It is superiority the dog owner has to strive for, not dominance. There is a difference.

Dominance is fundamentally misunderstood by many dog owners and professionals. It means control over stuff - at the moment. Superiority means setting and enforcing the rules, and leading the social group to survival and prosperity. Superiority reflects a relationship and mental state; dominance a conflict and action.

Like all social laws, this again applies to all social groups. As a human analogy, the winning football team can be dethroned at the next game. The people in charge of the league, who secure finances and stability and ensure that there are football teams, and stadiums and media coverage, have superiority.


Superiority is naturally established and dynamic. It often comes with seniority - and goes with it as well. Parents that once lead the family unit might have to take their children’s advice at one point. Superiority needs little enforcement and is highly ritualized.

Dominance is situational and confrontational and also dynamic – the one who is the physically strongest is rarely so for life.


Superior members set the rules and boundaries for subordinate ones. Those are only rules important for the functioning and survival of the social group. They are rarely disputed, but if they are, the superior member enforces them. Social status dominance is only enforced in certain circumstances, whenever something is important to the higher-ranking animal. Like a good functioning family or work place, rank order in wild wolves is not expressed or enforced in daily life, but only when it counts. Confident superiors don’t micromanage. Superior, confident dogs usually handle well and don’t get in scraps with other dogs. They don’t sweat the small stuff. They don’t nag. They rarely attack submissive people and dogs.

Calm control and the ability to support the social group are signs of superiority.

Reactive, emotional outbursts are signs of weakness, fear and stress.

The traditional dominance training focuses on the dog. The dog has to be demoted and made submissive. That is an error in thinking. Leadership is not the dog’s problem, but the owner’s. It’s not the dog that needs to be demoted, but the owner has to rise to the level of a leader to the dog’s satisfaction.

Feral dogs form loose groups, not close-knit social groups. Superiority isn’t an issue; dominance is. The same is true for captive wolves. The pet dog moves into a family unit and becomes part of a close-knit social group, like wild wolves. Superiority becomes a factor, not dominance.



If the dog within a human family lacks the feeling of social bonding and acceptance, she is less likely to accept superiority and acts in ways typical for dogs, which most people find undesirable. Owners then apply popular forceful methods, when the reason for misbehaving lies with the relationship. Rescue dogs need time to trust the social group and feel social belonging and safety. During that time they might not accept human guidance and react how they feel and have learned to. If they then are treated with physical dominance, they become even more fearful, stressed and insecure. What they need is protection and mindful guidance, so that fear dissipates and trust takes its place.


Confrontational dominance engages in an ongoing battle of wills, in which the physically stronger one aggressively tries to bully the weaker one over a bunch of meaningless things. The battle of wills is initiated by the person, not the dog. What the owner should strive for is superiority. Within a social group there is social status. That doesn’t mean that one alpha controls all actions all the time, but that the member most capable to adapt to environmental changes, provide and protect the entire group, leads it. And that is not always the physically strongest, but the smartest. Within a social group, each member knows his place and acts in ways they are best adept for. To work together is, evolutionary speaking, the whole idea of a social group in the first place. If, as the alpha theory states, there’d be one strong and infallible boss, he/she would not need a social group, only a mating partner. For solitary animals, superiority isn’t an issue because there isn’t anybody to be superior to. But they can still be situational dominant over a resource.


Obedience is irrelevant to social ranking and unnatural for dogs – disobedience has nothing to do with dominance. Obedience to an authority figure is a typical for humans’ behavior. The human society has all kinds of authority figures people obey to; humans need heroes to look up to. All of that is foreign to a dog. Humans obediently follow orders, even if they don’t feel good about it. Dogs would never do that, willingly. If owners want command compliance, they have to teach and practice it. There is no other way. Voluntary obedience is only achieved without coercion.

Submission doesn’t have to be taught. It comes natural – or not, in which case forcing it will only lead to superficial displays and secondary behavior problems.


Superior animals display confident body posturing – not intimidating, but confident. They sometimes sniff at the front of the dog first, not crotch or genitals, or are not interested in interacting with subordinates altogether. They don’t have do follow social rituals, but are not social bullies – don’t injure or threaten. They offer little eye contact and attention and run their own agenda. Superior dogs pay little attention to the owner, and insist on getting what they want. Dominant aggression is when a confident, superior dog defends a resource, including space. Truly superior dogs are rare - inattention and resource guarding is usually a result of neglect, avoidance, confusion and insecurity.

People and dogs naturally are interested in different resources (how badly do you really want that old bone), and that is why they co-exist so successfully. If aggression is a problem, it is because it has been artificially created by the person, for example a possession was forcefully taken away. Aggressive resource guarding becomes a learned behavior rooted in fear and insecurity.


Superiority matters because our dogs have to learn people’s rules. If they are forced into pseudo-superiority, they’ll run their own agenda and set their own rules, which they also enforce – with teeth, if need be. And because canine rules and behaviors include a bunch of stuff people don’t find acceptable, people have to be the superior ones that set the rules.

In the name of dominance, intelligent people surrender their dogs to anybody who claims to be a professional. Even if the methods used bring tears to their eyes, they don’t interfere. Why? Can’t they imagine what it does to the dog, if they are upset? A dog, who has no choice – and whose voice isn’t heard.

Forget about dominance and aim to be a superior, mindful leader.