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Dominance is not a personality trait...

Nik

Well-Known Member
I can tell you I know for a fact I’ve had dogs push up against me for attention ,I’ve bent over to pet them and had them lick my face ? just as I’ve been knocked over by bunches of dogs only to be licked relentlessly ……. from my perspective understanding dogs language is pretty clear cut , one sign doesn’t have multiple meanings ? at least I don’t know of any that have ever confused me in that way ? I’ve been watching dogs so long I believe I cannot be surprised , people surprise me , dogs not ……… personally when folks start telling me abstract interpretations of dog behaviors , i think they're complicating something simple ........

Don’t know much about dogos other than I have known folks raised and hunted with them in packs of dogs , rank driven dogs don’t fair well in pack sports ………..

Submissive is an advantages quality in dogs , genetics favor advantages qualities .........folks been breeding submissive , tractable , trainable dogs for centuries , not rank driven , unmanageable animals …….. the odds of your dog rank driven enough to be looking to run your household is pretty slim , and if so , most likely goes back to their raising rather than genetics …………

lol knocked over to be licked! Yes I know this behavior well! My Kahlua is a licking addict. I have leaned down to pet her only be head butted as she jumped up attempting to lick my face.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
If that's the case my DDB must have came straight out of the Rome Coliseum.

I know its not just me as I used to have discussions with other owners that had the same issue's, well not really issues, just the way they are. Again, as someone just stated, it has nothing to do with disobedience. It is an obvious genetic thing within the breed, I know that because I get it with the CC (not as brutal) also and with a GSD or Dobie I never got it. Has it been bred out, I don't know.


I've owned around 60 ddb , de laube rouge , pepignon , von holm , de l'etang de mirloup , alcarinque , bodscav , el siscar , tnt , de legeane dogs directly off their yard or their dogs , dogues a couple generations off des arbres , demons noirs , st. Hubert ....if the temperament comes any different than I seen , I would wonder wwhere it came from ??? I've had 2 of my family of ddb put down for aggression , I call bullshit on the owners , I wish I would have had the opportunity to have them back , another spent his life on a chain due to aggression , I assure you every one of those was environmental ......... ddb were fought till around 1906 , so a lot of the drives are not completely gone ...... I assure you the temperament today is very different from the late 1980, early 1990 dogues ..... and those dogs were submissive , the temperament was accurately described as "surly" ....... the difference between them and gsd or dobe's is the depth and balance of drives .........

Why are DDB no good at IPO?

because their learning curve is too flat , and their drives are not of the correct type ....... and if you think they can't do it , your wrong , any dog can ......

Do all DDB mark new items that come into the house?

just male dogs do , it's one of the reason I don't like keeping males of any breed ...... tomcats are terrible for that practice .....


That was an issue I had, possibly in the dominant category. Someone came in and I put their jacket on a chair instead of hang it in the closet, he would take a leak on it. Someone would stop to talk with me, he would pee on them, not always but a few times, just as he peed on a Rottie that he met through a fence. Which by the way, my DDB could not be near any other male dogs at all at the K-9 training center and no he was not aggressive, he just wouldn't allow another dog to posture on him or accept any aggression towards him at all. He never even barked at any dogs.

they're dog aggressive , they were bred to fight , their drives are closer to correct for that ......... in the woods my dogs will pee on my pee , they are a hundred miles away from wanting to dominate me , not even in dreams they have would they imagine it .

I bring a new box home and he would pee on it. Some would say that this was simply an intact issue of marking, could be and again this is just a very small fraction of the wide array of dominant things he would do every single day. Whether folks want to believe it or not, these guardian dogs plot all the time. I recently read in another thread Black Shadow CC make a statement saying "these dogs have been bred to think for themselves" or something similar to this and I think that sums up the plotting thing. If they have to think for themselves it actually makes sense of the whole thing.

they've been bred to think for themselves , because they have been bred for a thoughtless task ...... labs , goldens , gsd , rotts , dobe's , those are breeds that have been bred to think , to learn ...... fighting is an instinct , no thought , territorial , mistrust of strangers , defensiveness , none of that is taught .........
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
If that's the case my DDB must have came straight out of the Rome Coliseum.

I know its not just me as I used to have discussions with other owners that had the same issue's, well not really issues, just the way they are. Again, as someone just stated, it has nothing to do with disobedience. It is an obvious genetic thing within the breed, I know that because I get it with the CC (not as brutal) also and with a GSD or Dobie I never got it. Has it been bred out, I don't know.

