction, every successful year adds a new litter of pups to the pack.

A new pack begins when a female or several females from one pack join a male or several males from another. Usually young females become aware of potential mates (unknown males) in their area through scent marks left by the males as if to advertise their presence and availability. These females (usually a couple of littermate sisters) then leave their natal pack to find the males and attempt breeding on their own in a new pack. Amazingly, it may take only a day or two for the males and females to find one another in the vast wilderness ranges they inhabit. Very soon if not immediately after the formation of a new pack, the dominant male and female establish themselves in their respective social positions. The presence of new social partners and potential mates, the incites the dominants of each sex to actively and aggressively establish or reinforce their relationships over their siblings-relationships which may have been intact since early life. These dominant-subordinate relationships are seldom obvious to an observer prior to the dogs' independence from the natal pack. This is primarily because wild dog packs are structured on the basis of age class, not on individual status. However, from the start of a new pack and thereafter, dominance relationships become reasonably unambiguous and are seldom contested.

Co-operative care for wild dog pups is one of the most fascinating aspects of the natural behaviour of wild dogs. In most packs only the dominant male and female breed, producing a single annual litter. The others forgo their own direct reproduction and co-operate to care for the young of the dominant pair. Recall that in the newly formed pack all the females are related to one another and all the males are related to one another. Therefore, although non-breeders do not have their own offspring to care for, those that they provision and protect are close relatives (usually nieces and nephews). From a genetic perspective, each pup successfully raised increases their own indirect fitness. While caring for pups at a den, the co-operative nature of wild dogs becomes most pronounced. The mother of the pups typically remains at the den while the pups are young. The remainder of the pack will go hunting then return to the den where several pack members feed the mother of the pups by regurgitating meat. As the pups get older and start to emerge from the den, they will also beg for regurgitated meat from the adults. As time passes the hungry mother often leaves to go hunting with the rest of the pack, sometimes a leaving a self-appointed 'baby-sitter', one of the other adults to remain at the den with the pups. The responsibility of the baby-sitter is to ensure that the pups remain down the hole should a predator such as a lion approach. Only after about 14-16 weeks do the pups begin to accompany the adults when they leave the den.