Is there always a pack leader in a house with 1+ dogs. Or can they be equal?

● "Is there always a pack leader in a house with 1+ dogs. Or can they be equal?"

The head human is the leader when the first puppy arrives.

If that human puts in the time at well-coached training classes, he/she stays as the leader.
If not, then somewhere in the age range 10 months to 3 years old the pooch will take over leadership - with dire consequences for the humans!

Considering ONLY the pooches in a pack of 2 or more, there will be one leader per gender. But which dog and which bỉtch is the leader today varies with age & strength. In crude terms, a pooch's nature can be Alpha or Beta or Gamma.
· An Alpha (the general or the king, if you prefer) is recognised as the leader because of its posture & leadership. There can be only one Alpha dog and one Alpha bỉtch per pack. If a pack has 2 there will be a decision-making battle that doesn't end until one is either dead or submits & flees in hopes of building its own pack.
· A Gamma (a private or follower, if you prefer) accepts that it doesn't want the responsibility of leadership, so never starts any trouble, but WILL follow the leader in any conflicts. It will lick the lips of, or bow to, the pooch it recognises as its leader.
· The Betas are mostly akin to a Lieutenant-Captain or Master-Sergeant - they happily follow the leader, but in the leader's absence they willingly take the lead and the rest of the pack willingly follow them.
But there are Uppity Betas who - like playground bullies - crave to be the leader when adult, but lack the posture & other skills. These are ALWAYS trouble once status becomes important to them - they constantly bully the Gammas and periodically attack the Alpha.

So, within a gender, pooches who are Gammas are equals. Betas may appear to be equals but one will be "more equal than others". Between opposite genders, the top-ranked bỉtch will almost always take precedence over the same-ranked male (it's a bit like that with kiwi birds, where the female presents the male with a ginormous egg and leaves him to incubate it...).

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Les the aged Kiwi - first pup in 1950; GSD breeder & trainer as of 1968

the pack leader should be the two legged leader

Regardless of whether dogs do or do not form packs like wolves, all puppies are born with a social status. They fit together in a hierarchy. Just like we do. It only becomes an issue when they disagree on what their rank should be.
So yes, there is always a hierarchy with one at the top and the rest in a descending order from them.
Ideally, the humans should be top ranking, and the dogs below them.

Dogs cannot be equal. They can give the appearance of equality if they are socially adept, and as long as they are not in competition for resources. That illusion will disappear the second they disagree, and then they will settle who gets priority.
As an example, I used to have a terrier and a Belgian Shepherd cross collie who was a lot bigger. They were close friends and would play all day long, either one could sit on my lap and the other not get jealous.
But give them two bones and the terrier would take his choice first, and guard it. The crossbreed could not take the terriers bone, but the terrier could have what he wanted when he wanted.

Usually, as it should be, it's the owner who is in charge. And with mine, then the entire bitches - but they are NOT above me!!

There can only be one pack leader in a house and that should be the owner.

The pack leader is the owner.

Yes. The pack leader should be the human but the dogs will form a pack within themselves too. You should be leader and one of the dogs will be 2nd in command over the other dogs. It rarely changes leadership.

Cats will exchange leadership many times in a group - theirs is not as strict as a dog pack.

Yes, but it's your responsibility to control it.

hopefully the human in charge is the pack leader

I think one dog would always want to assert its dominance but depends on their characteristic and types.

almost always

Dogs don't form packs. Wolves do. Dogs don't. A true pack is a family unit consisting of the parents and their pups. Over 40 years of studying feral dogs have proved that dogs never form packs.

Dogs tend to form hierarchies in the home. One is number one, which is not the same as a "pack leader" (that phrase is no longer used when describing wolves. the correct phrase is either "breeding male" or "breeding female.") People who don't know and respect the dog hierarchy often cause fights among their dogs.