To refer to a dog as dominant is common. What does this word mean to you in terms of how the dog interacts with the people in his inner circle and strangers?
To me it means the dog is confidant, sure of him or herself and will not submit to strangers, and will not submit to dominate behavior from strangers. If that make sense.
I think a lot of dogs are dominant,due to the owner not providing proper leadership for the dog.
Therefore the dog thinks,"Well, SOMEBODY has to hold down the fort, and since no one else is doing it, I guess I HAVE to...."
to me a dominant dog is pushy, obnoxious, and its the dog putting the demands on the handler... most of the time this situation arises through lack of leadership and clear consistant training by the handler... once you fix the handler and the dog is put back in its place it will adjust just fine... though may still 'try it on' with strangers...
*some* dogs are just plain dominant in that they will never submit to anyone, my ex-boss had such a dog, and finally sold him...
the dog was upredictable, unreliable, couldnt be worked, couldnt be demo'd, wasnt good for shit, cause the bugger would comply while he felt like it, but as soon as he got bored or didnt feel like it anymore, he'd just outright say Fsck You... or, fsck someone else....
the number of arguments we both had with this dog was unreal, no matter how many times the boss choked him out, he never truly submitted... boss took him to work one night, before the shift dog'd been full on muzzle attacking his mate, and then the boss had to deal with a complete dickhead at work, ended up getting into a fight with him and then taking him down, the whole time the dog just stood there, "nah, cbf dealing with you... "
yet the boss would try to show him off at the kennels, he'd do his obedience really nicely for a few mins, and then just try to attack everyone on the other side of the fence... and when the boss tried to correct him for it he'd go him, too...
totally handsome dog, awesome drives and a full, crushing grip, but in the real world, no good for anything :(
Meaning of dominant
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