11/19/2022
Let’s talk about something for a moment. The dominance theory. What is it? The dominance theory assumes that the unwanted behavior from a dog is them trying to be “dominant” or the “alpha” and suggests that the way to solve behavioral problems is to establish dominance over your dog. What is wrong with this theory? That’s what I would like to talk about. This theory has been around since the 1940’s. In 1970 a book by the name of “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species” was published by David Mech. He conducted multiple behavioral studies on a pack of unrelated wolves. He saw multiples fights in what he perceived as a strict social hierarchy. However studies of wolves in the wild showed different behavior. In the wild they operated as a family. The wolves worked as a team and there were few fights. Over the years we’ve seen many things change. Many things be debunked and looked over again. The dominance theory included. Why were the results from Mech so different? Further investigation showed the wolves weren’t fighting for dominance, they were fighting for survival. They were under extreme stress due to captivity. No one was fighting to be alpha they were fighting because they were scared. In 1999 David Mech actually rejected his idea in light of the new research of wolves in the wild and has even tried to get his publisher to stop publishing the book.
Now why is this important? I wanted to bring this up because some dog trainers use this method still. Even people at home assume this method works. They will jab into the dogs chest, roll them onto their stomachs and hold them there, amongst other things to overpower a dog. They believe that by doing so shows the dog “who’s boss” and they will then get the dog to be obedient. Do we see the problem here? Physically restraining or hurting a dog to get a desired behavior will never work. In turn those actions will result in a dog being afraid which can very quickly turn to aggression.
Think of it this way, say you’re having a dispute with family and they demand you listen to them, so they jab you in the chest or pin you too the ground. Even if it was your family fight or flight would kick in. You’d be scared or likely want to fight back. Now think if this, you don’t understand what language they are speaking while this is happening. Your dog doesn’t understand your language. When training a dog you’re also teaching them a whole new language. Learning something new can already be stressful, adding physical restraint or harm on top of that makes it even worse. These actions create aggression. This is what gets people bit and this is what gets a dog marked as “aggressive”.
See why this doesn’t work yet? Your dogs entire life revolves around you. You feed them, walk them, bathe them. Everything they need to live depends on you. Having a dog is like having a child. Always remember that.
This post is simply to bring awareness to a training theory that people are still use today and to show and explain how harmful it is. I want people to be aware of how harmful this thinking is. There are many ways to actually help your dog and resolve a problem behavior without ever having to force or hurt them. Please treat your dog the way you would want to be treated when learning something new. With patience, respect, and positive reinforcement rather than a forced behavior.
