Is Your Dog Trying To Dominate You?
OK, so us dog trainers hear it time and time again from people:
“My dog is trying to dominate me, he wants to be the boss.”
Really think about that statement for a minute. Really, really think about what that’s saying. It is saying that our dogs want to take over the world, essentially. And, let’s face it, given how intelligent and incredible dogs are, you’d expect them to have done so by now if that was their actual game plan.
So, let’s bust the myth…our dogs are not trying to dominate us at all! There’s no such thing as your dog trying to be a ‘pack leader’ when it comes to their relationship with you and their standing within your family home.
There’s some real science behind this too. Let’s take a quick peek at where this theory came from in the first place.
There’s this guy in the 1930s called Schenkel. He studied a load of unrelated wolves who were held in captivity. He basically said that the tension and conflict within this group of wolves was because of each wolf wanting to lead the group and have access to the most resources. This became known as the ‘alpha theory’. People then said that this same theory applied to our domesticated dogs because dogs come from wolves. The fact that, although genetically related, our domesticated dogs are an entirely different species to the wolf is a story for another day, but still a point to note.
Anyway, back to the story…in the 1970s, another guy called Mech revisited this theory and he found that it was completely and utterly flawed. He studied wolves in their natural habitat (not in captivity where false behaviours occur) and he found that wolves in fact live in close-knit family groups, sharing resources and ensuring that each of them survives based on co-operation within the group. Basically, Schenkel’s theory wasn’t remotely reflective of how wolves actually live together and more like the Big Brother version of wolf studies.
The problem is that by the time Mech proved that the alpha theory was wrong, it had become popularised in everyday culture and taken to be true of domesticated dogs. Argh! Popularised opinions are hard to change, even when they are wrong, and so still to this day lots of people believe that our dogs are trying to dominate us.
It isn’t true.
So why does it matter whether we believe this or not? Well, it matters immensely because the ‘pack leader’, ‘dominance’ and ‘alpha’ theory of dogs gives people the green light to treat their dogs in certain ways. It’s a belief that fools people into thinking there are quick fixes with most things and that those quick fixes are to stress, hurt or scare a dog into compliance by leaving them with no other choice. It is dog training based on the principle of avoidance: the dog will do the thing you want them to do in order to avoid the consequences that happen if they don’t. It’s not how I want to live with my dog and it’s certainly not how wolves want to live with each other either! It’s a pretty miserable state of affairs.
What human behaviour has this given rise to over the years? Walking through doors before your dog, not letting them eat before you, putting your hand in their food bowl or taking their food bowl away mid-eating, yanking on leads to stop them from walking normally, not letting them sit in comfy places like your sofa, using electric shock collars or prong collars to physically hurt them when they do something you don’t like, forcing them into corners to get them to be less afraid of guests, forcing them onto their backs to get them to become submissive. The list goes on and on and on. What kind of species are we to treat another like this? I mean, come on, if the dominance theory was even true or if any of this stuff actually worked, why on earth have dogs not evolved to not have a pack leader mindset by now? This question never gets answered by those believing the dominance theory. Our dogs would have evolved to fit in with us after all this time. It is almost unheard of for a species to maintain an evolutionary trait that negatively affects them. None of the pack leader theory makes sense, yet people still believe it.
There’s one argument to say that, because our domesticated dogs are an entirely different species to wolves, studying any kind of wolf behaviour is unhelpful and therefore both Schenkel and Mech’s findings are irrelevant when it comes to the dogs that we live with today. I get that.
What we do know is that over thousands and thousands and thousands of years, dogs have evolved alongside us. Lots of theories differ as to how they first became domesticated. Was it because they scavenged from human camps and humans welcomed them in over time because they were useful to them? Was it because of environmental pressures forcing humans and wolves together? Was it because of mass populations being introduced to certain areas and so selective pressure worked in their favour? We will never know the true answer to this sadly.
But what we do know is that our current modern-day dogs live alongside us as part of a family unit (just like wolves do). There’s no intra-species competition between us and them, our dogs are well aware that we are an entirely different species to them! Rather than any competition, our domesticated dogs (not village/street, community or feral dogs) are almost entirely reliant on us in fact. There’s no pressure for resources when it comes to our relationship with them because we provide them with everything they need…food, water, shelter and so on. Our domesticated dogs have no need whatsoever to compete against us for resources because we provide them with it all! If anything, our dogs dote on us because of this. There is a bond there based on mutual trust and co-operation. If our domesticated dogs were trying to dominate us, they’d have probably become extinct by now because of the fact that they are so reliant on us for survival. In fact, the way that we have bred our dogs over the years means that their relationship with us is very much like a child-parent relationship. They need guidance and boundaries and to be taught how to grow up and cope in this world. They look to us for answers as part of a partnership and not because of a desire to compete.
Why does this all matter? It matters immensely. It changes how you live with your dog depending on whether your beliefs remain in the past. It changes how you treat your dog. It changes how your dog feels about you. It changes if your dog is happy or not. It changes how you train your dog. It changes whether your dog lives the life they deserve to live.
It really, really matters.
So guys, that’s it. The dominance theory is a 1930s mistake. A myth. Mech knew it. Your dog is not trying to take over the world. They are not trying to take over your life. They need you. They want you to help them, to guide them and care for them. Let them on the sofa will you? Stop taking their food away when they are eating (can you imagine that happening to you?). Stop doing all of those bizarre things that the dominance theory falsely leads you to believe you can do to your dog. Just treat them with love and respect and show them the way through. That’s all that’s needed.
They don’t want to take over the world. You are their world. It’s time people started to see it.
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