What is a dominant dog?
Some people attribute all problem behaviors to “dominance“, while others do not want to use the “dominant dog” label at all. The truth, as always, is somewhere in-between.
It is useful to recognize dominant behaviors in our dog, so that we can better manage him, keep him safe, and set him up for success. Refusing to use the word dominance, or denying its existence in dogs, is unhelpful.
Any pack animal including humans and dogs, have to deal with dominance issues, because it is part of pack dynamics.
Similarly, trying to explain everything away by using the dominant dog label or excuse, is also unhelpful. To really fix a problem behavior, we want to fully understand it, and correctly identify its source. For example, a dog may show aggression because of dominance. However, dog aggression can also be the result of fear, stress, play, curiosity, boredom, or something else.
Dog Dominance
Dominance is a fluid concept.
Dogs are not dominant all of the time.
For example, many dogs will show greater dominance when they are on home turf, or when their owners are around. Under different circumstances, these same dogs may become less assertive, or may even become submissive.
Observe our dog carefully, and identify when he is more likely to show dominance, and why.
Dominance is a relative concept.
My Shiba Inu, for example, is more dominant than most dogs I have owned. He challenges me more frequently, and is constantly testing his boundaries. He has a dominant body posture, and he will not back down when challenged by other dogs.
My Siberian Husky, is a more submissive dog. She usually stops whatever she is doing, when I tell her to. She very quickly backs down, and uses submissive body language, when confronted by other dogs.
However, this does not mean that my Husky will always back down, or never show any dominance behavior. She simply prefers to avoid conflict, and has learned that she usually gets more, by seeking a peaceful resolution. I make sure to encourage this behavior, by rewarding calmness and conflict avoidance very well.
What is a Dominant Dog?
- A dominant dog will likely respond with aggression when he is frustrated, or when he feels threatened. He may also redirect that aggression onto us, if we try to physically engage him.
- A dominant dog is more forceful when it comes to fulfilling his own needs and goals. He is not afraid to challenge those around him, and to continually test his boundaries. My Shiba Inu is always testing to see if particular rules, such as the no getting on furniture rule, still hold true.
- A dominant dog is more likely to fight, and less likely to submit or run away. My Shiba Inu likes playing with other dogs, but he generally does not get along with dogs who try to dominate him. If challenged, he will not back down, and this can result in a dog fight.
Dealing with a Dominant Dog
1. Calm and decisive pack leader
Being angry and shouting at our dog, will only worsen his behavior. Fear and uncertainty will increase his level of stress, and cause him to behave in a more erratic fashion.
The best way to deal with a dominant dog is to remain calm, and firmly remove him from the environment or object, that is causing him to act out.
2. Avoid physical corrections
Contrary to common belief, physical force or physical corrections is NOT a good way to deal with dominant dogs. If not perfectly executed (with perfect timing, force, and technique), a physical correction may further frustrate our dog, and cause him to get more aggressive.
Instead, stay calm, keep physical interactions to a minimum, and quickly leave the stressful situation. In addition, using physical force against a dog, may end up teaching him the wrong lesson; in particular, use violence against violence.
True alpha dogs lead by controlling the pack’s resources. We can control our dog’s resources by following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program, and using reward obedience training.
3. Management and supervision
We want to step in and stop any aggressive behaviors, before our dog escalates and loses control. Prevention is key when dealing with a dominant dog. It stops him from practicing aggressive behaviors, and it enforces the important lesson that we are calm and in charge.
4. Consistent rules
To become a good pack leader, it is important to develop a set of house rules and some structure, for our dog to follow. Always be consistent with enforcing all of those rules.
My Shiba Inu’s most important house rules include –
- No getting on furniture,
- No biting on people,
- No leash biting, and
- No food aggression or resource guarding.
5. Frequent obedience training sessions
Schedule at least two or more short (10 – 15 minutes) obedience training sessions with our dog, every day. It is a good idea to keep up with obedience exercises, throughout a dog’s life. This keeps him mentally sharp, and makes it clear that we are in charge.
6. Use proper equipment to control our dog
When dealing with aggression, safety should always be a primary concern.
