I am going to blog about the very talked about term of ‘dominance’. This term is widely used in the canine world.
When I think of ‘Dominance’ the following words spring to my mind....control, authority, power, having the upper hand, a dog trying to raise their status etc.
It seems today, especially within the media and amongst dog walkers and some trainers that the term ‘dominance’ appears to be a very misunderstood, and an extremely over used term. In most cases dominance isn’t even the case! People seem to be so obsessed these days of the ‘pack rules’ and dogs wanting to raise their status over us.
Since owning my own dogs and being a dog walker, I have seen many examples of people mis-interpreting dogs and labelling them ‘dominant’.
An example of a dog being labelled dominant in a dog/human context:
My second dog Mickey we rescued at eight months old. This is Mickey’s sixth home, so he has had a bad start in life. Firstly the whole litter was dumped at four months old (after the critical learning period), he then went to five homes in the space of six months. When I first got him he would barge through doorways and try to steal Molly’s food if she walked away from her bowl. This would in most people’s eyes be a sign of dominance, but poor Mickey has been from home to home, being rejected so many times, making him insecure. Having lived in many kennels hasn’t given him many social skills within a home environment. His house training in the past and as a puppy was to shove him outside in the cold and wet to do his business, thus teaching Mickey that it is ok to rush through doors. Deep down he is a fearful young dog, but slowly he has become a beautiful well mannered dog (most of the time!!!!), with continued consistent positive training, lots of love, exercise and a very good diet he will be one hundred percent J
An example of dominance in human/human context:
A friend of mine’s boyfriend is very jealous, always wanting to know where she is and phoning her at her every move. He gets mad at her and shouts if she gets dressed up. He could be named dominant towards her, but deep down he is very fearful she may leave him and very insecure. He uses this behaviour as his way to try and ‘keep’ her, so he will not be left alone.
An example of a label of dominance in dog/dog context:
My friend owns a miniature schnauzer. When the dog sees a puppy he goes crazy, runs up to it barking furosiously and pins the puppy down. Everyone looks and says ‘oh isn’t he being dominant’ when really if you know his history, he was mildy attacked as a puppy by a young ‘fluffy’ looking dog. Ever since then he has had an ‘active defence mechanism’ built in him, as he is ‘fearful’, and now when he sees young fluffy looking dogs, he thinks ‘if I make a load of noise and scare them away they cannot hurt me!’ .....He is not being dominant, far from it.
Here are some very varied examples of different dog trainers’ views on ‘Dominance’
Cesar Millan – “Dogs have ingrained pack mentality. If you’re asserting leadership over your dog, your dog will try to compensate by showing dominant behaviour”.
James O’Heare – “A dog’s brain has changed, it no longer thinks like a wolf because it isn’t a wolf. A dog has different values to a wolf. A dog values what he finds rewarding within his environment, toys, food, walks, agility, companionship.....”
Ray Coppinger – “ The natural selection model points out that the wolf qualities are severely modified. Dogs do not think like wolves, nor do they behave like them.”
Barry Eaton – “Dogs can live quite happily in a social group, why would they feel the need to be part of our ‘pack’. Our domestic dog has no reason to form a pack with his human owner as every need for survival is provided for – by us. There is therefore no need to ‘dominate’ our dog or be the alpha.”
Ray Coppinger – “I don’t think a dog knows what people are talking about when they exhibit this ‘alpha wolf’ behaviour. Dogs do not understand such behaviours because the village dogs didn’t have pack structure; they were semisolitary animals. Such behaviour by humans confuses them.”
Sadly, many humans label any behaviour from a dog that is not what the person wants as dominance.
These are some of the behaviours that get the label dominant:
Aggression - this could be a past learnt behaviour to back a dog/human off whom the dog may be fearful of.
Boisterous behaviour – Some dogs haven’t yet learnt from other dogs how far they should go with ‘playing’.
Having no manners – Good positive training and reinforcement should eradicate this.
Pulling on the lead – The dog clearly wants to get to the park quickly and has not been taught to walk to heel!
Sitting on sofas and beds – they are comfy aren’t they??!
Resource guarding – The dog is protecting their prized possession. A past learnt behaviour may cause them to show aggression when resource guarding. There are good positive methods that can help teach the dog not to resource guard.
Lying in doorways and top of stairs – Maybe they just like it there.....?
Dogs going through doorways first - This could be because, as puppies, dogs are taught to rush outside when young to do their toilet, to prevent any ‘accidents’, this learnt behaviour they take with them into adulthood, unless taught otherwise.
Paw-ing their owner for attention - This could be attention seeking as more than likely their owners have been at work all day.
Playing tug of war - A dog will not think he is winning status over you if he wins a game of tug of war, it is purely just a game of fun!! The only caution would be not to let the dog think it is his ‘trophy’.
