I love dogs. We had dogs for years. At different times we had 1, 2 and 3 dogs at once in our home.
Dogs operate in packs with strictly defined hierarchy. I’m not sure if a dog can be a sub, or is it just the lack of dominance, but the power dynamics is obvious when you observe them.
Not always this hierarchy works well for the dogs. For most of the time, we had an alpha female and a “sub” male. When we had a third dog accepting her dominance, we had a happy pack. But, some time before that, we had an uncompromising alpha male. Him and the female were literally at each other's throats every time I wasn’t home. Not a very nice experience for us and I doubt they enjoyed it either.
Dogs consider people they live with as part of their pack. And so, whether you like it or not, you will be evaluated and placed in this pack hierarchy. It’s easy to spot when the dog does not consider his owner above him. Not only in term of obedience, but in terms of protection as well. I saw, once and again, someone higher in the hierarchy protecting a lower positioned pack member (including a human).
While I was the head of my family pack, the consequences still surprised me from time to time.
In my absence, the alpha female considered herself the pack leader. She pretty much did whatever she wanted to, when I was away. And so, she found a way to escape from the yard. She actually found more than one way, being extremely intelligent bitch she was ;)
She made one of my family member very miserable and stressed by her escapes. Then, this one time, she forgot that I was at home, or something outside drew her attention too much, and escaped. I was very annoyed by her behavior, got out quickly and forgot to take the leash with me. I called her and she came to me. Then told her to come with me and she did. The thing is, I didn’t train her explicitly to walk by me without a leash. It turned out, I didn’t need to. The power dynamics did it for me. It was a very nice surprise for me!
One day, we were visiting someone and they had a new dog. I like dogs, and without thinking twice, I approached to play with it. I did forget that it’s not my dog, and we didn’t figure out the hierarchy between us yet. I took his head into my hands and stared into his eyes. I do that with my dogs. I like it. If you know anything about dogs, you know that it’s a challenge for dominance for them. For a split second he was confused, and then attacked me. I didn’t mind, but it made the people we visited very uncomfortable and embarrassed. No real violence happened that day, but it was a lesson for me.
Us, the humans, unlike dogs, can reason about, and choose our behavior. I don’t challenge other people’s dogs anymore 😄 In the same manner, I choose when and where it is important to me to establish my dominance. Frankly, the less I care about the people or the situation, the lower the chance that I will choose to express my dominant side. I will not tolerate violence (physical or else) against me or someone I care about, but otherwise, meh, I don’t care.
And so, I love dogs. Dogs are nice, but people can choose ...