“Show him who’s boss” is still common advice for dog owners. It rests on an idea of wolf packs as rigid hierarchies ruled by an “alpha,” and of dogs as constantly testing their rank in the family. Research on wild wolves and on dogs has moved a long way from that picture, and veterinary behaviorists now advise against training built on it.
The most important first
- In the wild, a typical wolf pack is a family: two parents and their young. The “alpha” picture came largely from studies of unrelated wolves kept together in captivity.
- Dominance describes a relationship between two animals over access to things they want, not a personality trait of one dog. Researchers still debate how useful the idea is for dogs.
- Most unwanted behavior, such as jumping up, stealing food or pulling, persists because it has been rewarded, not because the dog is trying to outrank you.
- Confrontational techniques such as the “alpha roll” were often followed by an aggressive response in one owner survey, and dogs trained with mainly aversive methods showed more signs of stress.
- Veterinary behaviorists recommend teaching and rewarding the behavior you want instead.
Last updated: November 8, 2026
Where the “alpha wolf” came from
The wolf researcher L. David Mech set out the problem in a 1999 paper. Much of the early research on wolf social behavior was done on captive wolves: unrelated adults placed together in an enclosure, where they formed hierarchies. In the wild, Mech found, the typical pack is a family — a breeding pair and their offspring from the past one to three years. The so-called alphas are simply the parents, and the young usually leave to start their own packs.
During 13 summers observing a wild pack on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, Mech saw rank expressed mainly through posture, and dominance contests were rare or absent. He suggests calling the pair the breeding male and breeding female, or simply the parents, because “alpha” implies a force-based hierarchy that natural packs do not show.
What dominance means in dogs
In ethology, dominance describes a relationship between two individuals that decides which of them gets priority access to something both want, such as food or a resting place. It is not a trait that a dog has or lacks. Bradshaw and colleagues, reviewing the concept, argue that it is often misused in this way, and that there is little evidence for a drive in dogs to seek higher status. In their own study of a group of neutered male dogs, they found relationships between pairs of dogs but no overall hierarchy.
Other researchers find the concept more useful. Van der Borg and colleagues observed a group of domestic dogs and found that posture changes — one dog lowering its body toward another — gave a nearly linear ranking within that group, based on submission rather than aggression, and they describe the group’s style of dominance as tolerant. So dogs living together may work out who defers to whom, mostly through body language. What neither line of research supports is the idea that a pet dog is trying to dominate its owner, or that people need to win a contest of strength to be in charge.
Most “dominant” behavior is learned
The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) says in its position statement on dominance that most unwanted behaviors in pets are not about rank. They persist because they have been rewarded, often by accident, and because the animal has not been taught a better alternative. A dog that jumps up is usually rewarded with attention; a dog that steals food has learned that it works. AVSAB also notes that wolves do not roll subordinates onto their backs: the lower-ranking wolf offers that posture itself, so it is better described as a submissive roll.
The statement finds no support for treating going through doors first or eating first as signs of rank. In practice, pulling on the lead or getting on the sofa are handled the same way as jumping up: teach what you want and make it worthwhile for the dog. Our article on early learning and first training covers how puppies learn.
Why force backfires
Herron and colleagues surveyed 140 owners of dogs seen at a veterinary behavior service in Philadelphia about the methods they had tried at home. Among dogs on which each technique had been tried, an aggressive response was reported for 43% of dogs that were hit or kicked, 39% of dogs forced to release an item from the mouth, 31% after an “alpha roll,” 30% after a stare-down and 26% after being grabbed by the jowls or scruff and shaken. Few owners reported aggressive responses to non-aversive methods.
Vieira de Castro and colleagues compared 92 companion dogs from reward-based and aversive-based training schools. Dogs from schools using a high proportion of aversive methods showed more stress-related behaviors, were more often tense and panted more during training, had higher rises in the stress hormone cortisol afterwards and were more “pessimistic” in a test of their emotional state than dogs from reward-based schools.
AVSAB’s 2021 position statement recommends reward-based methods for all dog training, including for behavior problems. If a dog growls or snaps, that is a warning to take seriously, not a challenge to answer: see reading your dog’s body language and preventing dog bites.
In practice
A buyer calls her breeder because her five-month-old dog “won’t respect her”: he jumps on visitors and grabs socks and runs off with them. A trainer has told her to pin him down. The breeder explains that both habits have been rewarded with attention and a chase, and suggests teaching him to sit for greetings and swapping the sock for a treat instead. Within a few weeks the jumping is much less frequent, and she no longer sees the dog as challenging her.
(Illustrative, composite scenario.)
When to call your veterinarian
- Your dog growls, snaps or bites, especially if this is new or getting worse.
- Your dog guards food, toys or places in a way that worries you.
- Your dog’s behavior changes suddenly: pain or illness can make a dog irritable.
- If in doubt, call — your vet would rather hear from you early.
Work on it
A few minutes here will teach you more than re-reading the article.
Ask yourself
- Which of my dog’s “problem” behaviors have been rewarded, even by accident?
- What do I want my dog to do instead?
- Has anyone advised me to use force, and what did they base it on?
Find out & check
- Ask any trainer you are considering which methods they use, and what they do when a dog gets it wrong.
Do one thing
- Pick one unwanted behavior and write down what the dog gets out of it, then plan a rewarded alternative.
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Sources & further reading
- Mech LD. Alpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs. Canadian Journal of Zoology 1999;77:1196–1203. doi.org
- Bradshaw JWS, Blackwell EJ, Casey RA. Dominance in domestic dogs — useful construct or bad habit? Journal of Veterinary Behavior 2009;4:135–144. doi.org
- van der Borg JA, Schilder MB, Vinke CM, de Vries H. Dominance in domestic dogs: a quantitative analysis of its behavioural measures. PLoS ONE 2015. doi.org
- American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior — Position statement on the use of dominance theory in behavior modification of animals. indoorpet.osu.edu
- Herron ME, Shofer FS, Reisner IR. Survey of the use and outcome of confrontational and non-confrontational training methods in client-owned dogs showing undesired behaviors. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 2009;117:47–54. doi.org
- Vieira de Castro AC, Fuchs D, Morello GM, Pastur S, de Sousa L, Olsson IAS. Does training method matter? Evidence for the negative impact of aversive-based methods on companion dog welfare. PLoS ONE 2020. doi.org
- American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior — Humane dog training position statement (2021). avsab.org
Where evidence is limited, recommendations rest on established practice and expert judgment, and may be updated as knowledge develops. This is general information, not veterinary advice: talk to your veterinarian about your own dog.
Next steps
- Read next: Reading your dog’s body language.
- Related: Early learning and first training · Preventing dog bites.