Updated 28/11/11

I often hear from dog owners (and they are even told by other dog trainers), saying their dog is dominating them. Therefore their dog must be a dominant dog.

Dogs that naturally and instinctively dominate their owners are  few and far between. Sure they do exist, and I do come across them on a weekly basis. However most dogs  I come across are dogs with learned assertive behaviour. These are not natural genetically dominant dogs. I have seen these types of dogs control the family, yet take them to an off lead dog park and they instantly submit to the other dogs. Or display anxiety driven aggressive behaviour or fear aggression.

Naturally dominant dogs are a different story..and I will discuss them in another article. The photo above shows a Doberman definitely dominating the child.. A potentially dangerous situation!

A lot of what we confuse or see as dominant behaviour is actually learned assertive behaviour. Most of these dogs are not naturally dominant dogs. I would say that more than 90% of dogs I see that the owners feel their dog is dominating them, is nothing more than learned assertive behaviour. These dogs are not naturally genetically dominant dogs.

We teach dogs to please us. A dog isn't doing things to make us happy or please us.The dog is doing things that create positive feelings in its brain. A dog doesn't go out of its way to make you happy. A dog is focused on satisfying its own natural drives and instincts, and in many cases just the pure feeling of pleasure for carrying out certain behaviour. For example, when we train a dog using food rewards, the dog isn't carrying out the trained behaviour to make us happy, it is doing it to satisfy its drive for food, which creates the feeling of pleasure in its brain.

When we continually reward a dog for demanding attention, getting overly anxious and overly excited, we are in reality reinforcing and rewarding assertive behaviour. Just because a dog is demanding, doesn't mean your dog is trying to dominate you. The dog is only carrying out behaviour that was taught by its owner, because our rewarding of this behaviour created positive feelings in its brain.

In most dogs, if we just stop rewarding and reinforcing assertive behaviour, then the dog will naturally fall back into its more natural and balanced state. All these dogs instinctively seek out a leader.. they don't 'seek' to be the leader.

I have found in most cases where owners are told to dominate or punish their dog, by other dog trainers, they are in some instances being given totally the wrong advice, and can confuse, or stress the dog even more. All we need to do is stop rewarding and reinforcing assertive behaviour in our dogs, being consistent with this, and to focus on being calm assertive ourselves. If the dog feels good about being assertive, then the behaviour continues, and strengthens over time. If the assertive behaviour is not rewarded, then there is no positive payoff for the dog, so the behaviour diminishes until it no longer continues.

Most homes I go into with dogs displaying this assertive behaviour, are in reality lower to middle pack dogs that are stressed and confused. I also see a lot of aggressive behaviour in these dogs due to being totally confused, and highly anxious. When a dog is overly assertive towards its owners due to being rewarded for this behaviour, and then at times the owners try and punish for  this assertive behaviour, many dogs will become anxious and go into avoidance behaviour, which is usually fight or flight.. Many lower pack dogs that are insecure because of their relationship with their owners, go into avoidance due to the punishment. A dog can learn very quickly that a growl, showing teeth and snapping or biting protects the dog. Or if the dog switches into flight response when an owner tries to punish their dog, and is then cornered, then the dog may switch into self survival instinct, and either go into fight, or totally submit out of fear.. Both signs of an overly stressed and confused dog.

Dominating a dog in most cases is NOT the answer to correcting a lot unwanted assertive behaviours.. We just need to be very aware of what we ourselves are doing to create in our dogs this pleasurable feeling of being assertive. Understanding that every time we give our dogs a positive, we are reinforcing the current state of mind of the dog, and also the current behaviour. When we are not consistent with these positives, we tend to confuse our dogs immensely.. When this is done, we create even more behavioural problems, and ultimately in a lot of cases overly stressed, anxious and unbalanced dogs..

We just need to be the masters of our domain.. We need to own and claim our space. We need to project a calm assertive energy, and only initially reward a calm submissive state of mind when interacting with our dog. We never allow our dog to claim us or our space, or even objects and resources within our personal space.  I see so many dogs in homes using toys to control their owners.

Be a good consistent leader for your dog, and you will have a loyal friend and follower...