Howl-oween Special: What’s Been Haunting the Dog World for Nearly a Century

In this howl-oween special, we're talking about something that's been haunting the dog world since the 1940s: dominance theory, or alpha dog theory. 

If you’re a dog parent and you’ve believed in this theory for a while, I promise to bring you zero judgment. If you’re a trainer, you’ve probably heard this topic beaten to death - but I hope you stick around anyway, because I’m bringing you a new angle about the “why” behind this pervasive theory. 

Listen and discover: 

• The history of dominance/alpha dog theory; it's inception, rise to popularity, debunking, and resurgence
• 3 major reasons why we know this theory isn't sound
• My thoughts about why this theory quickly became pervasive and why people find it hard to let go of
• Why I advocate for leadership over dominance when it comes to our relationships with dogs

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Transcript

Happy Halloween hoopers. It's me, Hannah. And this week I'm releasing a special Halloween episode about what's been haunting the dog world for nearly a century. I'm talking about dominance theory or alpha dog theory. But wait, before you skip this episode, hear me out. If you're a dog parent and you've believed in this theory for a while, I promise to bring you zero judgment. I've certainly been in your shoes. What I will bring you is facts, research, and my own opinions about why this theory is particularly difficult to let go of. If you're a trainer, you've probably heard this topic beaten to death, but I hope you stick around anyway, because I'm bringing you a new angle about the why behind this pervasive theory. This week, it's just me and you and I have a lot of good research and information to share. This topic is a hot one, and wherever you stand on it, I'm glad you're here. Listening. Let's get into it. Oh. Oh. Okay. So let's start by defining dominance theory, otherwise known as alpha dog theory or alpha pack theory. This theory proposes that dogs live in social hierarchies, where the top dog or alpha dictates who gets to eat, mate, go to the bathroom, do anything else really, and when they get to do it. This theory also suggests that every dog wants to be the alpha. So by extension, in order to effectively train your animal, you have to get them to think you, the human or the alpha by exhibiting behaviors that dogs use to let other dogs know they're in charge, or on top of behaviors like staring your dog down, always going first through a doorway, or alpha rolling your dog, um, which is just rolling them onto their back to show them who's boss, possibly even. Placing your hand in kind of a claw shape, holding it to their neck while doing so as an attempt to exert dominance over them. We're going to unpack everything in this theory, I promise. There's a lot going on here. Um, it's probably a theory that you've heard of if you're listening to this episode. If you haven't, congratulations. You have somehow escaped, uh, escaped the lasting ripple effects of this theory, which is great for you, but no judgement to anyone who has heard this theory before. Bought into it. Acted based on it. I have certainly been there. Most dog people and most dog professionals have been there at some point. We only we can only do our best with what we know. And there's a lot here about dogs and wolves that was not being considered and that nobody could know based on this theory. So no judgement. Anyway. Dominance theory or alpha theory? It's based on a misunderstanding of both wolves and dogs. So let's get into the history of it a little bit. This theory came about in the 1940s, when a study, a single study, was conducted by a Swiss animal behaviorist. I believe his name was Rudolf Schenkel. And what Schenkel did was perform behavioral tests on a pack of wolves that had been caught in the wild. But there's something really important you need to know about that pack of wolves. They were not a pack that already existed together in the wild that were just placed in captivity together. What Chanchal actually did was place ten wolves from different packs that survived and existed in different regions, in a small enclosure with limited resources, and he noticed that they formed a social hierarchy. So all I mean by that is there was a lot of controlling and distribution of resources based on what Schenkel determined to be three ranks. And those ranks are Alpha the wolves on top beta next tier down Omega the most submissive. And Schenkel proposed that the alpha wolves used aggressive behavior to remain in charge. And I'm certain that that is what he in fact observed in this environment with these subjects. Um, but there are several problems with this. As an experiment, we're going to go through them one by one. But before we do that, let's talk about how this theory became so popular. So once it was out out there in the world, humans, people took this theory and really ran with it. When it comes to dogs. And we assume that because dogs share a common ancestor with wolves, they exhibit the exact same behavior. Which is not the case. There are lots of studies around this, but thanks to domestication, thousands of years, at least 15,000 years of domestication. I believe dogs respond differently to humans than wolves do. They show more attachment to humans than wolves in captivity, and they're definitely more accurate in picking up on our cues. They've even developed unique ways of communicating with us, so our dogs may communicate with us differently. Then they're going to communicate with other dogs, which makes sense. And of course, when dogs live together in a multi dog household, they can definitely have conflict over resources. I think that goes without saying really, but the reason for that conflict isn't some ingrained linear social hierarchy. Conflict can occur between groups of any being. I've been in conflicts with other individual people. I've been in conflicts with groups of people before. It's just kind of a part of existence. It's inevitable and it's going to happen at some point. But it