Dominance?

I'm confused. For ages I believed that a male dog or even a female dog for that matter that humped you or something else was either through frustration or to gain dominance.

Since Joining Dogsey I have heard that dogs do not dominate humans. Yet whilst watching "It's me or the dog" VS said that a lovely looking Bulldog was humping for dominance.

So whats the story?

Is there such a thing as a dominant dog?

All these ideas are all theories. We can make educated guesses but that's what they are a guess. The only person who knows what the dog is actually thinking is the dog. If you ask a dozen behaviourists that question they will all probably give you a different answer.

Personally the dogs that I have seen show that behaviour it normally seems to be out of sexual frustration and habit but that's just my theory and opinion

I saw that episode a couple of days ago. Do you mean the English Bull Terrier?

He was a beautiful dog, but I don't know what the motivation behind his humping was, but he was certainly doing it a lot!!

No not Chaos - the EBT, Pugsely the British bulldog I've seen them dozens of times, keeps the training fresh for me that way lol

Oh, I didn't see that one.

I've only just started watching VS for the first time since getting Storm and love it!!

Don't forget excitment, particularly with young dogs (hormones) - often humping kicks in when a dog becomes excited in play - even very young puppies in the nest will attempt humping each other - some dogs just hump for the hell of it whether they are neutered or not. Bitches will also hump. I think it is all part of the social interaction between dogs as well as a sexual thing. Dominance will play a part, but I don't believe it is exclusively a dominance thing. It is a bit inappropriate and maybe embarrassing when they try it on humans, but a dog will also hump a ball, a toy or its bed and I don't think that can be dominance. Look at chimps and monkeys, they hump each other for social reinforcement and belonging, cows hump each other in the field. They don't complicate things looking for confirmation of why - it is an instinctive urge which they will satisfy if they have the opportunity. They do it because they like the feeling.

Was this an old episode? She has changed a lot of her thinking since the early days (like CM she was never qualified or trained as a behaviourist, just sort of made it up).
She now favours positive training.
However - I would still look at what she says in a questioning way. No behaviourist has all the answers.

eta dogs hump because they get pleasure from it. They hump cushions, legs and other dogs. I don`t see what `dominance` has to do with it.

Spot on, I've had puppies stil in the litter humping each other & they have never ended up being "dominant"

I have owned one dominat dog(well bitch)she never humped or showed aggression to the others=she just looked at the"offendng"dog(s)& behaviour she would not allow would stop. She would never physically rebuke any of the others & had endless patience with puppies.

Interesting question.

I think that the answer lies quite often in the terminology and its fahionability at any one time.

The term Dominant, in dog training and behaviour terms, has come to be associated with all sorts of things that many do not like the idea of. For instance rank reduction regimes, Alpha rolling a dog, eating before a dog type Jan "Fennel" assertiveness gestures, carrot and stick or even more frowned upon, stick training.

Can a dog DOMINATE an owner or a family or a situation, of course it can! Any dog which barks continuously, ruins the furniture, wont allow access to the owners bed, or in out of the house, can in some ways DOMINATE the environment and lifestyle. Does it make it a DOMINANT dog? Not necessarily in pack structure terms.

Would modern positive trainers like to call that dominance? Nope I'm guessing most wouldn't.

Humping is a sign that the dog is humping, nothing more!

It could be natural boredom behaviour, it could be attention seeking, it could be normal play behaviour, it could be sexual frustration, it could be the dog seeing the human as a humping toy. It could have been inadvertently rewarded and therfore trained in. It could be caused by a host of things.

But it is not in itself a sign of implicit dominance.

Unfortunatly, in my view, the tendency by many to move away from old fashioned "dominance theory" thinking and resolution, has led some to believe that dominant animals do not exist or indeed that packs of dogs have no structure and nor degrees of assertive and less assertive animals. Controversial as it may be perceived, In my view this is a falasy. In every single pack I have observed there has certainly been individuals who show clear assertiveness (dominance?) over others in some situations. There are even individuals that show assertiveness over others in most situations. There are also dogs who show this tendency over their owners too. But any single act does not make a dog dominant in itself. And nearly every single act of "DOMINANCE" toward humans that I have seen has boiled down to a need for more training and greater understanding, in that area.

So, is there such a thing as a dominant dog?

Well, in my experience, there is such a thing as a dog who can dominate certain situations or events with its inherent or learned behaviour for sure!
Does that in itself kake it dominant? No, I don't think so. Does it mean that an old fashioned dominance reduction program might stop the dog behaving that way? Depends on the situation, but possibly not.
Does it mean that training and education can change the dogs behaviour and make it work for the owner? Quite probably - dogs with tendency toward very assertive or controlling behaviour are usually highly intelligent individuals who often respond particularly well to training.

Nor sure I explained that really well, but hope it made some sense?

The one behaviour that can't be ignored is humping .

Great for attention seeking, sex and even just enjoying as far as a dog's concerned.

It being a dominance thing doesn't hold water as even very timid dogs who really don't want to rule the World (or pay the mortgage) often engage in it