Any
dog in its relationship with other dogs and with
people fits onto a scale of what is most often
called "dominance behavior." At the upper
end is the dog that does what he wants when he wants
and
enforces his will if he is thwarted--the alpha, the
most dominant
dog. At the lower end is the dog that seems to have
no ego strength at all-the omega or most submissive
one.
Perhaps this component of behavior is better viewed
as acceptance of authority. Many people want strong,
brave Akitas and are afraid that a submissive dog
will
be everyone's doormat. In fact, the relationships formed between dogs themselves
and between dogs and humans are very complex and very fluid, subject to
change depending on circumstances. Also important
to understanding the significance
of such measures is the character of the breed itself. A dominant Rottweiler
is a very different dog from a dominant Papillon. A submissive Akita is
not the same thing as a submissive Chihuahua.
The Pack Incorporated
The roots of dominance behavior are found in the dynamics
of the pack, the social unit into which canines organize
themselves. Observations of naturalists have given us
great insight into how the pack functions. These have
been done in the wild on wolves and coyotes and in academic
settings, on dogs.
They show us an organization that in many ways is analogous
to one of our corporations. At the top is the pack
leader, the CEO. He is responsible for the welfare
of
the group and charged with its protection. His perks are commensurate
with his responsibility. He gets first pick of
the food and gets as much as he wants.
Everyone looks up to him and curries his favor. Unless a corporate
takeover is in the works, no one challenges his
authority in the slightest way.
At the bottom of the corporate ladder is the fellow who
has virtually no status, either personally or as a result
of his position He's the step-n-fetchit for anyone who
gives him an order. While the CEO may have a genuine liking
for this guy and may even share the table with him once
in a while, you can bet the rest of the group will have
very little social interaction with such a low- status
individual.
In fact, among the lower-status members is an element
of contentment. They know their place and keep it. Friction
occurs most frequently in the middle and upper management
individuals. Always trying to move up the ladder means
exchanging places with someone else, so they may well scrap
and squabble. Too serious a fight might draw the attention
of the CEO, however, so fights are more to intimidate than
to damage. If the head honcho does intervene, his discipline
is quick, sure, and accepted by the offending parties.
The Pack At Home
When dogs move in with humans, they interact with other
animals and with humans in much the
same way as with a group of other dogs. Their sense
of where they belong
in a hierarchy is finely tuned. They
have no trouble assessing their proper position
in the group and quickly
move to occupy it.
Problems arise when the position
of the dog is at odds with the
other members of the group. For instance,
suppose the dog lives with a couple.
The husband
is very strong but the wife is a shy, non-assertive person.
When the wife is home alone, the
dog is very protective of her.
He remains positioned between
her and any visitors and maintains a watchful posture.
One day, a coworker, who is a more
dominant person, comes over. He
is leery of the dog, and the
wife decides to put the dog in another room. When she
takes his collar and starts leading him
out, the dog growls at her. She
lets go, makes apologies
to the friend, and they both leave the house.
Several weeks later, a similar circumstance arises. The
wife is thoroughly aggravated with the dog and decides
to make her point. She takes his collar and begins leading
him out of the room. When he growls at her, she yells at
him. He jumps up and bites her in the face.
An alternative scenario given the same relationships
is that the wife opens the door and admits the friend.
The dog stands between them and displays some hostile body
language that makes the friend wary. He asks her to leave
if she can't put the dog up. She moves around the dog,
standing next to the visitor. As they are walking out the
door, the dog attacks the stranger.
Is this a vicious dog, turning on its owner or engaging
in an unprovoked attack? While it may appear so, in the
first case, the dog is carrying out what it perceives as
its responsibilities as an assistant pack leader. When
the husband is gone, that mantle falls upon the dog, and
nothing the people have done makes the dog think otherwise.
He does not approve of the wife's decision to take him
out of the room, since he will then be unable to protect
her from what he considers a threat, so he tells her he
does not approve of her actions by growling. Her acceptance
of his authority confirms his judgement. When she leaves
with the stranger, however, his authority is defied and
he is worried about her safety.
The next time she tries to take him out, several factors
come into play. He knows she can circumvent him because
she did it last time and he is worried about her. She is
his responsibility. He growls at her, but she does not
let go. This is a challenge to his authority. His subsequent
bite is discipline delivered by a higher status individual
to a lower-status one who is transgressing. These bites
are almost always delivered to the face because that is
how a disciplinary bite is delivered between dogs.
With another couple, the husband is a mild personality
and the wife is more assertive, Both are showing the dog;
however, when the husband shows him, the dog often growls
at the judge. He never does this with the wife.
Again, the dog is acting as a protector of a lower-status
member of his pack. His inclination to do so is reinforced
by the husband's body language. He leans down next to the
dog and frequently puts his head level with the dog's in
a gesture of what he thinks is affection, but what the
dog perceives as submission. Because he knows the dog is
likely to grow~ the man has become very anxious in the
ring. The poor dog senses this anxiety and incorrectly
interprets the approach of the stranger as the cause, thus
reinforcing his decision to warn this person away.
Curing these problems can be relatively simple. In the
latter case, the husband developed a more assertive posture
with the dog after reading a book about dominance behavior.
He quit bending over, never kissed the dog again, and corrected
him firmly when the dog growled. In short, he moved up
the social ladder to a position above the dog, so the dog
was no longer obliged to protect him.
In the former case, the dog and the wife went through
several obedience classes where she firmly established
control over the dog. They developed a routine for meeting
and dealing with visitors and strangers. Instead of regarding
the dog as her husband's major inconvenience, she has developed
a deep rapport with him. They love and respect each other.
In a more serious case, an Akita behaved peculiarly around
one of the middle children in the family, a nine-year old
boy. While the child sat on the floor watching tv, the
dog brought his chew-toy over and dropped it near the child.
Then, he circled the child and watched sharply. When the
child reached for the toy, the dog growled and snatched
it up. Correctly alarmed, the mother returned the dog to
the breeder.
Clearly, like the middle management of the corporation,
the dog considered itself only slightly above this particular
child in the family hierarchy and perceived the child as
a threat to his position in the group. His opinions were
probably confirmed by some of the actions of the child,
such as sitting on the floor. His actions with the toy
were a way for him to enforce his higher status. Had the
dog not been removed, the situation would surely have escalated,
and the child might have been severely bitten.