How lazy and ignorant of some people to use the label of dominance, instead of looking at the dog individually.
Every dog is completely different. Here are some examples of what makes each dog individual:
Physical make up
Current and past medical conditions
Past learning experiences
Breed
Diet
Set up at home
Exercise levels
Are they spayed or neutered?
Emotional state...dog may be fearful, anxious, defensive, insecure etc
Training, if any at all
How much have they been socialised?
Owner’s temperament and mood may affect the dog.
The whole dominance theory and ‘pack rules’ came about through a study on captive wolves in the 1940’s. This study made people put a direct comparison with domestic dogs as we descended from wolves over 10,000 to 14,000 years ago.
Some researchers found there to be a huge flaw in the study. These are the reasons to prove it:
· The study was very short.
· It was based on the study of wolves on hunting. This makes a small percentage on any wolfs life.
· The studies observed (what are now known to be ritualistic displays) were misinterpreted and a ‘dominance’ idea came about.
The behaviour between a captive and wild wolf pack is very different.
Wild wolf pack – Alpha male and female (the breeders) usually initiate the hunting. The breeding male provides the food when there are cubs to feed. Most wild wolf packs live in harmony. There is also no need for individuals to compete for higher status as the ‘parents’ provide the food and give leadership to the pack.
Captive wolf pack – Captive wolves make frequent challenges to gain higher status. The pack will have different wolves of different ages and gender forced together. This provides significant tension, especially during the mating season. The captive pack is managed my man, so there is no need to hunt as food is provided for them.
A comparison if one should be made at all, between dogs and their distant cousins should be made between wild wolves and domesticated dog’s not captive wolves.
The long process of wolves becoming dogs has made dogs less like them through natural and artificial selection. Here are some of the things which make wolves and dogs so different:
Coat colours are all different
Size of ears and tail
Skull size
Size of limbs
Behaviour
Bitches have two oestrous cycles a year starting from six months when a wolf bitch will have a season only once a year and not until she is two years old...the list goes on.
Many behaviourists and dog trainers still use ‘pack rules’ and rank reduction programs to try to ‘cure’ what they believe to be dominance issues in dogs. This is unlikely to work as dogs do not learn positively, and more than likely it will cause the dog to become pretty miserable and fearful of their owner and only compound problems further. In the past rank reductions have worked well on some dogs. This is because the owner removed the dog’s rewards and altered expected events.
Rank reductions may well affect many areas of the dog’s life, when really the problem may only be a singular one.
Dogs live in the here and now, they are pretty straight forward, they do not have an ulterior motive! To put it simply....if left to their own devices, dogs will do what works for them and what feels rewarding.
Why would a dog want to raise thier status over us in the house? It is the owners who provide them comfort, food, a home, exercise, love, etc? Domesticated dogs are very dependent on us, they clearly would not survive in the wild, they do not have the necessary predatory motor patterns, so why would they want to be at the top and be the ‘alpha’?!
Dogs and wolves have very different values, a dog values what he feels rewarding within his own environment. A wolf’s value is pure survival. A domesticated dog has had all this provided for him.
In order to help prevent problem dogs and people labelling dogs ‘dominant’, it is important to start early in the dog’s life with positive, reward based training.
· Make resources more possible for the dog to have based on the dog’s behaviour. If the dog wants his food or a treat, Great, ask him to sit first. If the dog wants to greet visitors, he must sit and wait first, and so on.....it gives the dog a purpose and positive reason to be well behaved J
- Reward respectful and considerate behaviour, rather than pushy behaviour. If one dog pushes in front of the other, the other dog gets the attention. The first dog to sit gets treated. Pulling on the lead gets the dog nowhere. Doors don't open until dogs are calm and the owner says they may go out. If you accidently reward unruly and pushy behaviour you will get unruly and pushy behaviour.
Domesticated dogs should be socialised from a small puppy and carry on right through its life, especially the critical development period of up to fourteen weeks.
There is no need to ‘dominate’ the dog and make its life a misery, if you give the dog a purpose, good training, a balanced healthy diet, regular checks at the vets and lots of love and exercise, I assure you that you will have a greater chance of getting in return a balanced happy dog and not a ‘dominant’ one.
Dogs are social animals like us, the home is a social unit not a pack. The study on wolves and the definition of dominance generally means as Barry Eaton states “A drive towards the elimination of competition for a mate.” This is not relevant for domesticated dogs. Dogs if they form a pack at all, will do so with their own species as dogs are con-specific. The truth is “Dogs are not wolves.”!
Bibliography
Dogs – Raymond and Lorna Coppinger
Be the pack leader – Cesar Millan
Dominance:fact or fiction? – Barry Eaton
Dominance theory and dogs – James O’Heare
Why does my dog? – John Fisher
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