Dominance Reality or Myth?

Everyone who has owned / trained or even been around a dog has probably heard this or something similar - don't let him do that because he is trying to dominate you or you just have to show him who is the boss and then he will behave.  These are phrases I hear every day in veterinary clinics and it makes me very concerned about what we are doing to our dogs.

I got my first dog at the age of 14 - she was a wonderful and very forgiving dog.  I used punishment and force, I spanked her, I yelled at her, I did not socialize her and amazingly she turned out great in spite of how little I knew.  Everyone loved her and I thought I knew dogs until I met Dally.  Dally was a challenge from day one and I went to trainer after trainer.  She even saw multiple animal behaviorists and every one had a different story on the signals she was giving me.  Some said she was highly aggressive and trying to dominate me so I need to be the boss, get control.  Others told me she was fearful and was reactive because she had learned it worked.  One told me she was a broken dog who could never be worked with and should be euthanized as she was a danger to those around her.

I did everything they told me to - I used prong collars, I yelled at her, I used a choke lead, I never let her go through the door ways first, I never let her eat before me or the other dogs but nothing worked, her behavior got worse now she would growl at me.  I was at my wit's end and I hated sharing my house with this dog.  Lost and unsure of what to do I went to a seminar by Sophia Yin and got a book on clicker training.  I went home to try one more thing certain we would fail and much to my amazement she responded, she was happy, she wanted to interact, she wanted to learn.  She learned so quickly once conditioned to the clicker that I started to fall in love with her.  She was a dog with big personality and big problems but with the help of positive reinforcement and 100% management she lived with us for 11 years and never bit a person or unfamiliar dog which I considered a success.  

Through this experience I learned a lot about traditional punishment based training techniques (as demonstrated by Cesar Milan) and started thinking about a better way to do things.  I became interested in animal behavior and why animals do the things they do.  Are they really trying to dominate us or is this something else entirely?  To explore this we have to first understand what dominance is in the animal world.

In animal behavior, dominance is defined as a relationship between individuals that is established through force, aggression and submission in order to establish priority access to all desired resources (food, the opposite sex, preferred resting spots, etc). A relationship is not established until one animal consistently defers to another.

In species such as bulls, lions, roosters, wolves etc where strong hierarchies exist dominance is a very real thing.  However for dogs this is simply not true.  The domestic dog evolved as a scavenger over the past 10 - 15 thousand years.  In many cases they were living as individuals and had a very promiscuous mating system.  Virtually all males had the opportunity to mate and pass on their genes.  There was no rigid hierarchy because having high rank would not be advantageous to dogs living as the original dogs were or as our domestic dogs live today.

If our dogs are not trying to dominate us then what is going on?

It is my belief that our pet dogs are not trying to dominate us but instead are exhibiting unruly behaviors from a lack of consistent leadership and training.  Let's investigate this further using some common problem behaviors as examples.

1.  You get a puppy and the puppy jumps up on you - typically response pet pup and tell him how cute he is.  Puppy grows into an adult dog, jumps up on you for attention - typically response dog gets yelled at, knee to the chest or some other punishment.  Is the dog trying to dominate you?  NO - this dog is doing exactly what you trained him to do when he was a puppy, his only crime is that he got bigger.  So how do we prevent a dog from jumping?  Teach him to sit for attention when he is a puppy and remove all attention when he jumps up.  (if you have a problem with your adult dog jumping on you call to schedule a one on one obedience session to learn how to effectively treat this problem)

2.  Dog is excited to go for a walk.  He jumps and is crazy at the door while you are putting his leash on.  You go out the door and he drags you down the street as you run behind him.  Is this dog trying to dominate you?  No - this dog is excited and unruly before you have even left the house and now he is outside surrounded by a world of fantastic smells.  He is just trying to get where he wants to go faster and unfortunately you are attached to the other end of the leash.  If as a puppy or an adult dog you had taught him not to pull on the leash he would understand that he can't get to any of the things he wants to see unless he is walking calmly by your side on a loose leash.  (if you have a problem with your dog pulling on leash call to schedule a one on one obedience session to learn how to effectively treat this problem)

3.  Dog gets into the trash can when owner is away.  Most owners don't misconstrue this as dominance but many of them think that the dog "knows" they were bad.  Truth is the dog knows that if there is trash on the floor the owner gets upset and goes crazy so they offer appeasement gestures to try to prevent you from getting upset.  Don't believe me?  Take your dog out of the house and have someone dump the trash on the floor - I would be willing to be when the dog entered the house they would offer the same behaviors.  Why would the dog offer these behaviors if they weren't the one who dumped the trash on the floor?

I hope that after reading this you have a some what better understanding of your dogs behavior and you aren't constantly consumed with the idea of dominance any more.  If you are interested in more information on the dominance controversy please visit http://drsophiayin.com/philosophy/dominance.  

If you want to have a good relationship with your pet - focus on positive reinforcement and structuring your relationship in a way that sets up pet up to succeed in every situation.  Treat your pet the way you would want to be treated and having a dog will be just want you always dreamed of.

Sophia Yin was a master at understanding animal behavior and she could communicate with dogs in a way that was simply amazing to watch.  I learned a lot from her and will be forever in her debt.