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Location: God's Own County
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 7,584
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Are the latest & youngest generation of behaviourists still being taught the good old dominance theory then? I know the celeb behaviourists on the whole do still tout it, but thought the dog behaviour training courses didn't anymore.
Dogs are dogs, humans are human. Dogs dominate other dogs & humans dominant other humans. Dogs are aware that humans are not dogs, the same as they are aware that cats are not dogs, birds etc are not dogs. There is no mutual body language between separate species. for example when a cat wags it's tail it is for a totally different reason that a dog wags it's tail.
Dogs are not trying to dominant humans & show them(humans) that they are the "pack"leader, they are just being dogs. As a mere dog
trainer(ie one who trains dogs & people how to train dogs)& having no qualifications to show I have studied dog behaviour in a classroom & passed an exam, I teach dogs & people acceptable boundaries of behaviour, using positive reinforcement methods & not force. My own dogs are trained to walk to heel off lead using titbits, toys & simple praise-result my dogs never pull as they walk with me because they want to & have never learnt to pull on a lead. they are taught a recall off lead & come to me when called because they want to, not because they are compelled to by being pulled on a lead.
I do not take my dogs on long walks for various reasons, however they are in really fit condition as they have free access to a space that allows them to play, run etc 24/7. Even my vet was surprised at how fit my Cavaliers are & how their weight is always correct for their size.
Since I got my current second oldest BC she lost weight at first despite being fed far better food than before, the different was the amount of exercise she now has. She is now exactly the right weight & looks like a different bitch. Nothing has changed since she first arrived, but her body has adapted to the exercise & food & lifestyle she now has. She does have some hangups, but these are nothing to do with food, exercise etc, but previous home conditions & they are slowly disappearing.
My dogs nearly always precede me through doorways etc not because they are dominating me, but because they want to go outside, inside etc & for me it works OK. BTW in the wild the Alpha rarely leads the hunting, imagine if the pack met another pack head on & the Alpha was killed first not good leadership. The leader wolf is often the Beta & when actively hunting prey the lead is shared to spread the energy loss thoughout the pack.
As for eating first-well in captive artifical packs yes the dominant Alphas do tend to eat first as they do have to hunt for food, so it is the purely survival of the fittest, in real wild packs this is not the case, all the pack are related(except the two Alphas to each other)if there are cubs then the cubs & nannies & cubs are fed first when the pack return from a kill & they are by definition the lowest ranked members of the pack.
Dogs see humans as a source of food & "comfort"(ie warm bed, roof over head...)they do not see them as a member of their "pack". People who have multi dog households are not the leader of the pack, that falls to one of the dogs & they work out their own"pecking"order.
Dogs do what we require(like obedience, agility etc)because they enjoy it & those who use cruel methods to train their dogs, have dogs that show this in their body language
If you really want to try to relate wolf behaviour to domestic dog behaviour then try reading the works of David Mech a true Wolf expert & not those whose only experience is of manmade packs living in captivity