Use whatever equipment is necessary, to keep all the people around our dominant dog safe. A drag lead may also be useful because it gives us good control of our dog, without having to lay hands on him or his collar, and without resorting to chasing games.
If our dog has a bite history, it may be necessary to use a muzzle. I like the basket muzzle because it does not overly constrain a dog’s mouth, and is more comfortable. A basket muzzle will still allow a dog to eat and pant.
Be careful not to aggravate our dog’s aggressive behavior by overly constraining him, and causing barrier frustration. When in doubt, consult a professional trainer.
7. Set our dog up for success
Try to minimize the number of dominant displays. Identify objects (e.g. other dogs, cats) and environmental conditions (e.g. loud noise) that trigger dominant behaviors, and avoid those triggers.
Then, gradually desensitize our dog to those events, in a controlled fashion.
Many dog behavioral issues, including resource guarding, biting people, dog-to-dog aggression, sensitivity to handling, growling at humans, and general disobedience, are often attributed to “the dominant dog”.
However, each of these problems are unique, and complex. They are usually the result of many factors, one of which may be dominance. In fact, many behavioral issues are the result of stress and fear, and have nothing whatsoever to do with dominance.
When dealing with dog behavioral issues, it is best to keep an open mind.
Observe our dog and his environment carefully. Identify the triggers for his aggressive behavior, and try to understand why he is responding in this way. If his aggression is extreme (e.g. he is breaking skin, and/or causing puncture wounds), hire a professional trainer to help us carefully trouble-shoot the problems.
Hi shibashake,
I have two shibas one dominant female and one non-dominant male, both being fixed. My sister rescently got a male shiba that is fixed but he is dominant. We were hoping that eventually they would be able to get along. But i was wondering if they would be able to, since my female and male are so closely bonded, if it would cause a dominance fight between all the dogs. i know shibas are VERY attached to there owners and family members, so would it be a bad idea to see if they would get along all in all?
How old are your Shibas and how do they usually act with other dogs? How old is your sister’s Shiba and how does he act with other dogs? This will largely determine how you approach introducing them to your sister’s dog.
When I organize meetings, I make sure to take proper precautions so that everybody remains safe. It may be better to have the first few meetings on neutral ground.
I usually start by just walking the dogs in the general vicinity of each other and see how they react. I make sure NOT to walk them head-on as that is usually seen as a challenge. I always have space between them and make sure there are no head-to-head meetings.
I only let the dogs go if I am totally confident that they will get along. Initially, I may leave the leashes on, and let them drag it around, so that it will be easier to stop any misbehavior. I make sure they all have flat collars on and NOT aversive collars as that can cause injury during play.
It is also a good idea to introduce the dogs one-on-one. Initially, I only let my non-dominant dog meet with the new dog. If all goes well, then I try with the next less dominant dog, etc. Note that the dynamic may totally change once multiple dogs are together so make sure to keep careful watch and make safety be a priority. I closely supervise them and interrupt them before they escalate into any kind of aggression. Do not leave them alone for any period of time.
I make sure to stop play from time to time so that they do not get over-excited which can sometimes also lead to aggression. It is a good idea anyway to stop play from time to time and insert some human play time in-between.
What studies show that tug-of-war and rough housing lead to dominance? Rooney and Bradshaw performed studies with 14 dogs and found no affect to confidence/dominance behavior. In fact, play training (including tug-of-war and controlled rough housing) leads to stronger bonds between humans and dogs. Reference pg 322-326 Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training: Adaptation and learning By Steven R. Lindsay.
Also, nervous, undersocialized and scared dogs with little confidence show more aggressive than dominant dogs. Just a different way of looking at things. Nice site. I also have two shibas and an Akita.
Two paws up
Eric
I think wrt. Tug-of-War and rough-housing, it is the type of behavior that it encourages and gets the dog to practice on people. Rough-housing can encourage dogs to mouth on people, and tug can encourage dogs to pull on objects held or attached to people.
If played with proper rules on most dogs it is probably not an issue. However, problems arise when these games are played with no rules, or improper rules, which can teach dogs that if they mouth or pull hard enough, they get what they want.
