dominance ed compiled
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Dominance Education Strategies A BEN Biscuit Topic Created by Suzanne Hetts, Ph.D., CVJ and Daniel Estep, Ph.D. Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists Part 1: Defining Dominance This month’s Biscuit series includes four strategies to use when talking to clients who are invested in the “be the boss”, “pack leader”, “dominance is best model” of how to train and relate to your dog. This first Biscuit attempts to define what social dominance is. Notice we say ‘attempt’ because even behavioral scientists don’t agree on what this term means. Try reading some of the scientific papers on this topic, and your head will quickly start to spin. So we can perhaps have some sympathy for our clients who just want an easy to understand, black and white game plan for what to do with their dogs. They’ve been led to believe that “being dominant” is the simplest, best approach, so it’s easier to latch onto that than what we know are the complexities of any social relationship. We’re going do somewhat the same thing in this Biscuit. Rather than taking you through a boat load of definitions you can find in the scientific literature (if you want some of those, review the BEN Webinar “Communicate, Cooperate, Educate – Belong, and the Real Science Behind Social Dominance”) we’ll give you one or two easy to understand definitions to use with clients that are still reasonably accurate, scientifically. The term social dominance has been used:
To describe one kind of social relationship To make predictions about which individual is likely to win or lose in a direct competition, based on past experience As a conflict resolution, and even conflict avoidance strategy To convey priority access to resources
Bottom line, is that social dominance is in one way or another about competition. In our third Biscuit in this series we’ll talk about misconceptions about competition – what situations are competitive ones and which are not. Copyright 2014, Animal Behavior Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. For the SOLE and personal use of members of Behavior Education Network. May not be distributed, copied, or excerpts taken from for any reason without express written permission of the authors.
Dominance Education Strategies A BEN Biscuit Topic Created by Suzanne Hetts, Ph.D., CVJ and Daniel Estep, Ph.D. Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists Part 1: Defining Dominance This month’s Biscuit series includes four strategies to use when talking to clients who are invested in the “be the boss”, “pack leader”, “dominance is best model” of how to train and relate to your dog. This first Biscuit attempts to define what social dominance is. Notice we say ‘attempt’ because even behavioral scientists don’t agree on what this term means. Try reading some of the scientific papers on this topic, and your head will quickly start to spin. So we can perhaps have some sympathy for our clients who just want an easy to understand, black and white game plan for what to do with their dogs. They’ve been led to believe that “being dominant” is the simplest, best approach, so it’s easier to latch onto that than what we know are the complexities of any social relationship. We’re going do somewhat the same thing in this Biscuit. Rather than taking you through a boat load of definitions you can find in the scientific literature (if you want some of those, review the BEN Webinar “Communicate, Cooperate, Educate – Belong, and the Real Science Behind Social Dominance”) we’ll give you one or two easy to understand definitions to use with clients that are still reasonably accurate, scientifically. The term social dominance has been used:
To describe one kind of social relationship To make predictions about which individual is likely to win or lose in a direct competition, based on past experience As a conflict resolution, and even conflict avoidance strategy To convey priority access to resources
Bottom line, is that social dominance is in one way or another about competition. In our third Biscuit in this series we’ll talk about misconceptions about competition – what situations are competitive ones and which are not. Copyright 2014, Animal Behavior Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. For the SOLE and personal use of members of Behavior Education Network. May not be distributed, copied, or excerpts taken from for any reason without express written permission of the authors.
