does dominance really mean anything?

Question

i know with dogs you're supposed to be dominant over them by making them walk beside you and everything, but if you are "dominant" over your dog, does it really have any beifits or is it all crap. i dont do anything dominance related with my dog and she acts very well behaved. she is only 1

Answer 1

That depends on the personality of your dog. Some dogs are definite "Alpha" dogs and will do anything to test you, including chewing, digging, biting, barking, and most other undesirable dog behaviors. With dogs like these, you need to establish that you are the leader of the pack, and not it, and will not tolerate these kinds of behaviors. It sounds like you don't have one of these types of dogs. You are lucky.

Answer 2

It is not crap. You do not understand dog behavior. Dominance or having a pack order is important to the dogs. The need to feel secure within a pack and secure about the order. Being alpha doesn't mean that all dogs submit to you and cower when ever you are around. It just means they know where they stand in the pack and are comfortable with it. When you are alpha and the dog moves away so you may sit down on the couch doesn't mean it is doing it because it is afraid of you. It does it because it is comfortable with the pack order.

Your dog at one year of age is not showing any signs of wanting to be dominate but if it does and you have not established that you are alpha you will have a badly behaved dog. Ways to establish alpha: never allow the dog to eat except when you OK it. Never allow a dog to make you move over, you move the dog. Never allow a dog to exit out of the house in front of you, it waits until released. There are many other techniques but these work fine.

Answer 3

The fact that your dog is well behaved without any dominance from your part just shows that you have a naturally submissive tempered dog that doesn't require a lot of dominance for her to stay below you in the pecking order. Dog packs stay packs due to a complex hierarchy that stays in tact by one dominant leader that leads many lower raking individuals. Each member of the pack keeps the pecking order intact by stayng below the ones above and keeping the ones below them in check. Without the dominance factor, the dog pack, and the individual dogs would be a mess. All you have to do is go into a home where the pecking order is in chaos to see that the whole dominance thing is real and necessary. When you do not have dominance over a dog, or there is no dominant leader, it is like a bunch of kids with no parents. Dogs need someone to be in charge to thrive and be mentally healthy. Alpha dogs, which are naturally dominant need a dominant leader, or they end up running the household, and these are usually the overly aggressive dogs.

Answer 4

It is not really dominance it is establishing yourself as the pack leader. Dogs are and always will be pack animals and there is always a Alpha dog if not you then the dog rules the home.
A human becoming the Alpha leader by the way has nothing to do with hitting or smacking with a object either. Just so no one miss understands that disipline of a dog does not include any physical punishment.

Answer 5

Alot depends on what breed you are working with, some of the more traditional what I call "softer" breeds usually dont put up a direct, challanging dominance battle. But when u are talking about pits, rotts, dobes, bulldogs, chows, any of the more dominant breeds u sometimes see more of a direct challange for ALPHA or pack leader postion. If you are projecting a weak enegry and not setting strick rules, and proper exersise with non-emotional discpline. You are gonna see behavior problems. They manifest in many ways but they will rear there ugly head if you are not the established pack leader. And YES I feel it is the most important thing u can do for your dog for them to be healthy mentally and phyically

Answer 6

If you aren't the 'dominant dog' then your pet will do what it wants when it wants.

For example:
You may be lucky and have a great dog that always comes when called because it wants to be with you. But if you aren't the dominant one, you may find that if your dog sees a cat or something else that it wants to play with, you fall to priority number 2 and the dog will only come when it's done with what it's doing.

Answer 7

whether you realize it or not you have dominance with your dog. Having dominance means she recognizes you as "the boss" and will follow the commands you give.

It will be of greater importance as she gets older- trust me! I had two dogs when I was younger that I didn't establish dominance with - they became hopelessly misbehaved as they left the puppy stage and we gave them to a hunter when one tried to bite my dad. I got 2 more from a shelter and trained them - well partially anyway. They turned out to be great, well behaved, wouldn't hurt anyone but weirdos.

Answer 8

If your dog wants to be do its own thing in spite of you, dominance training reminds it of three things: you're in charge, you're in charge you're in charge.
You might just be lucky enough to have a dog that's all follower. Most of us get dogs that need correction every once in awhile, but I for one have owned a Rott mix that was downright seditious from puppyhood! He was about 2 1/2 before he lost all his ambition and contented himself with chew toys and belly rubs.

Answer 9

You need to be the alfa male/female and if you let your dog become dominant over you, your life and that of other family members will become hell.

Being a b*tch she will try and stop anyone in the house from breeding apart from her and she may even kill children, which has happened to other families