# female dog dominates



## Duckie1009 (Dec 17, 2009)

i spoke to a trainer today who told me that almost always in a male/female home, the female rules. i have a hard time believing that....with dogs, with humans it's true of course. what do you all think?


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## Xeph (May 7, 2007)

Well, ever since Mirada showed up Strauss hasn't had a moments peace.


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## Duckie1009 (Dec 17, 2009)

i didn't know female dogs hump like males. i just saw mollie humping duckie's head and then trying to mount him. my poor boy...


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Duckie1009 said:


> i didn't know female dogs hump like males. i just saw mollie humping duckie's head and then trying to mount him. my poor boy...


ROFLMBO So now you know. 



> i spoke to a trainer today who told me that almost always in a male/female home, the female rules. i have a hard time believing that....with dogs, with humans it's true of course. what do you all think?


Pretty much, although it's not rigid in that there's a lot of give and take on both sides. Beau deferrs to Maddy and Lucia, which doesn't mean he won't take the opportunity to pick up the bully stick Lucia left behind when she went to get a drink! Maddy knows better than to leave! LOL


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## Entwine (Jan 14, 2009)

Misty has always postured with her head over a male dog's shoulders and she always lets them know who gets to go where, when. And the males actually allow her to boss them around, their tails wagging the entire time. I'll step in if she begins to bully them, but most of the time she's just "keeping them in line". 

Not so much with other females.


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## WeimLover (Jun 15, 2010)

It was definitely true in my house when we had 2 males and one female. Our 65 lb female ridgeback started calling the shots from the secons she walked in the house and she was only 50 lbs on that day. Her "subjects" were a 120 lb male ridgeback and an 85 lb male weim. Once the male ridgeback had enough of her shenanigans he would tell her so in no uncertain terms and she would "behave" for a little while, but before the end of the day she would be right back ruling the roost. 

Now we only have the adult male weim and an 8 month old puppy. We just hosted a female weim in our house for 3 days. It wasn't surprising that she was controlling the puppy, but she was also controlling the adult male as well.

So in my experience, what the trainer said has been true for us. Take it with a grain of salt, it's pretty limited experience.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

Dogs are individuals so it would be inaccurate to generalize them as more or less "dominant". In fact, it would be inaccurate to use the term as a behavior characteristic at all.


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## GLLinMO (Jun 17, 2010)

In any species that by nature will live in a mixed-sex group (dogs, horses, even chickens) you will have an order of domiation. With the exception of breeding season, typically females will dominate - but not allways. The more widely available space and food is, the less overall agression you will find in the group. It may only really be seen at play time. I would certainly classify this as part of the "indivudal" nature that dogs and most all animals have.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

GLLinMO said:


> In any species that by nature will live in a mixed-sex group (dogs, horses, even chickens) you will have an order of domiation...I would certainly classify this as part of the "indivudal" nature that dogs and most all animals have.


Try this experiment and tell me your conclusion... Mark the pecking order of a chicken coup, then separate the chickens for a few weeks, return all the chickens back to the coup, and and mark the pecking order again. What you'll find is that the pecking order is *not* the same.

If you were being accurate you would conclude that dominance is not a characteristic of individuals, but rather a characteristic or a relationship between two individuals. So no, dominance is not part of the "individual" nature of a dog, a chicken, or any animal. It's merely a construct to define the interaction between two animals (of the same species, really), not one to explain the animal's behavior.


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## GLLinMO (Jun 17, 2010)

Standard definitions of behavior state it is the repsonse of an individual to its environment. A "one dog" invironment is different from a nulti-dog environment. 

As as to your example - pecking order - it might be the same, might not. Usually whenit is not the same - you can find something in the "environment" that will have changed. One reason why domiance orders change over time.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

GLLinMO said:


> Standard definitions of behavior state it is the repsonse of an individual to its environment. A "one dog" invironment is different from a nulti-dog environment.


Wha???? I don't follow. So a dog (the individual) is "dominant" over kibble when he eats it (the response)? This is what I'm taking from this statement, and it makes no sense to what dominant is.


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

GLLinMO said:


> As as to your example - pecking order - it might be the same, might not. Usually whenit is not the same - you can find something in the "environment" that will have changed. One reason why domiance orders change over time.


More to my point...dominance is context driven (a characteristic of the environment), and not behavior driven.


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## Duckie1009 (Dec 17, 2009)

the reason i bring this up is b/c males are typically larger than females of the same breed. aren't alpha's males in a dog/wolf pack?


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## Curbside Prophet (Apr 28, 2006)

Duckie1009 said:


> the reason i bring this up is b/c males are typically larger than females of the same breed. aren't alpha's males in a dog/wolf pack?


David L. Mech is likely the leading expert in wolves and pack structure here in North America. Listen to his comments on "alpha". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtFgdwTsbU


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