I don’t rough-house with my Shiba because he is a very mouthy dog and that is not the type of behavior that I want to encourage in him. He gets to rough-house with other dogs but not with humans. My Siberian Husky has a much calmer temperament, so I am less strict with her.
I think it all depends on how the games are played and the temperament of the dogs involved.
Hello shibashake,
My familly and I have a 9 month old German Shepherd male not fixed yet. He has recently been barking a lot at people without dogs. He is fine when we take him off leash to dog parks and doesn’t even care for other people there but around the house and if we take him someplace other than dog parks he won’t stop barking when he see’s a dogless person. At first he would only bark and not come close to a person but latley he is becoming more and more fearless and getting closer and closer. He has been to obedience training a while back but the commands he does know and listen to in the home and dog park environment go out the window around people with no dogs.
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Two things that help with my dogs – 1. Desensitization to people and ultimately 2. Socialization to a wide variety of people.
I start with desensitization exercises first. The article below describes desensitization of a dog to other dogs, but the process is similar wrt. desensitization with a human. Just make sure that to take all the safety precautions – if we think our dog may bite, then use a basket muzzle and have him on a secure leash.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression#desensitize
With the desensitization process we are trying to teach our dog to look to us for direction whenever he is stressed or unsure what to do. It is also a great way to brush up on obedience commands, and to create a stronger bond with our dog.
Once I progress through the desensitization process and can get close enough to the other human without my dog showing any reactive behavior, I have the other person throw my dog some really good treats. This helps him make positive associations with people. If we keep repeating this, he will soon look forward to seeing people because it means good treats for him.
Once my dog is comfortable around one person, I try having the person move around and also have a variety of different people dressed in many different ways (e.g. big hats, with umbrellas, with sunglasses, baseball cap, men, women, old people, young people etc).
Dogs don’t tend to generalize something across multiple different situations, so we must desensitize them to a variety of different situations to help them make that generalization.
If our dog starts to escalate his behavior, I would get a professional trainer who can observe him in real time and accurately identify the source of his reactivity.
I would also consider the neutering process. It can (but not always) reduce reactive behaviors, and will also save us the hassle of really supervising our dog closely whenever there are female dogs around, especially female dogs that are going into heat.
Hi, I have a 3 year old french bulldog that is totally Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. He can be affectionate and sweet when he wants to be but when he’s off he’s off. In particular when my adult son comes home for awhile. As soon as my son walks in the house the dog is all over him and seems very, VERY happy to see him but 10 minutes later he will be most likely growling at my son the next time he tries to touch him. I can’t stand this on again off again Cujo attitude. What can I do.
I teach my dog what is appropriate behavior when interacting with guests and visitors. In the beginning it is best not to allow any roughhousing at all – no jumping, no biting (even in play) and no growling.
When a friend/relative comes, I ask him to totally ignore the dog. Fold his arms, and institute the no talk, no touch, and no eye-contact rule. No eye contact is especially important because that can be seen as attention and an invitation. When the dog jumps, I get my friend to turn away from my dog (not move away, just turn away, calmly).
Also I have my dog on a lead. If he tries to play-bite, or growl, *I* no-mark him (No or ack-ack). If he ignores me and continues with his biting, then I say “Time-out” and remove him to a time-out area. I leave him in there for about 30 seconds and repeat the meeting exercise. If he play-bites or growls again and ignores my no-mark, I put him in time-out for a longer duration (1-2 minutes).
The time-out teaches my dog that if he doesn’t behave well with guests, he doesn’t get to be with them or the family at all. He will quickly learned that in order to be with people, he has to follow certain rules. I make sure to consistently enforce those rules.
I only give my dog attention when he is calm and following commands. I always follow the NILIF program with my dogs – i.e. I ask them to do something for me before I give them anything in return – even affection. This can be as simple as asking for a Sit before giving them affection.
I make sure to always be calm and consistent when interacting with my dog.
It is also best not to play any dominance or physical-games with our dog while we are retraining him especially tug-of-war.
