Talk:Dog behavior
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I've been in a long e-mail discussion with User:DigitalDog over some of her contributions and I'm helping her to understand the styling and inclusion standards. If you Google this text, it all resolves back to her site. I've simply brought this in line with NPOV and the manual of style. Thanks, all. - Lucky 6.9 05:04, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Consider Revising
It seems to me that this page is in need of revision, addition, attention, etc. From reading the article, the main idea the reader comes away with is that all dogs behave as if they were the leader of the pack, when clearly this cannot be the case. In each pack, there can be only one leader. There may occasionally be power struggles and competitions for new leaders to come about, but certainly not all dogs view themselves as leaders of the pack. This article repeatedly mentions a dog's "instincts," "drives," "genetic make-up" and other terms all referring to a dog's nature. Well, if we consider what dogs would be like in nature (i.e. living in a "pack" consisting only of other dogs), it is obvious that only the few dogs who were the leaders of their packs would behave in the way that this article describes.
It seems to me that this article is describing the tendency of the typical dog owner to fail to establish him or herself as the leader of the pack. Two of the behaviors listed under "Dominating Behavior" in this article are behaviors that any human being can do to establish himself as the leader of the pack, rather than become submissive to the dog. A human can roll a dog onto her back and hold her paws to her chest for a period of time. A person can also refuse to be the first to look away when the owner and the dog engage in direct eye-contact. As is mentioned in this article, food belongs solely to the leader of the pack, so if a dog owner makes his dog eat well after the owner eats and has complete control of the dog's food, the dog will realize that her owner is the leader.
In any case, I suggest the wording of this article be changed to reflect the fact that only the dog who considers herself the leader of her pack has such dominant behavior, and that it is clearly the case that most dogs in nature simply aren't leaders. Rather, inexperienced, human dog owners create a situation in which many domestic dogs think of themselves as leaders.
BareAss 21:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
I would like to know what the user (DigiDog) is claiming as references for his "conclusions" regarding dog behavior. I went to the web page referenced at the end of the article and it merely goes to the user's page with no indication as to what the author is basing his statements on. According to EO Wilson ("Sociobiology: A new Synthesis") dominant relationships are based on attempts to control access to valued resources with the dominant individual in the relationship being the one who can displace another from that resource and can also defend posession of that resource. Many of our pets can take posession of a resource such as food or a highly valued chew item and use aggression to maintain that control. That does not make the animal dominant in its relationship with the person. It just indicates that the dog has learned that aggression is an effective tool to maintain posession. A dominant display would occur if a pet was able to get the human to relinquish the item.
Also, dogs are not wolves. They are far removed from wolves. While they may have evolved with wolves as ancestors, they are not "mirror-images". In the wild, wolves have a very loose dominance structure while it is more intense and dog-like in captivity. While dogs and wolves in captivity have a linear dominance hierarchy, that is not the case with wolves in the wild. There is not an aggressive tendency to role subordinates on their backs as is claimed in the article. Dominance is developed by leadership, stares, growls, fights then deference on the part of the submissive wolf. There are no "alpha rolls" in wolf society. In my experience, people trying to emulate this merely incite a need on the part of the dog to escalate an aggressive response to physical handling thus causing a heightening of the aggression towards the person. Leadership does not occur via force. Violence is used when individuals are combative over swho can control access to resources but ceases once the relationship is established.
I am not sure where the conclusion came from that only males display territorial behavior, but this is also false. Female dogs will use aggression to manage their space and control movement to it and within it. Just look at some female dogs that are left to patrol their yard and home when alone. Gender is not a factor.
I am a veterinarian and board certified in animal behavior (John Ciribassi DVM, DACVB) and President of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. We will be posting revisions to this page in the near future and will post references to the material. I would appreciate discussion on this topic before we post our material.
AVSAB 24 January 2008
Indeed, the information about dominance (and everything else of course) should be updated by someone wih knowledge. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevad (talk • contribs) 17:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
The last changes since my revision I have found quite offensive, consult with me before you start undoing. The said person laid a dogmatic (ha ha pun) and inconsiderate tone and bias on behavioral nature of dogs. This was made out of ignorance and not of experience. Consult first and watch it! ----
