Dominance: What is it etc?

[Mick Trainer]

I recently responded to a threat that was related to a dominance issue where I stated that I had written an article on this topic. Damp asked me to post it to all which I was going to do in the next couple of days after I had altered it, but the recent number of dominance related aggression troubles has led me to post it sooner. I apologise for the length of this post but it is hard to cover such a topic much shorter. There is still much on this topic not covered by this article and it may raise as many questions as it answers but to coverr it fully would have ment that it would have been maybe 3-4 times as long.

I hope that it helps some of you to understand dominance better.

Dominance:

Dominance is a term that is used to describe a dog’s position within the pack hierarchy and used generally by trainers and canine behaviorists to describe a dog that holds the belief that he/she occupies a high position within this pack hierarchy. . It is also a belief that the domestic dog is a direct descendants of the Grey Wolf and falls under the category of Canine Familiaris. Wolves, and therefore dogs, perceive their society to exist where there is a clear hierarchy with the Alpha Male and Female at the top of the hierarchy and the Beta males and females at various levels below that, all the way down to the omega member at the bottom of the pack. A dog’s position in this hierarchy decides how dominant he/she is.

In the Wolf Pack dominance plays an integral part in the survival of the pack. In the wild only the dominant (Alpha) pair will be allowed to mate as within the pack it is perceived that the strongest pair will have the strongest of pups which increases the chances of survival of these pups and therefore the continuance of the pack. Dominance in the wild is decided and maintained in many different ways from full physical combat, too deciding who will eat first or even who will walk through a gap first. The Alpha dog is always the first to do such activities and dictates in which order the other pack members are allowed to follow. Who is the Alpha dog is always under question and if a pack member perceives weakness in the dominant dog then he or she will challenge to take that dominant position. Anyone that has watched a documentary on wolves will have seen them having small scrapes over who will be first to eat etc. You will see that at these tussles there is rarely any damage done to one dog or the other. Damage is usually seen to occur only when two dogs have been having small dominance challenges for some time and then this fighting escalates to a full-blown aggression to see who is the dominant dog. At this point the dogs can cause great damage to each other. In the most severe of cases one may actually be killed.

As I have stated before dogs live in a society where there is a clear hierarchy. In this society the dogs will either have behavior dictated to them or will believe that he/she has the write to dictate behavior to others within the pack. Although dogs clearly do not see us humans as other dogs they cannot view our society as any different from their own and therefore need this pack hierarchy to continue. As dogs have no real form of verbal communication a dog that wishes to dictate behavior to us or other pack members must do so through aggression. In the pack situation this aggression is a natural form of communication. In today’s society however it is very important that dogs do not become aggressive towards their human pack. For this reason it is important that we become the “Alpha Dog” in the dogs mind. There are many ways that this can and must be done, the easiest way is to do some basic obedience with your dog. If your dog will do some basic commands in all situations then the dog is clearly subordinate to you.

The domestic dog like the wolf will continually test the dominance of the “Alpha dog” through a number of small tussles. By having an obedient dog and continuing to work such commands you realistic neutralize these constant challenges as you constantly show the your dog/s that you are still the dominant pack member. However if the dog does not feel that your position as pack leader is secure then smaller tussles will ensue. In most cases these tussles will not be as obvious as they would be for their wild cousins. These tussles may at first simply be pushing through a door to get inside before the owner or jumping up on the owner when he or she comes home. Sometimes however the challenge is far more obvious. A dog may challenge for dominance by showing some physical aggression towards the owner. For example if an owner tries to take a bone off the dog and the dog growls or bares his/her teeth this is a direct challenge and must be taken very seriously. This form of aggression shows that there is a problem in the perception the dog has to the relationship with the owner.

It is at this time that dominance becomes dangerous as the dog will perceive that it is reasonable to enforce its dominance or to directly challenge to secure it’s position within the pack through aggression. As I have mentioned before, dominance does not always have to be enforced through aggression or the Alpha position be perceived as up for grabs, this can be perceived by the smallest behaviors. One reason that we see so many dogs in our community that have bitten their owners due to them being dominant, is that in many cases the owners do not perceive the behavior to be dominant. Dogs can perceive that the Alpha position is not secure by simply successfully disobeying commands or rules that it knows. Further to this if the dog perceives that rules are not dictated from above then it may feel that there is no strong Alpha at the present and that he/she may take that position. For example a dog that is resistant to a command can and in most cases is exercising its dominance. A failure to see these small challenges as dominant behavior may result in the dog deciding that at some point it must defend or establish its dominance with aggression. This is when we hear that familiar catch cry of “the dog just snapped”. In almost all cases the dog has not snapped, rather the owner has failed to see the small challenges for dominance that the dog was making and thus is surprised when the dog attacks. It is very important however that an owner can recognize the difference between resistance to a command and a failure to understand the required response. If a dog simply does not understand what is required then it is impossible for it to be resistant and is more likely simply confused.

