Omega dogs

Am looking for peoples experience of and thoughts about Omega dogs.

I have what looks like an omega bitch puppy in class at the moment. She is a staffie. It has been a fascinating process watching her behaviour develop.

Now 5 months old and with us since about 11 weeks, as soon as she see's another dog any dog, any size or any age, she immediatey runs to it, body lowered, licks its muzzle frantically and intensely, until it invokes some kind of reaction. With nervy dogs, they often try and fail to run away, she persues them and grovels some more, with older bolder dogs, they react angrily with varying levels of fierceness.

its very strange to see the reaction she brings about in other dogs. Even my most assertive bitch, who deals with all my dog aggression cases and is "up there" in terms of being a very senior ranking animal in all canine situations, doesn't know how to deal with this little staffie. She growls and snarls and air snaps and muzzle grabs, then in frustration she try's to just get away. The staffie takes more notice of my bitch than any other dog and does calm down sometimes in her prescence and just lays upside down nearby, then at other times she goes to my bitch and grovels endlessly, invoking her anger again and repeatedly.

I have one other close experience of a true omega bitch, my best friends collie. This dog did very much the same as the staffie, except she would push nearly every dog she ever met to actually bite her. She was bitten most days by her pack mates and often by strange dogs. A mass of scars, she went through life, permanently injured.

if any one has any thoughts on how the staffie behaviour can be better managed or changed then, I would love to hear them.

recent interntet research into "omega" talks of all sorts of unrelated nonsense about dogs who show other "lower status" signs like eating last and walking behind every other dog.... Very old fashioned and wrong thinking. These omega's do none of that, they just do the dog grovelling thing and always get in the middle of fights. Can anyone point me to any good or relevant or recent research? If there isn't any I might just have to do my own!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

Denise x

Ben was very like this as a puppy

Its OK to show you are friendly but best to call them away before they become a pest

I would prob let her say a little hello then call her away and reward her lots for not pestering other dogs

The best thing to be teaching her is to respect the other dogs warning signals and move away from them - at the end of the day that is all they are asking for

Do not keep letting her interact until the other dog feels he has to react

TBH I would say this is just inapropriate reading of the signals by her
She wants to be friendly but as the other dogs get angry she tries harder and harder to get them to calm down, not realising her actions are making them worse
She needs to learn to move away

HTH

I agree with Ben. I've seen dogs do this too ( a staffie & a collie x spring to mind too!).

I call it the "please like me" syndrome. It's almost like a frantic effort to be accepted, to avert any potential aggression in the only way they know how.

Thank you both for your replies.

That would be nice if it where possible. Unfortunatly the behaviour is so severe, that with many dogs, the instant this dog "starts" they lose their temper and react. There is no "polite hello" with this dog - She dives under the nearest dog, pushing up her muzzle frantically in their face, they can not avoid or get away..... With much smaller dogs she stands over them, wraps her head around them and pushes up from underneath, then starts gravelling (from above) which means the smaller dog gets squashed flat. its not easy to explain. I will try to video it I think.

Nw I have seen lots of dogs who grovel and muzzle lick in my years of dog training, but I have oly ever seen two dogs with this sever form of the behaviour. The first, is covered in facial scars as a result. I would like to try to avoid this with the staff, if it is possible?

I replied to you on another forum. Doesn't sound like my Wolf was quite as bad though. We'd just remove him from the situation any time he started going over the top with it. Once we figured out what it was causing other dogs to constantly attack him anyway. Not because we thought it might help but because it stopped him getting bitten. By that time he was covered in scars but at 14 years old he would STILL do this. It didn't seem to matter what the other dogs did to him he would go back and try again with his over the top appeasement behaviour. He never behaved that way with Shadow though. He would however use the same behaviour with humans at times, had better results with them than with other dogs though.

Love to know what you find out about this sort of behaviour, I always found it odd and irritating.

Thank you Sarah - sounds like exactly the same thing. Have replied on the other forum too, but basically, am fascinated that Shadow allowed Wolf to get a smack form other dogs when he was "appeasing) but protected him at other times.

As I understand it, "omega" dogs are there to be the "Packs" punch bag and that is certainly what they appear to be. Though I have that understanding Im not sure where I have had it from. I wonder where I got that idea from???? Odd how you know things that you dont recall ever learning!

Has anyone seen any recent research anywhere that I can read.

This is what I've always "known" but like you I have no idea where I actually got that from. Alpha dogs are discussed a lot, beta dogs not so much but I don't think I've seen anyone ask or even mention omega dogs on any of the forums I've posted on.

As far as I'm aware the "omega" wolf was so-named in the studies of captive wolves in the Dutcher's study of the Sawtooth wolves in the Rocky Mountains.

According to the Dutchers the "omega" can be male or female, but there is only one omega in the pack. This is their description:

"It is thought that the hardship of being picked on by other pack members may promote resourcefulness in omega animals, making them more adept at diverting and diffusing tensions and conflicts through games and play. Nonetheless an omega must withstand a lot of physical abuse."

I also remember seeing a programme on a wolf pack where the omega became pregnant by the alpha male. This apparently lead to immediate promotion to alpha female ~ fast-tracked to the top!

BUT some of these studies of captive wolf packs have now been discredited & the behaviour of captive wolves is not necessarily representative of a family group of wild wolves consisting of the breeding pair & their offspring. So I tend to view these assertions with a cynical mind. There's certainly no mention of "omega" in David Mech's later research.

Why not keep her on a lead then, train her to look at you for a reward before approaching a dog
reward every step, stop and wait if she is too wiggly

reward her with getting to move forward when she is standing or sitting calmly

I dont think she should be the whipping dog for life, no matter what peoples research on captive wolves it is not acceptable for a pet dog to be so attacked

Personally, this sounds to me like a dog who is a "diffuser". The rank of a diffuser is to diffuse fights between the higher ranking pack members. In a wild wolf pack, the diffuser will push his or her way in between wolves who are starting to kick off, and attempt to diffuse the situation by playing the goat or drawing attention to themselves, so that they become the butt of the higher ranking, and therefore more valuable, pack members. The diffuser is not the lowest rank because they play such an important part in pack life, but they are more disposable than a higher ranking beta nanny, or beta enforcer. My daughter's Chihuahua, Gucci, is a diffuser, we describe him as "snivelling", but when Tai and Ben kick off in one of their mock spats, he grabs hold of Tai's tail and sinks his teeth into it in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Tai eventually turns on Gucci, because he hates his tail bitten rather naturally, and sends Gucci flying with a roar, which diffuses the situation. By the time Tai has returned to fighting with Ben once more, they have forgotten what they were sparring about, and the potentially dangerous situation is over.

Of course, very young dogs will bite and lick the muzzles of other dogs, both male and female, to invoke the regurgitation reflex, in order to get a free meal. This of course is not to be mistaken with "diffusing" action!