Good training != dominance

[trixtah]

The CDL has linked to an excellent paper by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, which specifically deprecates dominance theory when it comes to animal behaviour modification (ie. pet training).

• Despite the fact that advances in behavior research have modified our understanding of social hierarchies in wolves, many animal trainers continue to base their training methods on outdated perceptions of dominance theory.
• Dominance is defined as a relationship between individual animals that is established by force/aggression and submission to determine who has priority access to multiple resources such as food, preferred resting spots, and mates. Most undesirable behaviors in our pets are not related to priority access to resources; rather, they are due to accidentalrewarding of the undesirable behavior.
•  [In humans] Coercion and force generate passive resistance, tend to require continual pressure and direction from the leader, and are usually not good tactics for getting the best performance from a team. Additionally, those managers who rule through coercive power (the ability to punish) “most often generate resistance which may lead workers to deliberately avoid carrying out instructions or to disobey orders”.
• Leadership is established when a pet owner can consistently set clear limits for behavior and effectively communicate the rules by immediately rewarding the correct behaviors and preventing access to or removing the rewards for
  undesirable behaviors before these undesirable behaviors are reinforced. Owners must avoid reinforcing undesirable behaviors and only reinforce the desirable behaviors frequently enough and consistently enough for the good behaviors to become a habit. [easier said than done, of course!]

The paper debunks many of the statements made about dominance behaviour of animals in the wild, and makes the very valuable observation that dogs are not wolves. It also has a few descriptions of behaviour that is often labelled as "dominance" (such as a dog jumping on your lap), and provides appropriate explanations and some workarounds (hello, attention-seeking is not the same as dominance).

It's definitely worth a read, and some parallels might also be drawn with other mammals you might be surrounded by, even if you don't have dogs.

Comments

[goatsfoot.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad I read this. When I was young, I took my family's dog to the vet, and the vet (male) made me very very scared by saying that I wasn't dominating the dog enough, and if I didn't, the dog would one day bite me. My father subscribes to dominance theory too (I think I'm going to print that leaflet out). It's been a bit of a conflict in my mind with how I actually want to interact with dogs, so I'm glad it is actually bunk.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad to have provided you with some ammunition there. What a dick of a vet - you're much more likely to get an aggressive reaction from a pet by engaging in inconsistent and threatening (to them) behaviour.

[ironed_orchid]

(hello, attention-seeking is not the same as dominance)

Nor is affection giving, even if it does involve touching.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Exactly

My g/f's dog hops up and hugs me with her paws on my shoulders when she hasn't seen me for a while. I'm pleased to announce that my ego is not so pathetic (and my perceptions are not so warped) as to believe that she's dominating me with this behaviour. There might be an element of "Another one of mine humans", but that's ok. :-)