What Is A Dominant Or Leader Dog Like?

The dominant dog is not the most violent, nor the most aggressive, nor the one who terrifies his group. It is the one who gets valuable resources using his attitude, not violence.

Living in harmony and avoiding conflict is the normal functioning of nature, and in the animal world there are controls to maintain balance within groups. Leadership, dominance and submission are concepts we can hear about our dogs. Do we know what a dominant dog looks like? How can it be useful for us to know this?

First, we must know what it means for a dog to be dominant. Or maybe understand what it isn’t. The dominant dog is not the most violent, nor the most aggressive, nor the one who terrifies his group.

The dominant dog is the one who obtains valuable resources (in the wild this means food or refuge, for example, while at home it can be a toy or favorite place) making use of his attitude, not violence.

Domain is an element of control to keep groups of individuals functioning correctly. The dominant dog tends to lead the group it lives in, so it’s important to know how they generally behave.

Keys to Recognizing What a Dominant Dog Looks Like

A dominant dog may exhibit some of these behaviors:

• Grunt to impose yourself in certain situations: such as when asking for food or objects.
• Try to get food out of people’s hands before they give it to them.
• It insists that its owners play with it.
• You throw yourself at people, jump on top or put your paws on them often.
• Take action to defend its owner.
• Push people when walking or playing.
• Hold your gaze when a person stares at you.
• He appropriates his master’s bed and gets upset if he’s taken away.
• Bark or howl at people, especially if it’s with its owner.
• It appropriates certain places or furniture in the house.
• Insist on leaving or entering the doors before their owners, or walk ahead of them.

• He doesn’t like to be put on a leash for walking.
• Does not obey orders.
• Always walk ahead and try to take off the collar.

Training a dominant dog

To properly train our animal, it is necessary to know its characteristics well. The degree of dominance is a key part of establishing training strategies.

Domination and submission within canine groups are healthy, as they serve to control and balance relationships in society. When it comes to living with humans, it is necessary to teach the dog that, in the family group, he will not have to defend himself or fight for resources.

If our dog shows signs of dominance, the focus of training will be to show him that he doesn’t need to control the group. If we do not act in time for this, we may face aggression problems in the future, and they can become intolerable in the relationship between the animal and the family group.

Expected behaviors after raising a dominant dog

• With training, the dog must be able to obey orders.
• Our animal must learn not to grunt to ask for food. Once trained, we should be able to touch his food, or take it away, without him getting aggressive.
• The human must control when it’s time to play or not. If the game is to retrieve objects, the dog must deliver them. When it comes to fighting, we must not allow him to be in the dominant position.
• If we decide to have a dog share a bed with us, he should learn to do so only when we allow it. He must understand that that place does not belong to him.
• When entering and exiting through an open door, we must teach him to go behind and not push humans.
• We must not allow the dog to interrupt our meal by observing or asking for food. Your time and space for food must be well defined.
• The training will show the rules he has to follow to be in balance with the family group in which he lives.

Finally, now that we know what a dominant dog looks like, we can teach our pet to relate stably within this family group.