Dog Training - What is Wrong with the Dominance Theory?

There has been a great deal of controversy of late about the concept of dominance in dog training.  As a brief history, the old methods of dog training employed coercion, as in forcing the dog to perform the action required by physically pushing him around.  Sometimes this involved negative conditioning, using physical punishments to correct unwanted behavior.  The use of check chains or choke chains was pretty prevalent.  Nobody thought about motivation, giving the animal a good reason to do what you want, rather than training through fear.  As long as the dog learned to "do it", who cared about the psychology or the relationship between owner and dog?

In the bad old days, we communicated with dogs in the same way as English people try to converse with "foreigners" by shouting at them.  The theory being that everyone intrinsically understands English as long as you push it home hard enough.

So there was a huge step forward towards the end of the 20th century when dog behaviorism was studied and it was realised that dogs, being descended from wild wolves, behaved in the same way as wolves and understood us if we behaved more like wolves too.  So far so good. 

It was observed that a couple of wolves, male and female, are the Alphas in the pack.  They breed all the puppies in the pack and the rest of the wolves are subservient to them and do their bidding.  It's like a benign dictatorship.  From this it was extrapolated that some dogs are just natural Alphas and want to rule the home and dictate terms to the owner. 

The worst side of this theory is that if a dog exhibits resistance to doing what the owner wants when he is trying to train the dog (translation of resistance: confusion) then he is a dominant dog.  He will try to rule the roost, sometimes by violent means, unless the owner disabuses him of this notion and shows him who is really the boss.

The problem with this is that there have been cases where a dog who really needed to be given clearer guidance and training in what was required of him ended up being put to sleep and condemned as a "dominant" animal.  This is the dominance theory taken to an extreme in dog training.

In more recent years, further studies have been performed, some of which contradict the theory that the wolf pack is the model for the domesticated dog.  They assert that wild dog packs are much more relevant, and they behave rather differently to wolves.  Operant conditioning has come into fashion which is all about positive reinforcement, and it has been realised that very few dogs actually want to be the top dog in the pack.  They want to be shown firm guidance and are quite happy for you to be the leader of the pack and set the parameters.  So it's no longer all about dominance and submission, and hopefully this means less dogs will be written off as unworthy of pet life.

Dog Training

Dog training usually begins from the puppy stages and teaches proper behavior. It is effective in correcting many numbers of dog behavior problems. The good thing about this is that there are numerous options available from dog collars to electronic fences and from crates to clickers.  There will definitely be an option that works for your breed of dog.  The training can be basic obedience training such as sit, heel, down or stay, teaching the owner to better communicate with the dog thus creating a happier and obedient pet.

Dog training can also be utilized for specialist purposes, for example for police dogs, detection dogs, guide dogs, rescue dogs and sport dogs among a host of others.  This training can also help in curbing simple problems such as excessive barking, fence jumping, biting, aggression, whining and submissive urination.

Excessive barking

Excessive barking is a major problem for many dog owners and basic obedience training can help to curb this problem.  Dogs are unable to talk so they communicate in part by barking.  They do this for a number of reasons: they may bark if they are isolated and alone, through the excitement of playing, to alert owners of impending danger, to express dominance, for attention, or when staking out their territory. some dogs are also bred to bark such as hounds and terriers.  Once you have established the reason why the dog barks it is easier to train him to break the habit.

Many people make the mistake of rewarding their dog's barking, thus contributing to the problem.  If the dog is outside barking to come in, do not let him inside -  this just reinforces the barking by rewarding the behavior and giving the dog what he wanted.  Also, do not yell at the dog, because this gives them the very attention they are crying out for.  This will cause them to bark each time they need attention. Don't cuddle your dog or give him a treat to keep him from barking because each time he wants either of these things (cuddles or attention) he will bark continually!  People make these common mistakes all the time without realizing their contribution to the problem.

Jumping Up

Some dogs have a habit of jumping up on people and they do this when they’re excited or if they are seeking your attention.  Dogs also jump on guests to assert dominance over them and establish boundaries. 

This behavior can be corrected if trained out at an early stage using humane dog training methods, and there are various ways to do it.  For example in situations where the dog is excited, try to distract him by giving him something else to do.  This way you can instruct them to sit, or heel, before they are able to jump up on you or anyone else. Also when you realize that your dog is ready to jump, turn your body away from him and avoid eye contact.  Ignoring your dog during these jumping periods will show him that this behaviour is not acceptable.

Dog trainers may sometimes use pinch collars to correct this behaviour, this method is of dubious value and may be suitable for large dogs such as Rottweilers and German shepherds - however this is an extreme method and should only be used as a last resort if used at all.