My Standard Poodle Raja likes to lead. When we come to a door, he likes to go in first. He also likes to jump in first into the car, and on walks he likes to be out in front, ahead of any of us. On walks, he would walk ahead of our other Standard Poodle, Zephyr. By some interpretations, this would make him the dominant dog of the pack.
But things aren't that simple. Raja will also happily lie down at the drop of a hat and present his belly to be rubbed. He would also go up to Zephyr and lick Zephyr's muzzle while wagging his tail, which is kept down. Zephyr on the other hand would stand with his head and his tail up, accepting Raja's licking. This should mean that Raja is submissive to both us and to Zephyr.
So which is it? According to some interpretations, dominant dogs are the ones who want to go first, who have priority of access to everything, and who never show submissive behavior. For many years, a standard way of teaching dogs to not show dominance behavior was to make them wait at doorways until the people have gone through first, to make them wait at food bowls, and to make them wait at car doors so that their people would have priority of access. This was supposed to instill the idea that the people were more dominant than the dog.
Our ideas of dominance in dogs came initially from studies of captive wolf packs in zoo-like settings, where the wolves set up linear hierarchies with one or two dominant animals at the top and all of the rest of the wolves being progressively less and less dominant, depending on where they fit on that linear hierarchy.
Studies of wild wolves have failed to confirm that wolves have linear dominance hierarchies. Wild wolf packs tend to be family groups, and the two parents tend to be dominant in much the same way that human parents tend to be dominant over their kids. They loosely set the rules, and the kids sort things out among themselves. (See a previous post on the Dog Behavior Blog by Dr. Suzanne Hetts, who discusses some of the myths of dominance and some of the work of Dr. L. David Mech with wild wolf pack behavior).
A recent study of free-ranging dogs in Italy addresses the leadership question in the light of dog dominance (Bonanni et al. 2010. Effect of affiliative and agonistic relationships on leadership behaviour in free-ranging dogs. Animal Behaviour 79: 981-991). The authors studied two packs of free-ranging dogs on a nature preserve in the suburbs of Rome. They found that one of the two packs, with 27 members, had very fluid leadership, with 6 dogs habitually leading the pack, but at least half of the adult dogs were leaders some of the time. The habitual leaders tended to be the older, more experienced dogs, but not necessarily the most dominant.
Leadership issues were even more complicated in the other pack, which was smaller with 9 dogs. This pack had one consistent leader for a month, a male who was previously a member of the larger pack but was not a habitual leader there. However, this male left the pack after one month, at which point a female became a habitual leader, although other dogs led as well. This female also came originally from the larger pack, where she was not a habitual leader. A habitual leader of the larger pack joined this smaller pack part-way through the study, but did not become a habitual leader in his new pack.
As an aside, the authors define two types of dominance in dogs: formal dominance and agonistic dominance. Formal dominance is when a submissive dog comes up to a dominant one and licks the dominant's muzzle while keeping his tail low and wagging it. This is what Raja would do with Zephyr. Agonistic dominance is when a submissive dog would respond to a threat signal from a more dominant one by crouching down, pressing his tail down, or rolling over on his back. This is what Raja would do with us, although we never threatened him.
What the study of the free-ranging dogs shows is that dominance is a complicated issue in dogs, and cannot be reduced down to simplistic things like going through doors first or being out in front in a leadership role.
The other thing that this study shows is that dominance is not something that dogs are born with, but something that they might acquire depending on their situation. Perhaps some dogs are genetically predisposed to be more dominant, but that does not mean that they will necessarily be dominant in any particular situation. This is why some people prefer the term "status" to the term "dominance" when describing dominance interactions in dogs.
The third important point of this study is that dominance does not mean threats and aggression. The authors found that the dogs who used agonistic dominance, threat signals that elicited submissive behavior such as yelps or tails pressed low in other dogs, were seldom leaders. Dogs who accepted signals of formal dominance, muzzle licking and wagging tails without any threats or aggression, were much more likely to be leaders.
As we study dogs in more natural settings, we are finding that dog behavior is much more complicated than we once assumed.
This is a really great article. To put in the simplest way, our dog is a very dominant male--despite training he tries to walk in front on walks. At the dog park dogs will challenge him a lot as well even if he is minding his own business and we think it is because they are challenging him as alpha male. He has established himself as alpha male amongst our families dogs.
Heather of TerraBound
Posted by: Dog Park Equipment by TerraBound Solutions | November 21, 2011 at 03:07 PM
A lot of so-called dog "experts" have claimed a connection with dominance and doors, but I have never agreed with that assessment.
The thing is, some dogs are curious and excitable by nature. If a dog is going outside for a walk, and they absolutely LOVE going outside for a walk, they will naturally bolt out the moment the door is open. I don't think it has anything at all to do with who is the boss here, it is a simple focus issue. They are very focused on the action at the moment.
It is the same issue with dogs who pull on their leashes. It's all about the moment, not the hierarchy. I've rolled my eyes each and every time I've ever heard or read that owners should never let their dogs out ahead of them. That should strictly be a safety issue only.
Thanks so much for the article! It was very interesting. :)
Posted by: magnoliasouth | August 11, 2010 at 11:25 AM
I always explain dominance by stating "The dominant dog is the one how want the object of attention more than his counterpart, but only at that particular moment. Period. Because dogs live in the eternal now, that moment keeps on changing; therefore, so does dominance." It is a simplistic explanation, but it works. I'm glad to see some people are sharing the right information ;-) Bravo!
You might also want to read these two studies...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=cur-cognition-do-stray-dogs-have-qu-2010-07-16
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/628a8500-ff1c-11de-a677-00144feab49a.html
Posted by: Gaby Dufresne-Cyr | July 21, 2010 at 04:46 AM
The only reason I ever thought a dog would go out a door ahead of me was because they are faster and had somewhere to go! There are reasons to teach a dog to wait at the door however.One obvious reason is safety! Another one is encouraging the dog to display calm behaviors at a potentially stress filled time.
A simple example of how dominance is not a linear occurrence is in multi-dog households. For instance,my BC Merit is the undisputed queen of the kitchen, but her sister Zen rules the back yard and all things in it. Very interesting to see how the roles change according to where they are at the time and if I am present or not. When I am present, all halos are firmly in place and it is time to see what interesting activity is about to take place!
I could spend all day watching dogs interact!
Posted by: Cathy Hughes | July 10, 2010 at 07:41 PM
Great post. I shall bring this one up at the dog park tomorrow and see what people have to say. I used to follow the thru-the-door-first theory and similar theories but no longer and it hasn't caused any change whatsoever with my dog.
My Rhodesian Ridgeback can be quite stubborn and can come off as an alpha (I was even told this by a vet) and yet when he's in the dog park, he follows the other dogs around (no matter the size) in the hopes they'll play with him. I agree the behaviour depends upon the situation.
And speaking of dominance and leadership, maybe one day you can do a post on humping. I think we'd all like to know what it means because I'm sure it's also not as straight forward as dominance.
Posted by: Sheelah | July 07, 2010 at 06:11 PM