ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Dog Dominance: Myth or Truth?

Updated on September 11, 2012

Is there such a thing as dominance?

Dominance is often a misunderstood, yet, overused word. It is just too easy to watch a dog and label it as ''dominant'' upon observing its behavior. It is almost as if a dog can be either ''dominant'' or ''submissive'' with no shades in between. There was also a particular phase in the past where the word ''dominant'' became a very popular term, with seemingly every other household occupied by some ''dominant dog''. Dominance therefore appeared to blur the vision of many dog owners world wide, which desperately resorted to several strategies (even forceful ones) in order to regain their status as leaders.

Dogs have been accused of acting dominant if they urinated in the home, barked at guests or ignored the owner upon being called. The owners therefore felt helpless when confronted with this issue and had to either take their dog to an obedience trainer or make drastic changes in order to lower the status of their ''dominant dog''.

Debunking the Dominant Dog Myth

The good news is that today, equipped with a better understanding about dog psychology the myth of dominance can be debunked. All it takes to better understand dominance is to take an insider look of how a dog pack is structured and resort to scientific studies on the topic. A good place to start is to take a look at David Mech's studies and theories after watching packs of wolves on Ellesmere Island.

David Mech, American biologist and expert in wolf behavior, offered a whole different view on the structure of a wolf pack. While wolf packs in the past were often believed to be composed by single authoritarian alpha figure and other subordinate members, a new interesting truth has emerged by watching wolves in the wild instead of in captivity.

In captivity, wolves were often forced to share common grounds. Researchers in the 1940's simply grouped together wolves of different ages, sex and status and watched their behaviors. An authoritarian and dominant alpha figure therefore emerged sending the message that dogs may enter our homes with the mind set to rule the home if we were not attentive enough to set the rules straight.

An Interesting Break Through

Mech, on the other hand, decided to carefully watch wolf packs in the wild and there was a break through in his 13 summers spent observing the packs. Not only were wolves not fighting over rank as they did in captivity, but there was no such thing as one authoritarian and dominant alpha figure who set up the rules. Rather, two figures appeared to lead the pack; the alpha male and the alpha female.

This shed a lot of light on how a wolf pack is structured and gave ''dominance'' a whole new meaning. A wolf pack therefore was more likely operated as a family structure rather than a ''hierarchical '' one as believed in the past. The alpha male and alpha female were simply parents and the rest of the pack was composed by their off spring. This revolutionized the view we have of domestic dogs, as owners there was no longer the need to act as authoritarian figures, but rather as respected yet, benevolent ''parents''.

Some Important Considerations

Another concept to consider is the fact that in nature, the alpha dog or if we want to say, the ''dominant dog'' does not resort to brute force in order to be respected in the pack. Rather, leadership is not won through brute physical domination, explains Carmen Buitrago, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer in the article ''Debunking the Dominance Myth''. Rather his dominance is manifested through body postures, perhaps in the same way a commander of a troop wears a uniform.

Using the soldier /commander analogy, subordinate wolves demonstrate submission and deference to the alpha dog by sending submissive messages, just as lower-ranking soldiers first salute their superiors, explains Canine behaviorist Jean Donaldson, author of the award-winning book The Culture Clash,Canine.

So if the alpha dog does not use brute physical force, why are dog who bite and misbehave labeled as dominant? Truth is, there are different types of aggression and often so called dominant dogs may also show anxiety, submission and fear, making the label of ''dominant'' inaccurate. To make things even more challenging, often aggressive dogs show overlapping signs encompassing different types of aggression. For instance, a dog may be suffering from different forms of aggression.

So is there such a thing as a dominant dog? Perhaps it may be much easier giving so- called pushy dogs a different name: "opportunists" who engage in behaviors that have a history of reinforcement. Dogs dog not pull on the leash, jump on owners or steal a sandwich because of dominance, but simply because these behaviors are rewarding and because they have been allowed to engage in such behaviors.

True dominance however does exist and is now called ''status-related aggression''. Interestingly, this type of dog is less common than thought, indeed, most aggression causes appear to be fear-based. Many dog behaviorists may count encounters with ''real dominant dogs'' on the fingers of their hands.



working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)