Petie displays many behaviors that I’ve been told are indications of a dominant dog, like leaning on me, pushing, putting his nose under my hand or arm as a gentle hint to pet him, sitting on my feet, selective hearing, stubbornness, and becoming obnoxious when he decides it’s time for him to be fed. (Some of these behaviors that are seen as a dominant dog’s defiance to be an underling are really just normal independent Malamute attitude.) Many seem to think that a dominant dog leads to an aggressive dog, but I have to disagree. I’m pretty sure it’s aggressiveness, and people that have bad doggy manors that leads to an aggressive dog. In the dog world it’s considered rude to make eye contact when you don’t know each other very well, and putting your face up close to an unfamiliar dog can be seen as a challenge. Two things that I didn’t know before reading the book “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia B McConnell are that Dogs hate hugs! And they hate being patted on the head. I haven’t had a problem with Petie trying to be the “King” of the house. I made sure that every time Petie did something I didn’t like it was corrected that instant. I was told by Petie’s first trainer, whose choice method of training was the Kohler method, to use the word “out” in a gruff voice. He said that it would sound just like the vocalizations a female wolf would make to her pups. Petie would always show submission (by rolling onto his back). I was told to place my hand on his throat, because this is what the dominant wolf does in the pack while growing. Without squeezing his throat or choking him just place my hand there firmly and make a growling sound. I did all of this making sure I didn’t get my face too close to Petie’s because he had a tendency to pee on his chin while showing submission. The trainer also said that if Petie didn’t initiate it I had to roll the dog over on his back in order to “get dominance over him”. Be “the Alpha”!
When Petie was a year old I had some problems with him not listening to me. I just went over what I had done in his obedience class when he was a puppy and he was fine again, then when he was four…more problems. When taking him for a walk he started to insist on lunging after other dogs, especially male dogs. I never let him, but there were times I had no choice because the owner of the other dog was no where around, didn’t care, or thought it was funny and didn’t do anything to stop their dog.
After a while I stopped taking him on bicycle rides, and even stopped walking him because I couldn’t count on him to be good. I even stopped taking him to places in the truck because he would lunge at other dogs while I was driving on the freeway and make my truck bounce.
I had always wanted to breed him so that I could have another Petie, but I could never find anyone with a female I thought was suitable, and at this point I was thinking, “I really don’t want another Petie!” I finally got him neutered when he was four. He calmed down SO much it was amazing. He still tried to lunge after other dogs, but he was so much calmer. I took him to another obedience class so that the both of us could relearn the rules. The second trainer had said I need to force him to stare into my eyes for the same “you gotta be the Alpha” reason the first trainer gave. He did much better, for a while…
At age five Petie did it again. His rebellions seemed to happen every November. Petie grabbed some food out of my hand. The food was meant for him, and he knew it, but I hadn’t offered it to him yet. I grabbed it out of his mouth (something I practiced a lot when he was a puppy, just to get him used to it) and he bit me! I felt I should roll him over as the first trainer had taught me. I was taught to get Petie to sit, while beside him grab the front paw furthest from myself, pull that paw towards me while pushing away the shoulder that is closest to me. This gets him on the ground lying on his side. Petie just wouldn’t submit. We had a starring contest for about twenty minutes before he finally gave up the coup.
I’m so glad that these discipline tactics didn’t “ruin” Petie, but I wish that the book, “The Other End of the Leash” had been written sooner (it was published in 2002) and that I hadn’t waited two years after it came out to finally read it. She mentions a client that demonstrated the “alpha rollover” by picking their dog up by the scruff of the neck, swung the dog into the air, and slammed it down on the back. I think the maneuver I was taught is a little nicer, and it seemed to work well on him…at first, but it became just as ineffective on Petie by the time he was about three. In the book Patricia writes,
“Well-socialized, healthy dogs don’t pin other dogs to the ground. Submissive individuals initiate that posture themselves…Forcing dogs into “submission” and screaming in their face is a great was to elicit defensive aggression.”
It really makes sense that there are only two outcomes from this behavior; one is that they’ll roll over and pee themselves (not always literally) and the second is that they’ll get angry back. It also makes sense that as a puppy and adolescent Petie didn’t stand up for himself and waited until he was more mature. Human children often do the same. I hope that now that I know better doggy manors Petie and I will have a smoother coexistence, and I hope he can forgive me for following bad advice in the past.
Petie shows a lot of dominance towards his “sister”, Chelan, especially during feeding time. I would feed him first and then her second. This didn’t work. He ate his food and took hers, buried it, and then guarded it. He was so dominate and she so submissive that even when I fed him first and kept him outside, and she would not eat…until I went to bed, and took the cat with me. Yes, she was submissive to the cat too!! Even with all that she would only take a few pieces of kibble, go somewhere else in the house, eat them, then go back and get more. it would take about an hour for her to eat and even then she usually didn’t finish her food.
I had to teach both of them to leave the other’s dish alone. For a while I served Petie his food first and had him eat outside, then served Chelan immediately after, having her eat inside. Now after a couple of years and a few food brand changes I have finally gotten Chelan to be excited about eating. I now feed them at opposite ends of the same room at the same time, and she eats with almost as much gusto as the Malamute garbage disposal “brother” of hers.
I was told by Petie’s second obedience trainer that the dogs should eat after the people are done with eating their meal. She said the dogs should watch us eat and then be fed so they feel like they’re getting my leftovers. She also said that when I go through a doorway I should force them to wait for me to go through first. This is a bunch of crap! I think making him do a few tricks and insisting that he sit or lie down before I release him to eat is enough “control over the food”, and Petie, the one that is clearly more dominant lets Chelan go through the door first all the time. Obviously this isn’t something he really cares about. If I really needed to I could have him do a sit stay before going outside. Both dogs know that when I open the back door to the fenced yard they can run right out. They are also allowed to run out the garage door; however the front door is strictly for people.
We have house rules and the rules are not to be bent. That’s my best advice for any doggy household. Just establish clear rules and make sure all the humans know and follow the rules regarding the dogs.