Re: Dog behaviour and wolves

sophia guymer — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:05:05 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]and that the dominance/sub-ordination thing that has been espoused for years as a cause of behaviouralproblems is probably out of date and inaccurate.[/quote]

Hello Julian,

I was just wondering why you asked?

I agree totally with the fact that the dog is not a wolf, that the true alfa male thing is not going, not even in a multi dog household, very often it is impossible to hazard a guess to which of the dogs would be 'the dominant' one as the 'dominance' shifts according to the situation.

In one of the articles on the sites quoted it gives a definition of dominance, it states it is a relationship between individuals that is established through force, aggression, and submission in order to establish priority access to all desired resources etc.

Well, I for one do not use the word with that meaning in mind! I do help quite a few people with problems they are having with their dogs and whenever I use the word dominance I certainly do not mean they need to use force and aggression!!

I think we have to be very careful with telling people that the 'dominance/sub ordination thing' is out of date and inaccurate as they will not necessarily understand what that means! I certainly do not think it means that it doesn't matter if the dog gets fed before the owner does, and that the dog can sleep in the owners bed without this causing any kind of problem etc. I see a lot of dog-owner aggression which is simply resolved by what I like to call 'non confrontational' dominance in the owner. (always eat before the dog, the dog sleeping downstairs, possible in a crate if necessary, ignoring bad behaviour where possible, waiting with greeting the dog on entry of the house until the rest of the family has been greeted and untill the dog is calm etc etc).I am also a great fan of clicker training! There is no need for any kind of aggression or force, in fact it is ussually completely contra indicated and dangerous!

I worry that if I was to tell these people that the whole dominance thing was out the window, they would be confused and not understand. So although I agree with most of what is being said (although I think cesar milan is absolutely brilliant and totally misunderstood by most, he is by no means forcefull and aggressive! I would never tell my clients to try his methods though because they are very difficult to get right, in fact, I dont use them myself but would love to go over to his centre and be properly taught!!) I dont think it is in practice that important.

I hope this is all not too muddled and you get my drift.

Re: Dog behaviour and wolves

Julian Earl — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:51:52 GMT

Thanks both. That is the one Michael, and I think I have the second part saved somewhere, but it is AWOL at the moment. Thank you.

Jacquin: that site is additional useful information to what I was looking for and provides useful information thanks.

Re: Dog behaviour and wolves

Jacquin Mitchell — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:41:54 GMT

There is a lot of good information on this site. including this article which discusses some of the things you ask about.

http://4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm

HTH

Jacq

Re: Dog behaviour and wolves

Michael Woodhouse — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:59:59 GMT

There was a two part article on dog behaviour and dominance in Vet Times September last year

Part 1

I can't seem to find the 2nd part!

You might need to be logged on over on the Vet Times site to see the PDF