doesn't mean that the reason I'm in conflict with other people is because I need to dominate them. I'm sure there are other reasons which we are going to talk about a little bit more later also. But there is a lot of science, more than enough science showing us that dog to dog conflicts are not centered around who is the alpha and who is the beta or the Omega. So if you're a dog trainer and you're still listening, you're probably like, okay, I've heard it all before this. There's been debunked time and time again. That's true. It has been debunked a bunch. And if you're in the dog world, I'm sure you've heard about it a lot. But, um, stick with me here. We're going to go through the debunking of this. Just an overview before we get to some really good stuff. So since that study in the 1940s, scientists have done a lot more of observing wolf packs, both in enclosures and in the wild. And as I mentioned, it's really it's not surprising that putting unfamiliar animals from different regions in an enclosure with limited resources causes them to act differently than they would in their natural environment. That original experiment removed the only social structure that all ten of those wolves knew it completely gone there suddenly in an enclosure with nine other wolves that they don't know and don't have relationships with. And the resources are limited. So things are going to get get a little heated. I think that would happen with a number of different mammal species, and I could certainly see it happening with humans. Um, so if you want, if you want to. Do your best to empathize with how that would feel. Um, that's given me a lot of good insight for sure. So one notable researcher, David Meech, spent 13 summers in the 1980s and 1990s observing wolves in their natural habitats. Now, it's important to note that Meech was initially a proponent of the Alpha theory and later retracted his support of it, which is great. I really admire that. I admire being able to go back and say, hey, I had this wrong, actually, and you deserve to know better because now I know better. I admire that. So Meech found that wolves in the wild live in large family style groups where two parents sire a few litters of pups. That's the typical structure of a of a wolf pack. And he also observed that wild wolf packs did not exhibit the same aggressive or competitive behavior as seen in the captured wolves. Instead, they work as a family to raise their young, keep each other safe. And it is true that some individual wolves are natural leaders in their pack, but they didn't gain that status because of competition or aggression. What he observed was that it had much more to do with personality, seniority, and mentoring their younger siblings. And this is not an unfamiliar concept to us as humans as well. In any social group that you're in, there are there's such a wide variety of personalities. There are some people that are naturally leading, other people that are more naturally following, but nobody had to fight it out to get there. Um, and I do think that that is a commonly misunderstood thing about nature is that there is some fight to obtain social status within your con specific group. I think that's often misunderstood. Uh, another important note through Mitch's research, we also came to know that this original study by Schenkel is also founded on the incorrect idea that wolf packs start fresh each winter, with new wolves joining and some wolves leaving. That is not what meets observed when he was observing these wolf pack. So it's really important to note that. So I'm going to stop here for a second and just make two very important points. Dogs are not wolves. So if even if all of the science, the original science that led to dominance theory or alpha theory was sound and accurate. Wolves are not dogs. They're not the same. Yes, they share ancestors, but they are not the same. We're talking, like I said before, about at least 15,000 years of history between us and dogs. That's a big deal. That's. That is not nothing. That's a lot of time, not just for them to evolve alongside us, but for them to evolve separately from their wolf ancestors. So that's 0.1. Dogs are not wolves. They're not the same. And then now that we've talked about the problems with how this study was executed, my second point here is that shingles study does not actually represent the way wolves behave socially when they're out in the wild, where where they typically exist, it does not actually represent how they act toward each other. So that study showcased last resort behavior for those subjects. So those are two really important points. And today, the consensus among researchers is that alpha theory or dominance theory is ineffective or not the most effective, I should say, when it comes to training dogs and can actually be detrimental to their welfare. Now here's another moment where I'm just going to come back to saying that there's no judgment here. If you have bought into this theory, if you have acted upon it, really none. And I'm also not going to say that it is impossible for actions based on this theory to get you what you might consider a successful result with a change in your dog's behavior. There are a lot of people, people who have built decades long careers on this theory, and there's a reason for that. It's because they're getting what is interpreted to be an effective result from the dog. Okay. If it didn't work at all, it would not have taken off. But there are a lot more considerations to be made about this and what I want to strive to do is go into those further. So when you are, quote, dominating your dog, most of the actions associated with that. Involve a punishment of some kind. And dogs may respond to punishment through fight, flight, or freeze behavior. Punishment causes fear in them. They could come out swinging. They could fight. Uh, they could flee, try to get away, or they could completely freeze up and do nothing. And so when you exhibit an action that is punishing toward your dog, you are gambling somewhat with what response they might choose. The same goes