Also, many dogs are sensitive to touching, hugging, and handling. Here is an article on how to train a dog to enjoy human affection –
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging
I have heard that dominance in dogs is a myth. Is that true?
Hello Travis,
Thank you for the link. I think that is a very excellent article which I am definitely going to bookmark.
I agree with pretty much everything in the article. Following a strict dominance theory based training method is ultimately detrimental to the human-dog relationship.
However, dominance behaviors do exist in dogs – not all the time – but sometimes they do exhibit dominance behaviors. For example, many enclosed dog parks do not allow intact males because an intact male may start posturing to the females, and incite other male dogs to posture back which could ultimately result in a fight.
There is a strong backlash, I think, towards all dominance concepts because there are many dog owners who try to attribute everything towards dominance, and as a result develop an antagonistic relationship with their dogs as described in the article. In fact, as pointed out by the article and also by scientific studies, it is rarely about dominance.
I think dominance behaviors do sometimes exist in dogs, as they also do sometimes exist in humans. However, I think that this only occurs very occasionally as most of the time both dogs and humans are busy living their lives and trying to be happy – not trying to pick a fight with someone else.
The other important thing to consider, I think, is *how* to deal with dominance behaviors. Believers of dominance theory often think that the best way to deal with dominance is through physical force, which I strongly disagree with. As stated in the article, the best way to achieve leadership is through the control of resources.
Another interesting question in the article is whether dominance=leadership. In many ways, I think it is not very helpful to get into a semantics argument about which terms to use. The dictionary defines dominance to be influence and control, and leadership to be guidance and direction. All I can say is that you say potato, I say potato.
Ultimately, what matters most to me are which methods will bring about the best quality of life for my dogs and which will help build a strong relationship that is based on mutual trust and respect.
Thanks for the great link!
How about dog that always pounced on another dog although we showered both with lots of love. These http://www.cutepuppypicture.com/about are my 2 darlings where the 2nd one always pouncing on the older one.
Thanks for sharing a picture of your lovely dogs. Love their smiles and all those toys 🙂
My dogs pounce on each other all the time in play. They both like wrestling a lot. Sometimes though, if the younger dog is bothering my older one too much, I will step in and stop her. Sometimes, the older dog just needs some rest time and a break 🙂
My dog is a chihuaha/yorki he has a thing for attacking this terrior that is non nuertierd like him and he only plays with nuertierd dog and rarley plays with non nuetierd and i need help to get him not to attack the terrior and to become friends with all non nuertierd males at home and at the dog park and not be protective over female dogs so pleasegive me some good tips for small dogs
If you do not plan to breed your dog regularly, then it is best to neuter him. If you leave him intact and do not provide him an outlet for his physical needs, he will get frustrated and this will manifest itself in all the things you describe and more.
It is generally *not* a good idea to bring unneutered dogs to the dog park. Unneutered dogs tend to posture a lot more and this may trigger a fight with both neutered and unneutered dogs. It is instinct for an unneutered dog to want to claim female mates by posturing and challenge other male dogs for those mates.
Here is a good article on the facts and myths of neutering –
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/spay_neuter_myths_facts.html
We are planing to breed my dog there is this one chihuaha male non nueterd he plays with but the other dog wont play with him and he gets mad but wont fightMe nor my dad want to get him nueterd. He loves to play with big dogs even if they are nueterd or not but i dont get that.
Questions about females we are going to breed my male dog with my sisters female buthe female is stubern and loves to play and i dont know if she will give him a chance to mate with her when she gos into heat. she lives with my grandparents and they have a male dog that my dog gets along with but will he hurt the puppys because there not his or should she breed and give birth at my house or let my dog stay at my sisters house.
Hello doglover,
I am afraid I won’t be much help to you. I am not a breeder so I do not know much about the whole process.
From talking to my Siberian breeder it seems that it is a very stressful affair, involving a lot of work, worry, and high vet bills. In her last litter, her dog stopped giving birth after two pups and my breeder had to rush the dog to the emergency room for a c-section. Sadly one of the pups didn’t make it, and the other one is our sweet Shania- Shania is an awesome puppy but she had a lot of complications due to her c-section birth.
