Questions

[Emma&Tess]

Hi all

I have some questions about positive training

1. Is it still important to be your dogs leader?

2. Has there ever been a case where a dog has been Dominant over its owner?

3. When I have other dogs over to socialise with my dog the owners often talk alot about which dog is the dominant and submissive dog. They talk about things like how the dominant dog is standing over the submissive dog. When dogs socialise with each other are they sorting out the pecking order or just playing and what does this body language mean?

4. My puppy does not bite me very much but she still bites my Mum and people who are new. Does this mean that she does not respect other people as her leader?

5. Should you lie down by your dog? Some people told me not to because you are showing your dog it is dominant over you.

Thanks alot
P.S I hope it is okay that I put these questions together. Sorry if not.

[emmabeth]

Oooooh good questions!

1. Is it still important to be your dogs leader?

It is important to be someone your dog can trust, respect, find interesting and rewarding to be around - the human roles that are comparable would be team leaders, parents, mentors, teachers.

When a trainer or behaviourist tells you to be your dogs leader you need to ask them to define exactly what they mean by that, and how they suggest you achieve it. I avoid saying 'leader' personally, or 'boss'... because these words tend to bring about ideas of really strict control and even physically manhandling and dominating a dog which is absolutely not what I intend. Some people DO mean that though... and a lot of people will think this is what you mean if you say those words.

Think about someone who in your life, has helped you to feel confident and safe and has helped you not only to learn, but to learn for yourself - that might be a teacher or an employer or a parent... or even a friend. Thats who you need to be in your dogs life.

2. Has there ever been a case where a dog has been Dominant over its owner?

Yes. Hundreds, millions...... every day dogs dominate their owners lives, dictating to them how they run their homes, where they sit, what guests they can have home....

And not one single one of these dogs ever set out to do this.

Anything can dominate a persons life - even inanimate objects, cigarettes, drugs, computer games (just ask anyone whose partner has got Call of Duty!), Warhammer 40K dominates MY life... because the bl**dy miniatures are all over my workspace, filling up my spare room and theres bits of cardboard and plasticard and stuf EVERYWHERE...

So your life can be dominated by things, without those 'things' ever having any intention of dominating you. It is down to you to control things..... to make sure you arent addicted to drugs or cigs or computer games.... to set fair and reasonable boundaries with your partner about how much Warhammer stuff they can spread about the house....

And, about your dogs behaviour. Every dog I have ever come across that was dominating its owners life, was 100% happier once the balance was re-jigged and firm, sensible boundaries were put in place. Everyone of these dogs had been inadvertantly taught, by being rewarded for their behaviour, to act in such a way as they ruled their owners life, or the owner had failed to teach them to do anything else.

3. When I have other dogs over to socialise with my dog the owners often talk alot about which dog is the dominant and submissive dog. They talk about things like how the dominant dog is standing over the submissive dog. When dogs socialise with each other are they sorting out the pecking order or just playing and what does this body language mean?

When you bring 'strange' dogs into another dogs environment there is usually some testing to see who stands where - this also often happens in parks and off lead too but to a lesser degree if theres a wide open space because its less important to the dogs (they can go away if they want to, they cant do that in a small living room or a back yard). Some playful behaviours are polite ways of seeing where one stands with another dog, some of it is just amusing play - it depends on the dog in question AND the environmental context.

Most owners are not great at reading their dogs body language so I wouldnt read too much into it, and of course if you change the context, a different dog may come out the more confident and more interested in that situation.

4. My puppy does not bite me very much but she still bites my Mum and people who are new. Does this mean that she does not respect other people as her leader?

No - it means that she's learned, since she spends more time with you, that biting you doesnt result in fun and games. But with people she interacts with less, and because play biting and chewing is something she NEEDS to do and is instinctively driven to do, its still worth trying it to see if it works.

It takes a while for dogs to generalise a lesson from 'chewing this person isnt fun' to 'chewing all people isnt fun' (and lots of other lessons besides) so the more you can practice training by having people respond the same way you do (and not rewarding her by squealing or jumping around or pushing her away) the faster she will generalise this to all people.

5. Should you lie down by your dog? Some people told me not to because you are showing your dog it is dominant over you.

Your dog doesn't want to be dominant over you, or indeed anyone. Your dog wants to be safe and enjoys life when things are rewarding to do (and so he does them more) and he knows where he stands and what he should do in the situations he finds himself in - much like you do.

Lying down with your dog if your dog is comfortable and happy with this is fine - if you have a nervous dog this might not be fine for this dog. My dogs sleep on, under and IN my bed, sometimes not just laying next to me but laying on TOP of me (though I dont like being squashed by my Deerhound so much!).

Yet they all listen to what I say and on the whole do as they are asked - because they have found it rewarding to do so, and I have avoided asking them to do things they do not know how to do/cannot do/are too distracted to do, until doing as I ask has been generalised to all situations. Sometimes in my house, humans sit on the floor and the dogs sit on the sofa! And yet still, they heed what we say because they have learned its a good idea to do so, it brings rewards.


I hope this answers your questions satisfactorily, but its a good discussion so any further questions (and anyone else wanting to add their thoughts/insights is more than welcome) please do add them!

[Emma&Tess]

Thankyou Emmabeth. Very good answers. That was just what I wanted to know.

[Mattie]

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