for intimidation, and punishment doesn't have to, by the way, it does not mean laying hands on your dog. There are other. It can be as simple as yelling at your dog for jumping on the counter. That's punishment as well. Um, and I'm also not saying that I or anyone else is perfect. We have all. We've all yelled at our dog for things before. We've all lost your temper and gotten irritated and responded accordingly. Like, I'm not sitting here and telling you that you must be perfect. I'm just talking about your choices. When you're intentionally trying to teach your dog something or trying to change their behavior. And, uh, what is wise for the both of you and the physical and emotional health of the both of you? So. I'm gonna segue a little bit here. We're going to come back to punishment and the resulting emotions associated with it a little bit later. But I'm going to segway into some interesting, I think, really interesting science, which shows us that dogs know that we are not dogs, which that sounds kind of simple and obvious when I say it that way, but there are lots of really cool studies of dogs in an MRI machine, uh, brain scans on dogs showing that their brains light up differently when they encounter a human versus another dog. Um, and even more so, their brains respond incredibly differently in a positive way when they encounter their human, their person. So I think that's super interesting and amazing. And there's a lot more to those studies. And if you would like me to go deeper into those on another episode, I would love to. So you just say the word comment or email me if you would like that. But this is to say that trying to mimic dog's behavior between each other through physical correction isn't the most effective way to get a message across to our dogs, because they know that we're not them. They understand we're not the same species. They've developed unique ways to communicate with us. Even so, when we try to act like them, I don't. I think it's confusing first. Of course, it's possible that over time they could start to piece together like, oh, when my human acts like this, this is what they mean. Okay, kind of weird, but whatever. But they know that we're not dogs, so if we try to mimic them, instead of trying to bridge the communication gap between our two species in a more intentional way, they're going to get confused at best and fearful and defensive at worst. So. Dominance theory or alpha theory started to kind of simmer down in the late 1990s, but there was a resurgence of the popularity of this theory when the 2004 show The Dog Whisperer began to air. Now, I was a teenager when the show came to be, and I watched it a lot. I watched a ton of it. I was fascinated by it. Tons of people were, um, it was almost magical to watch at times because it seemed like Cesar Millan just had this way with dogs. Now, of course, there's a lot of editing that goes into TV shows, so there's that to be considered what you see on TV, even reality TV of course, is not realistic. Um, but also. Cesar was showcasing what it means to be dominant with your dog. Now, he wasn't abusing the dogs on the show, obviously. Um, but he was exhibiting those physical corrections that we talked about earlier, like the alpha role all the time. And I think all of that was done in an attempt to provide leadership to the dogs he was working with, which is noteworthy. We should take note of his intentions there. I do not believe his intentions have ever been to abuse the dogs he's working with, or to damage his relationship with them, or their relationship with their people. Remember that no matter who you are, you can only do your best with what you know. So this is not a cancellation campaign for Cesar Millan. And I also heard another trainer on social media recently talk about how. She gained clients because of Cesar Millan. People gained interest in dog training. Because of him, they may have been delivered a large amount of inaccurate information. Uh, is it the best way that they could have gained interest? Probably not. But they gained interest regardless. And then people started exploring other training options. They started doing research. They started learning and reaching out. So it's I just think it's important to note that because no matter how damaging some misinformation can be, it's all about looking at it with perspective. So just putting that out there. All right. So we covered three important points here I'm going to summarize them again for you. Point one dogs are not wolves. Point two shingles. Study on captive wolf behavior does not actually represent the way wolves behave socially in the wild. And 0.3 dogs. No, we're not dogs. So. Even if that study had been correct. We're not talking about the same animal. Wolves are not dogs. It's incorrect. We know that. And also, dogs don't look at us and expect us to behave the same way that they do with one another. All really important things. All right. So I've talked about dominance theory with a number of people in the dog world. I have heard this timeline of history regarding its inception, its popularity, and I've also heard a lot. I mean, I've heard just from a lot of people that I know in my life that they still believe it. And again, I'm not faulting them for that. I also know that when there have been a couple times in my life where I've tried to generate a conversation around it and share what I now know about the theory being inaccurate, and it is difficult to navigate those conversations depending on who you're talking to, because what it requires is for the person you're speaking with to. Abandon their belief in this theory. And that is a really, really hard thing to convince somebody to do. In fact, I think you could argue that you can't convince anyone to do that. They have to decide to do it themselves. You can only set things up in such a way that they don't feel threatened or judged. And so I've talked with a few people and ask them, why? Why do you think this theory is so popular? Why did it take off so quickly? And why is it still so popular? Why do seemingly the