Dominant Dogs - Handling Myths and Training Insights

By David Ryan, PG dip CABC, CCAB

Dominance used to be a diagnosis for all manner of badly behaved dogs, but what really is a Dominant Dog? David looks at the myths that surround Dominance and how modern trainers handle dogs that might previously have been labelled Dominant. If you want to know what Dominance really means, why enlightened trainers and behaviourists have discarded it as a diagnosis, and what has replaced it, or if you are struggling to deal with a dog you have been told is Dominant, this is the book for you...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9780244980078

Book preview

Dominant Dogs - Handling Myths and Training Insights

Dominant Dogs - Handling Myths and Training Insights

David Ryan PG dip CABC, CCAB

Dog Secrets Publishing

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk

United Kingdom 2018

First published in Great Britain by Dog Secrets Publishing in 2018

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk

Guide & Control Your Pet Dog’s Behaviour first published

by Dog Secrets Publishing in 2014

Copyright © 2018 by David Ryan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express prior permission of the author.

ISBN 978-0-244-98007-8

Introduction

The absolute origin of the concept of Dominance as a useful diagnosis of the behaviour of dogs and the methods used to correct Dominant behaviour seem to be lost in the mists of dog training mythology.

I first became aware of what I was told was Dominant behaviour, and what to do about it, in the early 1980s, when I started to train dogs professionally, but researching around the subject (asking fellow professionals) reveals different people picked up on it at different times from various sources.

It also became apparent that it meant different things to different people. Some called aggressive dogs Dominant, for others it was unruly, pushy or competitive, over-confident, disobedient or ‘unpredictable’ dogs.

It’s probable that many individual dog trainers have adopted it, and abandoned it, both as a description and a theory in the years since the ethology boom of the early 20th century, when the term was popularised as an ethological observation.

I used it back in my early dog-training days, and I also subsequently abandoned it. That’s the way of science, which is after all only our best understanding at any moment in time. When a better explanation comes along we use that, as we should, otherwise I’d be flint-knapping instead of typing on a computer. That’s progress.

But it’s not enough to just to say, ‘We’ve moved on,’ is it? Because owners and trainers to whom the information hasn’t yet filtered through are still mired in the old concept and find it difficult to change if they haven’t any explanations and methods to replace them with.

So this book is an explanation of what the concept of Dominance is in relation to dog training theory, what it actually is in terms of its accurate ethological use, why it really isn’t very helpful in training our pets and, most importantly, an understanding of what modern dog trainers have replaced it with.

To that end the book is divided into sections. Part One explains the difference between old and new in terms of two dogs I worked with that were labelled Dominant, almost thirty years apart.

Part Two provides a bit of the history behind the concept, why it probably became popular, and why modern trainers and behaviourists no longer find it useful.

Part Three translates the modern theory into real life, explaining how we now manage and train dogs that would previously have been labelled Dominant, by using sample case studies.

Part Four pulls the general principles together to provide an understanding of how to deal with dogs we no longer label Dominant, but which nevertheless cause problems with their behaviour.

Part of the solution to problem dog behaviour is invariably to provide guidance to our pets so that we can control their behaviour to our, and their, advantage. I wrote the booklet Guide & Control Your Pet Dog’s Behaviour in 2014, but as Guide and Control is such an integral part of changing pet dog behaviour, I’ve updated, trimmed and included it here for anyone who isn’t already familiar with it.

If you want to know what Dominance really means, why modern trainers and behaviourists have discarded it as a diagnosis for dog behaviour, and what has replaced it, or if you are struggling to deal with a dog you have been told is Dominant, read on…

Part One My Dominant Dogs

Then…

‘His hips are finished, and so is his career.’ The veterinary surgeon peered at the shadowy flimsy he held up to the light, and passed judgement on Kaiser. A shaggy black bear of a dog, Kaiser was just five years old and I’d handled him for the previous four years – my first police dog. It was the summer of ‘86.

He’d gone lame on his back legs a couple of days earlier and was currently resting in the back of my van. We’d sedated him to take the X-rays and he was still woozy. The prints confirmed serious dysplasia in both hips.

‘They’re shot-at Dave. It’s a wonder he could walk, never mind work for you. We could operate to replace them, but it’s a big job and he’ll still never work again. Look...’

The vet held up the X-ray and pointed out places where the head of the femur didn’t fit the socket in the pelvis. It would have been easier to point out the places where it did.

Hip dysplasia is an inherited defect in German Shepherd Dogs, endemic at the time, and sadly still around today. It makes movement of the hips extremely painful.

My mind raced as the consequences of the information sank in. Bug’r. This wasn’t scheduled. Kaiser should have kept going for another three years before he was due to be pensioned off. I had no pup at heel that was being brought on to seamlessly replace him.

‘Thanks. Can I have a copy please?’

The Boss would want to see the evidence. When he did, Kaiser was retired on the spot, to live out his life in front of our fire at home, never more to know the joy of taking down felons for the Constabulary.

‘We’ve got a gift in for you to try out.’

The Boss had called me into his office. For three weeks I’d been an oxymoron; a police dog handler without a dog. The Boss had made an appeal through the press for dogs, ‘Pets that are difficult to handle maybe… Blah, blah, blah…Right temperament to train as a police dog… Blah, blah, blah… round peg in a round hole… Blah, blah, blah… Ring me on…’

The calls came in:

‘No, thank you Madam, I’m sure your poodle would make a lovely police dog, but we only take German Shepherds...’

‘Thank you Sir, but at nine years old I think Benji may be a little long in the tooth to start a new career in the police…’

‘I’m sure he can manage perfectly well on three legs Madam, but…’ (You’re right, I made that one up, but you catch my drift).

‘Major is out in the far kennel-block. Brought him in this morning. Couple at work all day and not fair to leave him. Needs more exercise and attention. He’s all yours.’

I looked out of the window at the far block and could see a new dog. Like Kaiser, he too was shaggy, but ginger and rangy. When I walked out of the door towards him he stood up at the bars of his run and bayed. The roaring intensified as I approached, lead in hand, check-chain held in a loop to drop over his head. His tail wagged slowly, held high; his ears were up and forward and his weight pressed against the gate as he stood tall on his hind legs.

I stopped a couple of feet from the run gate, his spittle flecking my face as he spat his throaty growls at me. Looking over my shoulder I saw the Boss and a couple of handlers pressed up at the office window, grinning. Ah well, in for a penny… I flicked the catch on the gate and Major dropped to the floor.

‘Hello pup, how’s it going? D’you want to come for a walk?’

I used a nice friendly tone with words I hoped he’d recognise, and walked confidently in. Major backed away and stood inspecting me disdainfully. There was a haughtiness about his carriage; he held his head up and strutted around in a circle.

Holding the kennel gate closed behind me with one hand I held out the noosed check-chain with the other, hoping to loop it over his head if he came forwards. He did, but only far enough to sniff the chain, craning his neck and making snorting noises as he checked me out.

He was still bristling annoyed arrogance and I had the sense not to bend my face down to his level, or to walk towards him, which would have backed him into the corner of the run.

I opened the gate and turned sideways, ‘C’mon then.’

As he pushed past me towards the gap I deftly dropped the check-chain over his head and we walked out together.

On