Why are DDB no good at IPO? Do all DDB mark new items that come into the house? That was an issue I had, possibly in the dominant category. Someone came in and I put their jacket on a chair instead of hang it in the closet, he would take a leak on it. Someone would stop to talk with me, he would pee on them, not always but a few times, just as he peed on a Rottie that he met through a fence. Which by the way, my DDB could not be near any other male dogs at all at the K-9 training center and no he was not aggressive, he just wouldn't allow another dog to posture on him or accept any aggression towards him at all. He never even barked at any dogs.

I bring a new box home and he would pee on it. Some would say that this was simply an intact issue of marking, could be and again this is just a very small fraction of the wide array of dominant things he would do every single day. Whether folks want to believe it or not, these guardian dogs plot all the time. I recently read in another thread Black Shadow CC make a statement saying "these dogs have been bred to think for themselves" or something similar to this and I think that sums up the plotting thing. If they have to think for themselves it actually makes sense of the whole thing.

I attribute thinking for themselves to intelligence not dominance. Dominance and intelligence don't necessarily go hand in hand. Most working breeds have to have this ability to think for themselves since their job relies on action based off independent evaluation of the situation. It isn't plotting so much (in my opinion) as it is a matter of constantly monitoring a situation, evaluating and coming to independent decisions. They are smart. At least mine is.

That said, part of that intelligence is knowing the strength of others. Their humans need to be reliable and trust worthy in the dog's eyes. They are smart enough to know if their owner is scared, nervous, uncertain and incapable of handling a situation and they will react accordingly. For example my Diesel is far more likely to relax a bit and let his guard down when my husband is present. When it is him and I alone he is far more on guard and alert and he is far more wary of human male strangers when it is just him and I as opposed to when my husband is present. He knows when I am nervous and it heightens his level of alert readiness. But, he also trusts me to evaluate a given scenario and will listen to my answer. For example if someone walks by and he alerts me to it I can get up and check and then tell him "It's safe". At that point he stops alerting and goes back to what he was doing previously. However, he is also smart enough to ignore my release command if I have not actually gone to check out the situation. He knows I haven't evaluated it properly and won't let it go until I do. It's his job to alert me to a possible issue so I can make the final judgement call on it. This is not a dominance struggle or plotting. It is simply him following through on his job. The second I do my own part he is happy to take whatever judgment I make.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
I should post a picture of my EM... a guardian breed... "plotting" right now... snoring while doing so.
She's comfortable in her space and she's confident that this house is hers and she doesn't have a need to prove that to anyone (except the UPS man). She also knows who's in charge of the food bucket, the treat bucket, and the leash... and she's more than happy to follow the rules of the house to make sure she gets her fair share of the fun around here.

If a dog started peeing on amazon box deliveries at ours house (1) he'd have to drink a LOT of water, as we get way too many deliveries here and (2) I'd be all OVER his ass to knock that behavior off his radar. That is NOT acceptable behavior at my house, and a dog WILL learn not to do that if you can communicate the rules in a way they understand. If he keeps marking, you just haven't communicated in a way he 'hears' you yet. I've NEVER before heard of someone who would allow that kind of behavior to repeat itself... that's a first. [Denna's our first female... we've always had male dogs in the past.]
 

Doglover85

Member
I'm late to the conversation here, but as someone who's trained my dogs, was trained by an airforce k9 trainer, and just overall researcher. People confuse dominance with respect. Example, if I get off my spot on the couch, my dog takes it, and doesn't move unless I push her over. As soon as I do she instantly goes to her back. Is she showing dominant behavior? Yes, but she's also being respectful and submissive. All dogs like to test to see what the boundaries are, but ultimately it comes down to respect.

I had a Shepard that wouldn't listen to anybody but me and my mother(I was a teenager) she took over as alpha dog as a puppy. If you didn't live in the house, she'd push you out of the way, invade your space try to steal food etc. Unless it was me or my mother. She saw my mom as pack leader, but I rescued her, later she was hit by a truck when she jumped the fence chasing a deer. The vet said she would be paralyzed or die. I saved her from being put to sleep, and we nursed her back to a full recovery. Her only tell was she woukd pee every time she jumped. All the days and nights hand feeding her, and cleaning her etc. She respected us. If company told her to do something she'd look at us. If I told her to do something she instantly did it. We had a shih tzu that was the alpha dog and would try to steal food, until sheeba grabbed her threw her across the living room then went back to eating and gaurded the kitchen so the other dogs could eat. She showed dominance over all the dogs but was fair. All dogs show dominant behavior, but not all respect the hierarchy.