majority of dog parents who are not massive nerds like me, still believe that it's true? And usually when I ask that question, people just go, I don't know, or but people like simple. Okay, let's start with that. People like simple. We're going to start there. I do think that on the whole, people are attracted to solutions that seem simple and seem black and white. It's comforting in a complicated world, living as a complicated being, it is comforting to think, oh. It's going to be simple. Easy. I just have to show my dog I'm in charge. Easy. I can do that. That's really attractive and tempting, right? And it's especially attractive when we do these dominating behaviors and we see what we interpret to be the results we want, because then we've been reinforced. We, the humans, have been reinforced for that behavior. We think, oh, it's working, it's working. So I'll keep doing it. And that creates repetition and a pattern in our minds. Um, the more repetitions, the longer the history of us performing a behavior and seeing what we want from it, the harder it is to unlearn. That's learning theory for you. So I agree with that premise. We're attract people like simple. But I'm going to go ahead and say that a lot of things that. We might think are simple at first, or a lot of behaviors or approaches that we might think are simple end up being toxic down the line. Now, toxic behavior is defined as harmful or unpleasant behavior that doesn't consider the needs or feelings of others. Now, again, I'm going to say this until you're just sick of it. But no judgment for me. No judgment. I'm not sitting here wagging my finger at you, telling you you have been engaging in toxic behavior with your dog. That's not what I'm trying to do here. This is a tough, you know, tough thing to face at first for anybody. But I want to talk about some examples of what toxic behavior can look like. Now, granted, the research that I've done here is based on behavior between humans, however, and I recognize dogs are not humans, just like dogs are not wolves, but they're still mammals and we have relationships with them. That's undeniable. And with relationships comes complications. Okay, so some examples of toxic behavior include controlling trying to control others through manipulation. Abusive physical, verbal or emotional abuse, self-centered using others to meet emotional needs, and invalidating others emotional needs. Disrespectful behaviors. Unpredictable behaviors. Denial. Denying reality or traumatic events. Blaming. Isolation, and jealousy as well. So these are several different examples of what toxic behavior can look like. And I think a lot of them are applicable to when we apply dominance theory to our dogs. When we do that, we are attempting to control them, just like the captive wolves were attempting to control the limited resources and who got access to them. And when. There is a key element of control in that theory. I also think that it's really easy to blame our dogs for certain behaviors, or be upset with them because we don't like the behavior. Again, very natural human, I understand it. I can empathize with that. I've been there before, but that can also be toxic. Because if you're just dishing out blame and using that as a reason to exert dominance, you're ignoring the dog's side and perception of whatever situation you might be in. So I hope that makes sense. Um, and like I said before, what you have with your dog is a relationship. It's an inter-species relationship. I mean, obviously they're not a human. You can't talk to them and have them talk back to you in plain English, but it's a relationship, uh, nevertheless. So it's just really important, I think, to. Take a beat and evaluate how we approach that relationship. It's healthy to do with any relationship. So where I went from here in my research about toxic behavior is why does it spread so quickly? Why does it spread? And I'm certainly not an expert. And I know that I'm sure there's more about this to be discovered in terms of research. But for now, what I did was I defined the term toxic. That's where I started. And the definition of toxic the first definition is poisonous. Second definition is very harmful or unpleasant in a pervasive or insidious way. So it's built into the definition of the term toxic by definition. It is pervasive. I think that this particular toxic behavior alpha theory, spread easily because of three primary reasons. The first reason is social influence. We had notable people, researchers in the dog and wolf community who were perpetuating this theory for quite some time, and it was already out there for a while before we learned better. So that's that's really hard to take back. You can't just undo that social influence in one fell swoop. And then, of course, Cesar Milans career kind of brought it back into the limelight, and his social influence had a lot to do with people still hanging on to this theory. Uh, the second reason is lack of awareness. Your average person is not a dog or wolf expert, and they shouldn't have to be. I'll say it again. I've said it a million times. We can only do our best with what we know. The third reason is stress and pressure. And what I mean by that is. When people are dealing with a stressful situation involving their dog, or they are stressed by their dog's behavior, they feel the pressure to fix it and fix it quickly because they feel that if they don't fix it quickly, that they're failing. That's my theory. So why is dominance theory or alpha theory so difficult to let go of? I talked about this a little bit just a minute ago, in terms of the repetition of behaviors and seeing results that you're interpreting as your desired result. Well, toxic behavior in general is hard to change because, as I just said, it often stems from deeply ingrained patterns learned over time can be reinforced by the environment. It may provide a perceived benefit to the individual. All of these are things that make it difficult to identify and address the harmful aspects of the behavior. And additionally, this is really important to me. Negative