The Truth About “Dominance” in Dogs
The idea that dogs are constantly trying to dominate their owners is one of the most persistent — and most damaging — myths in dog behavior. Here is what ethologists actually know about dominance, hierarchy, and why the “alpha dog” narrative gets it wrong.
Walk into any dog park and you will hear it: “Don’t let him pull ahead — he is trying to be dominant.” “Eat before your dog does, or they will think they are the alpha.” “You need to be the pack leader.” These ideas feel intuitive. They are also scientifically wrong — and they have caused real harm to dogs and their relationships with owners.
What Dominance Actually Means in Ethology
In ethology, dominance is not a personality trait. It is a description of a relationship between two individuals, defined by which one has priority access to a valued resource in a specific context. It is not about who is “boss.” It is about who gets the toy, the resting spot, or the food when both want it at the same time.
Crucially, dominance is situational and dyadic. Dog A may be dominant over Dog B when it comes to food, but subordinate to Dog B when it comes to the best sleeping spot. It is not a fixed identity. It is an emergent property of social interaction.
Where the Myth Came From
The “alpha wolf” concept entered popular culture through studies of captive wolf packs in the 1940s. Researchers observed frequent aggression and concluded that wolves maintained rigid hierarchies through dominance displays.
But subsequent research on wild wolf packs revealed something very different. Wolf packs are typically family units — a breeding pair and their offspring. The “alpha” pair are simply the parents. Deference from younger wolves is not submission to a tyrant; it is the natural behavior of offspring toward their parents.
As wolf biologist L. David Mech concluded: “The term ‘alpha’ is no longer regarded as appropriate for wild wolf packs, because such packs do not fight their way to the top.”
What the Research Says About Dogs
A landmark 2009 paper by Bradshaw, Blackwell, and Casey reviewed the evidence and concluded that dominance does not play a significant role in the social behavior of domestic dogs — and that applying wolf-pack models to dog-human relationships is a fundamental error.
The researchers spent six months studying freely interacting dogs at a rehoming center and reanalyzed data from feral dog studies. Their conclusion: dogs form individual relationships through learning and experience, not through an innate drive to assert dominance over a pack.
Does this mean dominance does not exist in dogs at all? No. A 2019 study of 1,151 multi-dog households found that owners could reliably identify which dog in a pair had priority access to resources — and these owner reports aligned with ethologically valid markers like who eats first, who wins conflicts, and who is licked on the mouth by the other.
But here is the critical distinction: dominance in dogs is about resource access between familiar dogs, not about a personality type, and certainly not about a desire to control humans. Size and physical condition were unrelated to perceived dominance.
Why the Dominance Myth Is Harmful
When owners believe their dog is “dominant,” they often respond with confrontational techniques: alpha rolls, pinning, shouting, or physical corrections. A 2009 survey of veterinary behavior clinics found that these methods frequently elicited aggression. Dogs subjected to dominance-based handling did not become more submissive — they became more defensive.
The reason is simple: if a dog is anxious, fearful, or frustrated, adding intimidation confirms that the world is threatening. The dog does not learn respect. They learn to suppress warning signals until they escalate directly to a bite.
What to Do Instead
If your dog pulls on the leash, jumps on guests, or guards food, these are training and emotional regulation issues, not dominance challenges. The solutions are:
- For pulling: Teach loose-leash walking through positive reinforcement.
- For jumping: Teach an incompatible behavior (sit to greet) and reward it.
- For resource guarding: Desensitization and counter-conditioning to build positive associations with human approach.
These approaches address the actual behavior. Dominance theory addresses a fiction.
The Bottom Line
Dominance is a real concept in ethology, but it has been wildly misapplied to dog-human relationships. Your dog is not trying to take over your household. They are a social animal trying to navigate a human world using the learning history and emotional toolkit they have. Understanding them as individuals — not as aspiring alphas — is the first step toward a relationship built on trust rather than fear.
Sources:
Bradshaw, J.W.S., Blackwell, E.J. & Casey, R.A. (2009) — Dominance in domestic dogs — useful construct or bad habit? Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 4(3), 135–144.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2008.08.004
Kubinyi, E. & Wallis, L.J. (2019) — Dominance in dogs as rated by owners corresponds to ethologically valid markers of dominance. PeerJ, 7, e6838.
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6838
Trisko, R.K. & Smuts, B.B. (2015) — Dominance relationships in a group of domestic dogs. Behaviour, 152(5), 677–704.
https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-00003254
Mech, L.D. (1999) — Alpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77(8), 1196–1203.
https://doi.org/10.1139/z99-099