And after the birth, my breeder had to put in a lot of time caring for the puppies and finding them good homes. The vet bills were also out of this world :-/
After hearing all this, I just want to enjoy my dogs and have no interest in breeding them 🙂
Sorry I could not be of more help.
We can offord the vet bills but is it a problem if the puppys are around the other male dog that lives with my dogs mate will he kill or harm the puppys because they arnt his or should they mate at my house and should she give birth at my house.When the girl dog is pregnant my dog will stay at there house or the female come to my houseand give birth at my house.My question is it bad for the puppys to be around a male dog thats not there dad and my dogs going to be very protctive of her when she is pregnant and when the puppys are born
A breeder is probably the best person to answer your questions. One thing you can try is to look up some accredited Chihuahua breeders from the AKC website, and give some of them a call.
http://www.akc.org/breederinfo/breeder_search.cfm#503
I did that when I was having some behavior issues with my Shiba Inu and many were very helpful.
You can also try asking your vet but I think a breeder would know more.
Thanks for the advice its really helped
I’ve got a female dog who is very loving towards people. Yet when it comes to another of our female dogs, she’s rather aggressive. They’ve gotten into some pretty nasty fights. We think it’s a dominance issue. Is there any way to “cure” our dog from fighting the other?
Hi Tiff,
It is possible to desensitize them to each other so that they will learn to associate something positive to the other being in the room.
This task will require two people. Get something really yummy for each dog – they *only* get this yummy treat during desensitization exercises. Then when they are together, they both get treated. Take one of them away, and the treating stops, bring the other one back, then start treating again.
Make sure that the dogs and people are safe at all times. Both dogs should be on leashes, and make sure they are far enough apart from each other initially that they are not reacting.
This article has more details the dog-to-dog desensitization process.
During training you want to manage them carefully so that they are separated at other times. You do not want them practicing aggression with each other on their own as that will set back the desensitization work you are doing.
I have a 3 year old Pit Bull. He is very loving, and has NEVER shown any signs of aggression. We recently had to move in with some family who have a lab chow mix. She’s older and has been fixed. (My Pit has not). He has been obsessed with her lately. He follows her everywhere… has to know where she is at all times, and if we seperate them, he will lay at the door and sob. If we pet the lab/chow, he will come and push her out of the way. She constantly growls at him, as he’s always sniffing her butt and trying to mount her. We’ve become exhausted with telling him to leave her alone and having to seperate them. The female shows signs of wanting to co-exist with him, but he is constantly showing her who’s boss. In saying that, he shows no signs of that with us. Although has been known to try and hump visitors. I have done a lot of reading up on this, and I think it is a dominance thing. He has always been by himself and we allowed him to be on the couch and the bed which i’m now reading is a bad thing. I have read that I need to stop allowing him on the furniture, make him leave the room when we are eating and ensure he’s never fed from the table, and limit his toys in order to make him stop. I also read that if he shows signs of dominance that I should pin him to the floor until he is calm, and release him. Are these tactics correct? Is there anything else I can do? If so, how long will this process take??
Thanks in advance!
Dog training or dog behavior modification is filled with a lot of different opinions. Here are some things that worked on my dominant dog:
1. Follow the Nothing in Life is Free program. Always make your dog do something for you (e.g. look at you or Sit) before he gets anything including food, toys, opening the door for him, etc.
http://shibashake.com/dog/nothing-in-life-is-free-dog-training
2. Start doing short obedience training sessions with him every day. This not only helps with dominance but will also enhance your bond. Start with very simple commands e.g. Sit.
3. Do not allow him to engage in dominance displays – e.g. humping. As soon as he humps another dog or a visitor or anybody, non-mark him (No), and put him in a time-out (it is best if the time-out area is not his crate. Find a safe boring room to put him in briefly.) After a brief time-out, bring him out and try again. It may be easier to have a flat-collar and lead on him while doing this for easier control. Make sure to praise and reward him when he greets people properly and does not engage in humping.
