Are you a Victim of Dog Dominance?

It's amazing how many things we may not notice or pay attention to when we have dogs in our lives. Many times, when major situations occur with your 4-legged friend, the dog is confused or trying to "tell you something."

One of the main problems people face when having a dog is the dog feeling it is dominant over you (the owner). There are ways to tell if this is the issue and ways to fix the problem. I would, however, recommend consulting a professional trainer to help you know how to go about the situation and help to go about the suggestions I have. Also, you may want to consult your veterinarian as well to make sure the problems you are facing aren't health-related.

Basically, the major way to tell who the dominant one is over your pack (of you and your dog) is to think if there's anything your dog does that you cannot or your dog will not let you control. This may be related to food, a behavior, or anything into your daily routine. This can be a particularly tough situations that needs to be dealt with quickly and seriously before reaching "the red zone" or anything more dangerous.

Some signs of your dog being/feeling dominant over you include: being protective over food, not listening to you, growling at you or an individual over a toy or anything for that matter. Now I must be clear, some of these behaviors may not mean your dog is necessarily severely dominant over you, but may have not had the best socializing or training. This training needs to happen when your dog is a puppy or at a young age in order to avoid these problems as the dog gets older. Many times when dogs are put up for adoption or adopted from a humane society at an older age, these situations can occur because the dog has not been exposed to or doesn't know the new owner's rules. Another reason this may occur with an adopted dog (admitted by many) is the new owner "feels bad" because of all the dog has been through in it's life and they just want them to have a good life after all they've been through. Because of this, they let the dog get away with behaviors they shouldn't with little or no discipline.

How do you correct these behaviors you may ask? Or how do you decrease the risk of dominance being apparent by your dog? Well, this is a tough question to answer without looking at each individual case. There are, however, some things to do to make your dog happier and under control no matter what your individual situations are.

There are basically three main duties you have as an owner to do with your dog to make them comfortable and responsive to you as an leader and not one of the submissive others.

1.) Training.
In my opinion, it is you, as a dog-owners, responsibility to take your dog to obedience classes. Not only does this help your dog look at you as the pack leader when you give orders and they follow, but it also helps with the socializing of your dog. Being around other dogs, new smells and the like. It also makes the world a lot safer for your dog knowing that he/she will listen to you if they're put into a bad situation.

2.) Exercise.
Problems can arise dramatically from a dog that does not get enough exercise. The built up tension and stress that a dog faces from not having the right amount of that oomph in their life may cause them to do behaviors they really can't control. This can be very dangerous for the dog and may lead to some serious situations including: chewing, obsessive behaviors, etc.

3.) Walk.
The walk corresponds to #2 above- exercise; however, it's different to take a dog out in the backyard and run around and play with them increasing the bond you have with them and taking your dog out for a serious walk. The walk I'm talking about is that which is spoke about on The Dog Whisperer with Caesar Millian. Every dog should take this "serious walk" at least once a day for at least an hour, in my opinion. The dog should not be doing what it wants and what it wants to do, but focusing primarily on you. This too increases the relationship with your dog. This is not a walk to take your dog out and tell them to "go potty" and go inside, but to actually have your dog respond to you and follow you. You want the dog to be situated just behind you and it should not be pulling (especially in front of you). To learn more about this you can take classes, consult a trainer, or do some more research on it.

These are some incredibly difficult and serious things to worry about when you have a dog, especially one that is showing any signs of aggression, but it's important, I can't stress how important it is, to deal with these situations. Get help if you feel like it's too much for you to handle or you are unsure of exactly how to go about your situations, but PLEASE do something.