Dominance behavior starts as early as 3 weeks of age as pups will start to fight amounts themselves to determine who is dominant and therefore who will eat first. Dog to human dominance can start as early as 8 weeks of age although some dogs will not start to challenge for dominance till much later. Dominance is not a behavior that is particular to one sex or the other. A bitch can be just as dominant as a male dog although males generally are of a more dominant nature. However a dog is only ever dominant due to the owner allowing it to be. Some dogs are extremely dominant by nature (true Alpha Dogs) and are as a general rule unacceptably high risk for the average owner and will be to strong for all but the most knowledgeable and committed of owners. Even though this is the case these dogs only dominate those that allow it.

Although there are breeds of dogs that are clearly more prone to dominance related behavioral problems (Rottweilers, American Pit Bull Terriers etc) there is not one breed or even an individual dog that is without the ability to become dominant over its owner and therefore become aggressive towards the owner if it is allowed to. A prime example of this is a friend of mine owns a Jack Russel Terrier X bitch that he was given by some friends of his. His friends gave up the dog because she was exerting her dominance and becoming aggressive towards them. My friend however found that she was a very submissive dog by nature and was quickly turned around. It was simply that her previous owners had constantly let her break their commands and rules, thus she became dominant.

As I have stated before the easiest way of avoiding any dominance issues is to do some basic training with the dog. Training requires the dog to follow your commands and may mean that for the dog to do as you tell him that you may need to enforce a command. By doing this you are taking control of the dog and dictating behavior to him or her. A well-trained dog that will follow your commands in all situations (without food to bribe the dog) is a dog that is subordinate to you. It is equally important that the dog can and will do the command in ALL SITUATIONS. A dog that will only do the required command when food is present and given as a reward can be just as, if not more dominant than a dog that will do no commands at all. By the dog only doing a command when food is on offer the dog is stating that “I only do the commands when I get something for it”. The dog is as much dictating behavior to the owner as the other way around. The dog must do the command before any praise is on offer. Once the command has been followed then praise should be given, this includes food.

It is much easier to avoid any dominance related problems by doing some obedience with a puppy at as young as 8 weeks of age. The reason for this is that it is far easier to make a puppy conform to you than it is for a fully-grown adult dog. Once dominance by the owner has been ascertained it is easy to keep this position with a continual use of some basic commands. By this I do not mean that the dogs spirit is crushed or the dog is punished for non compliance but simply that a few commands are taught at a young age. These commands must be taught by the use of motivational methods but the dog should be placed into the required position. Even if some resistance is shown.

As I have stated before some of the warning signs that a dog may be becoming dominant are not easy to read so below is a list of some of the behaviors to look for. Dogs pushing the owner out of the way to get through a door, the dog not moving to let the owner past when the owner wants to walk past the dog, resistance to basic commands, sleeping on the owners bed and refusing to get off, (aggression may follow) jumping up on owner and hanging on with paws and refusing to let go, no interest in the owner when training the dog, continually cutting the owner off whilst trying to walk the dog, pulling on the lead when walking the dog, refusal to leave the house, nudging for pats and attention, refusal to give up bones toys etc when asked (aggression may follow) food guarding/possessiveness of any sort or any behavior that leads to aggression towards the direct members of the family (pack).

I have mentioned above that a dog may show aggression at times towards its owner to enforce or heighten its level of dominance. This behavior in any form must not be tolerated. The above list is in no way totally conclusive nor are all these behaviors dominant in all situations. The exception to this is any time when a dog becomes aggressive to any member of the family. There is no other reason (excluding illness) that a dog should show aggression towards a family/pack member. It is not necessary in almost all cases to discipline the dog physically, however some form of discipline must be given to the dog to illustrate that this behavior will gain nothing and is not tolerated by you. I must state here however that if your dog becomes aggressive to you in any way and you are unsure of what to do please just back away from the dog and contact me or another professional trainer so that advice can be given on the course of action that must be taken to cure the dog of this problem.

If you are unsure of what to do in this situation by confronting the dog physically you are not only putting yourself in danger but you may also be making the situation worse. There are ways we can fix this behavior without you having to confront the dog physically.

I have heard many times that a dog will not become dominant to the owner if the owner controls its food supply. Although food plays an important part in pack hierarchy simply by giving the dog food you are in no way asserting dominance over the dog. To assert dominance through food supply will take much work with the owner having to take food off the dog when it has started eating as well as many other direct challenges towards the dog. If not handled correctly this can be a very dangerous game to play.

Although dominance behavioral problems may be very serious I must state that all of these problems can be cured if the owner is prepared to work with the dog. Even a dog that has actually bitten its owner on several occasions can be fixed if time and a clear change in the dog/owner relationship can be committed to by the owner. The old adage that once a dog has bitten there is no hope for it is no longer true. The dog as far as it is concerned has attacked or bitten its owner for a valid reason. This belief is what must be changed. Over a number of years I have cured hundreds of dogs that have at some time bitten their owners. It must be noted that dominance problems will not improve without a change in what the owner is doing. These problems will always get worse if left unchecked

In conclusion dominance is not a behavior that we as dog owners should fear but rather a behavior that we must be aware of and look at avoiding before it is allowed to get out of hand. The easiest way to do this is to give the dog a relationship that it can understand where its position is at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. This can be done through having a few basic commands that the dog must follow.

If you have any queries at all with regards to dominance, or any other matter raised in this article or any other questions you may have regarding canine behavior please feel free to contact me at anytime.


Mick Trainer.