4. Do not play dominance games (e.g. Tug-of-War) with him, and do not rough-house with him.
5. For the time being, do not let him on furniture. It is also good to institute other rules that make sense to you around the house so that you can prevent dominance displays from even arising. For example, by not allowing the dog on furniture, you prevent any possibility of him thinking that the couch is his or him trying to protect it. The less he practices dominance displays, the less likely he will continue doing it in future.
In answer to your questions:
1. Feeding from the table – It may be best to stop this practice. A dog that is constantly fed from the table will always beg by the table, may get insistent during meal times and may become disruptive. Table scraps are also generally too rich for dogs and may upset their digestion. I have fixed meal times for my dogs, and make them work for all their food either through obedience and grooming sessions, or from interactive toys. I feed them high-protein dry kibble (e.g. Innova EVO, Orijen, Wellness CORE, Nature’s Variety Instinct).
2. Limit toys – The most important thing here is to follow the NILIF program, i.e. to show your dog that all resources belong to you and to get a resource, he must do something for you first. So yes, it is good practice to store all his toys, and cycle through two or three different ones every day. Make sure he does some obedience commands for you before he gets his toys. Cycling through toys will also make them seem more new to your dog and make him more interested in playing with them.
3. Pin him to the ground – This is sometimes also referred to as alpha rolls. I tried this initially on my dominant Shiba and it DID NOT work out well. This is one of the areas where there is much disagreement in the dog training world. For me, alpha rolls only eroded my dog’s trust in me, and made him very sensitive to handling. It also made him fight back a lot more because he felt extremely threatened. More about alpha rolls …
4. Anything else that may help – Neutering may also help with humping and other dominance displays. The “following female” behavior may also stem from this. Your vet will be able to best advice you on this issue.
5. How long – This will be different based on different dogs. I started to see change in my Shiba fairly quickly (in a matter of days). The thing that made the most difference for me was in controlling my energy (staying calm and in control), and following the NILIF program. My Shiba is a pretty good citizen nowadays but he will still challenge me from time to time; just to test his boundaries.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have further questions or clarifications.
Mochi does play bite sometimes, but she’ll stop when I tell her to. Good thing she doesn’t have a dominance problem. She usually stops whatever she’s doing when I say no, but there are rare occassions where she’ll test my patience. Haha.
By the way, here’s the link to her pictures I promised…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32174942@N03/sets/72157608736340198/
😀
Have a good weekend!
-Linda
Hi Linda. You are very lucky that Mochi is such a sweet girl. My Shiba, Sephy, is a “terror that flaps in the night” 🙂
Thanks for the pictures. Mochi looks lovely! Can I put up a picture of her on my website? I will link back to your Flickr page. Let me know. Thanks.
Sure thing 🙂 Feel free to put her picture on your site.
Wow…Sephy is really adorable for a “terror that flaps in the night”. LOL!
Thanks Linda! If you want to put up a different description of Mochi let me know. Btw, how is Mochi after her spay?
Mochi is doing really well right now. When I picked her up at the vet after the surgery, she looked SO sad. I ran to kneel beside her and hugged her while my boyfriend talked to the vet assistants.
That night, she was pretty drugged so she’d walk a few steps, fall asleep, suddenly wake up, walk a few steps, and fall asleep…and it repeated. By the second day, she was up and running as if nothing happened, so it took some time to calm her down since she’s not supposed to be running around.
She’s getting her stitches out this week. I’m so excited because I feel so bad that she can’t play. Everytime she does the ‘front-paws-down-butt-in-the-air-I-wanna-play’ thing, we have to stop her.
Thank you for asking. 🙂
Also, I read in your profile that you like anime and RPGs. Same here! In fact, I go to anime expos every year…and own every single game console (PS3, 360, Wii…) including the hand held ones like the PSP and NDS. LOL!
I am so glad to hear that Mochi is doing well. Sephy was practically climbing up walls by the time the incision healed.
That is so awesome that you have all the game machines. I used to be very addicted to online RPGs before I got my dogs. I was big into FF online, and then WoW. Now I mostly stick to single player games because I can’t devote the focus needed for an online RPG.
What anime do you like? I really like Saiyuki. I haven’t been watching too many new ones, so recommend me some. Anything with good looking guys will work for me 🙂