Ever talked about your dog’s behaviour with a friend, fellow dog owner, or nosy stranger in the park and heard one of these?
These are all ideas that come from the Alpha theory of dog training. It’s a theory that, I’m pleased to say, has been scientifically disproved.
Unfortunately, it became so prevalent before being disproved that there are many who still subscribe to it. For decades, this was the prevalent theory that the majority of dog trainers and behaviourist based all their methods on which were usually aversive techniques, such as choke chains and shock collars. There are still trainers out there who use these methods, some of them are even on TV!
In this blog post we are going to be exploring Alpha myth, where the theory came from and why we now know that this is not true.
What is the Alpha theory and where did it come from?
The Alpha theory is that any behaviour problem you can think of stems from a dog’s quest for dominance and the owner’s lack of leadership. That dogs are constantly trying to become the ‘Alpha’ of their pack/home and you, as their owner/master, must assert your dominance over them to prevent a whole host of behaviour problems.
Dr David Mech came up with Alpha theory in the 1970s. His research is based on studies done on a pack of unrelated captive wolves. The studies implied that wolves would use aggression to achieve dominance over others in order to maintain a hierarchy. The leaders would have priority access to resources (including food and water) and in order to keep their position they would have to forcibly keep the others in theirs.
As dogs are descended from wolves, it was assumed that dogs must have a similar dynamic. Mech’s theory was strengthened by the predominant training methods of the time: using aggression and strength to force the dog into submission and achieve the desired behaviour.
Why Is This Theory Wrong?
There are several reasons why this theory has now been debunked. The first one is very simple.
Dogs are not wolves.
This is worth repeating. Dogs are not wolves. There are thousands of years of evolution and domestication between dogs and wolves. They share similarities but they are separate species and should be treated as such. The same way that humans have descended from apes but are now a distinct species. Yes, we can draw some similarities but, overall, we act differently.
We cannot automatically apply everything about wolves onto dogs. If we could, then I would not currently have a Collie asleep on my feet; I would either be running for my life or in a lot of pain.
The research was flawed
The wolves studied were a pack of unrelated wolves that were forced together. In the wild, wolf packs are family units with the mother, father and offspring. Once the offspring get old enough, they leave the pack to find mates and then start their own. And the mother and father will have another litter and start their pack again. There is no fighting for dominance as the parents naturally take the leadership roles with the offspring freely offering deference and they work together for survival.
Even the guy who came up with it agrees it is flawed
Dr. David Mech, who is known as the wolf expert, has himself debunked most of his ‘pack theory’, stating that the behaviour of unrelated captive wolves is not comparable to wolves in the wild.
The study’s data was also skewed by the severe stress that the wolves were under, having been forced into an unnatural environment with unrelated wolves. They were unable to act as they would in a familial pack, and were forced to interact. It comes as no surprise that they would use aggression as a coping method and to compete for the resources that they desired.
Dogs do not think humans are dogs.
Dogs are very aware that we are a separate species and therefore would not be putting us in a hierarchy with them.
Interestingly, dogs have a kind of hierarchy with other dogs they live with, but this is not a fixed, rigid hierarchy with one top dog and the rest neatly below. In fact, dogs have a separate hierarchy for every resource. One dog might really value being on the sofa next to their human and would be willing to defend that spot against another dog but does not care about their food bowl. Another dog might love their food bowl enough to defend but not care about any of their toys. It completely depends on the dog and what resource they put value in. Our job is to ensure that they feel confident that they will not lose their favourite resource and as such will not seek to defend it. I will cover this in a future blog post on resource guarding.
So Alpha theory is a myth. What techniques should we be using?
Current science-based evidence shows that dogs respond best to Positive Reinforcement based training. I will cover Positive Reinforcement and all the other kinds of training methods in one of my upcoming blogs.
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