DICTIONARY
dominance
Definition
dom·i·nance[ dómmənənss ]NOUN
1. power exerted over others: control or command wielded over others
2. first importance: prime importance, effectiveness, or prominence
3. genetics expression of genetic feature: the property of a gene that causes a parental characteristic it controls to occur in any offspring
4. ecology preponderance of one species: the preponderance of a single plant or animal species in a specific community or over a specific period

I rest my case.

rune

So all those tricks you teach your dogs in order for you to advertise them for hire, to procure money for yourself, is the result of you permanently dominating your dogs to get them to perform?

Gees, Im sure glad my dog have a relaxing life, and arent bullied like that all the time, must be misery for them.

Rips I have my own take on this.

I believe dogs have a number of 'inbuilt behaviour patterns' that they use at certain times depending on the circumstances, humping is one of them .

I think dogs sometimes display these behaviour patterns inappropriately maybe as the result of being over excited or as a displacement activity.

Oscar is probably very excited when 'playing with his doggy friends' as described above and in his excitement he humps.

Zak my son's springer (hyper active from working lines) is the least 'dominant' dog you could ever meet, he will hump his cushion then lay down with it between his paws and suck it like a baby.
I think this behaviour began as a displacement activity when Zak was a puppy and became a habit.

'Displacement Activity 'in biology and psychology, something that a person or animal does that has no obvious connection with the situation which they are in and that is there result of being confused about what to do''
Macmillan dictionary''

So in answer to your original question..
''is a dog that has the occasional hump automatically trying to dominate''
No it is not...

I'm sorry I make you feel sad, not intended at all! As long as I don't make my dogs feel sad, I won't change the way I treat them, love them and live with them. Ben is a DIFFICULT dog with a capital D, so I am no stranger to DD's! For the first 3 years of his life, he was kept in the back garden on a running line whilst his owners presumably went out to work. He was rescued by a lovely lady, who advertised for a new forever home for him on the internet, and I happened to see the post and mentioned Ben (his name has been changed) to a friend of our's and the rest, as they say, is history. We come into the story because our friend had a terrible accident 2 or 3 months ago and had to be rushed into hospital. His boss had agreed to look after Ben, but Ben was attacking his JRT's and he rang us to ask if we could look after Ben until his owner came out of hospital. It turns out that Ben is son of Hal, which of course makes him very special to us, so when Ben's owner asked if we could keep him, we said yes. Ben is very challenging, he is aggressive with other dogs, both male and female, he is unsocialised and obviously has Issues from his previous appalling start in life. He is spoiled and wilful, and if you try to stop him doing what he wants to do, he turns on you and mouths you sufficiently hard to bruise although not to draw blood. We take him and Tai everywhere with us, he has to behave. We take him into pubs and always there is trouble because Ben will growl and show aggression towards some other dogs. When he does, Tai then starts to bark at Ben, telling him off, which sometimes results in the two fighting. We have persisted in taking him out and about and to pubs every weekend, and gradually he is becoming more socialised and less aggressive, both with us and other dogs. We don't live in the past, and feel sorry for him, and say there, there, he is aggressive because he was treated so badly. We have put that behind us, and Ben is expected to behave according to our pack rules, we make no allowance for his previous trauma, although we of course understand and accept it. This is not being dominant, this is being the best possible owner for a traumatised dog. I have decided that I too hate the word "dominant". I do not dominate my dog, I am assertive, I am a good pack leader. I set the rules, such as they are, and they obey them. They feel safe and secure because they know that they do not need to be assertive, they can relax safe in the knowledge that alpha male and alpha female are in control. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Dogs do not WANT to exert assertiveness over us, but sometimes they are forced to by what they view as weak owners who give in to them, pander to them, allow them to do what they want. The dogs view such owners as being weak and unable to defend them and defend the "pack", so therefore they start to get "dominant", stroppy and assertive and display behaviour similar to Ben's. He used to turn on you when you groomed him because he hated it, but now he will lie quietly and not keep mouthing my hand. He still hates his tail brushed, but I just do it very very gently and ignore his aggression. He gives up when he sees he is not frightening or intimidating me, and relaxes, safe in the knowledge that all is well with his new world, his humans are in control!

I do not shout or get angry at Ben when he jumps up on our bed, or on our sofa. He is "trying it on" now less and less, but occasionally still jumps up on the bed, such as yesterday morning. I just got out of bed, walked round to the other side, clicked my fingers at him, and said "Ben, down!" and pointed at his bed. He immediately jumped down, and lay down on his bed. No shouting, no anger, just calm, assertiveness. Just a lot of praise for being so obedient.

Oh dear Dawn LOL---I still don't feel like 'discussing' anything with you. Bad luck---nice try though.

rune

What a ridiculous post. A Nasty swipe and it doesn't even make sense.

How is training and teaching your dogs tricks a bad thing for them??????

Just to set a record straight (for some reason it seems stuck in a loop)

...our dogs are not taught tricks in order for them to be advertised for hire......

Our dogs are taught varying different things in order to try and enrich their lives....
The fact that, as part of my business, we offer various different dogs to partake in film work, is nothing to do with the training they have already done.

I highly doubt you will attempt to change what you say.....but for film work, a director (or buyer) will contact us, and tell us what they require...if we can help or have a dog able to do that, we will....if not, we pass the query onto someone else who is more likely to be able to help.

Unfortunately, I think Dawn has said she only ever train her dogs commands, so I am not sure she understands how much fun training can be for the dog or the person.

Yes yes and MORE YES. I really see dogs as little different from kids in many ways. You tell your child "turn off the TV" and they scream and yell and throw things. That's bad manners. You tell your dog to get off the sofa and it growls or snaps or bites. That's also bad manners.

There's a very big difference between the idea of dominance (which is based in force) and being a parental figure. I am not "dominant" over my dog. I'm her "parent" and I treat her with the utmost respect. I allow her to make decisions, like allowing her to choose which direction she wants to go on for a walk, or when she'd like to go for a walk. I allow her to come to me ask for things (belly rubs, walks, a game of tug). And she allows me to ask things of her. It's very much a matter of mutual respect and companionship.