emotions, like shame, can hinder someone's motivation to change or change their belief. So here is where I'm going to start citing someone that I have respected and admired and listened to for a long time. Doctor Brené Brown because now we're getting into the human side of this, right? We've talked about the effect of, quote, dominating your dog versus other, more effective ways of communicating with them. But I really want to know about the human side of this and and why this curse of the Alpha dog has plagued us for almost a century now, almost a century. It's crazy. So I'm going to read you this quote from Brené Brown about dominance. Dominance, which is a type of status that is coerced through aggression or intimidation, plays a significant role in hubris. Researchers write hubristic pride may have evolved to motivate behaviors, thoughts, and feelings oriented toward attaining dominance, whereas authentic pride may have evolved to motivate behaviors, thoughts, and feelings oriented toward attaining prestige. I'm not crazy about the word prestige. It sounds arrogant, but it's helpful to know that in the research, prestige status is earned. Prestige based leaders are admired for their skills or knowledge as distinct from dominance status, which is obtained by force. So there are a couple important things that I want to note here, because you may or may not know that Brené Brown talks a lot about leadership and does a lot of work with organizations centered around daring leadership. So where I'm beginning to land is that. We do owe our dogs leadership because no matter what way you slice it, they're dogs living in a human world, pet dogs largely living in a human world, not the other way around. We're not pet humans living in a dog world. So in a dog human relationship, the human is incontrovertibly the expert on how to survive and thrive in the human world. So because of that, we owe it to our dogs to lead them in a way that allows them to not just survive, but thrive. So there's a connection to leadership here, and I advocate for leadership over dominance. I also want to talk a little bit about shame, because I just mentioned that negative emotions, like shame can hinder somebody's motivation to change their belief. So Brené Brown defines shame as the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging. Something we've experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection. So where this where my head goes with this is okay. If someone is staring down a dog, someone who already has developed a relationship with this dog, they're exhibiting this dominance tactic. And the dog kind of like shies away. Or hunches. Are they feeling unworthy of our love? Are they feeling unworthy of their connection with us? I think it's possible. So I don't believe that shame is a helpful or productive emotion. And according to brunette, shame is much more likely to be the source of destructive, hurtful behavior than the solution or cure. And she also says, and this is important, and I quote, I think the fear of disconnection can make us dangerous. That really that phrase, that sentence right there, it's really stamped into my brain. The fear of disconnection can make us dangerous. I think that can be true in our relationship with our dogs as well. Their fear of being disconnected from us, their fear that we are severing the connection between us, that can be very dangerous for sure. So all right, we've talked about how leadership plays a role in our relationship with our dogs. Um, and Brittany talks a lot about armored leadership versus daring leadership. And I think that daring leadership is something that we should strive for with our dogs, who are depending on us. Daring leaders are wholehearted, allowing themselves to feel and moral clarity, kindness and hope. They're learners who encourage healthy, striving. Empathy. Self-compassion during leaders also set boundaries, model and support rest, play and recovery. All of this can be applied to our relationship with our with the animals and our life for sure. And I encourage anyone listening here who might have had a hard time going through bearing with me as I pick apart dominance theory and alpha theory. To be open to learning, just be open to being a learner. If you listen this far, you clearly already are there. So it's hard to set aside beliefs that we feel like we have evidence supporting, um, that we have heard about from influential figures and scientists. Even so, it just goes to show that scientists can absolutely be wrong before they learn better. It's hard to set that aside. And if you're feeling conflicted. About this theory, dominant theory or alpha theory? I'll just say this however you choose to lead or guide your dog through this world, or help to change their behavior, or help them to make better choices however you decide to do it, whatever your method is, because everyone is entitled to choose how they want to do that. Consider just ask yourself, does this support the relationship that I want to have with my dog? Does this action support the relationship I want to have? Only you can determine what that relationship looks like. That's up to you. But before you act, because there's so much misinformation in the dog world, before you act, just ask yourself how you feel about that action, not just how you feel about being the one doing it, but how you feel about your dog having to receive it. Just ask yourself that little bit of introspection goes a very, very long way in this, in my opinion. If you liked this episode, don't forget to share it with a friend and remember that the best way to motivate me to create more is to leave a five star review to make sure you don't miss the next one. Follow and subscribe to the subwoofer on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you're listening. If you have thoughts or questions about what we talked about in this episode, I would love to hear from you. Genuinely, feel free to DM me on the social channels for this podcast, or send an email to the subwoofer podcast at gmail.com. We'll see you next time on the subwoofer.