You used to hear people suck on their teeth, like car mechanics do when they are about to tell you the bad news, and say "that's a dominant dog" as if the owner's cherished pet had popped out of the womb that way. Whatever a dog's physical capacity to become high ranking within a given group a sense of its ability to achieve it has to be learnt. This is developed by observing the signals from, and remembering the outcome of interactions with, other members of the group.

There are many variables in each dog to dog and dog to person relationship. In fact the situation can change from one scenario to another. Imagine for a moment that you are a dog walking towards another. It has got food. Do you want to go spoiling for a fight? There are three things to consider.

  1. What has been your previous relationship with this dog, have you or it been pushover or are the honours even?
  2. Is the prize worth having? There may be a big difference between its desire to guard, and your desire to get, a chocolate bar and a bowl of cold porridge, but this depends upon how you feel about cold porridge.
  3. Are you going to get hurt? Even if the other dog has lost to you in the past it is in possession of the item. So even if you are top dog it may just not be worth the effort. If you think you can win, you really want the item and you've got nothing to loose go ahead and take it. If you are right the other dog will predict it will come off worse if it challenges you and will give way.

The Problem

The signals dogs get from other pack members tend to be genuine and, although subtle, unambiguous. However within the family, the dog's adoptive pack, the wrong signals are sometimes given which results in faulty learning and relationship problems. Think of the example above and ask yourself if you are a dog with a bone will you give it to another dog? If you do is that dog more or less likely to think you are weaker than it is. If it thinks you are weaker is it more likely to throw its weight around or challenge you in other situations? Now lets put the questions in a family context. If you are wandering about the house with a piece of toast and you break some off and give it to your dog is it going to see you as a stronger member of the pack or a weaker one? If the answer is weaker is your dog more or less likely to challenge you in other situations?

Applying Rules

You can apply rules in their literal sense or you can adopt a policy of making it clear to your dog that you are in control by telling it to comply with a request first so that it "earns" the resource, eg. you may tell it to sit before you stroke it if it is seeking attention. These variations on a theme are not contradictory because the application of the rules is on a sliding scale. How you impose them is dependent upon what seems necessary, which you can only judge from your dog’s behaviour. Prior to maturity however, dogs will not necessarily show the consequences of receiving the wrong signals from the group it lives with. Whatever your dog’s age, if a rule does not seem very important to it concentrate on ones that are.

© David Appleby 1999

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Please note that the Pet Behaviour Centre and David Appleby cannot be held responsible for death or injury to people or animals, or damage to property caused by the correct or incorrect use of the techniques described in this article.