question about your alpha/dominant dogs - Page 1

Have they as adults ever been put in their place by a smaller weaker dog?

describe the situation.

just in general if you have a dog that is more of an alpha type and seems to always be the boss but sometimes another family members just say smaller mutt dog will just put your dog in its place out of the blue and your dog will back right off like the smaller dog is a wolverine or something lol Let the smaller dog have its way.

Just strange to see but a good thing probably

IMHO.    Being an alpha dog does not always mean they throw their weight around.  An alpha dog is confident and ok with taking direction from another dog if the situation is right.     The little dog may have " won" this time, but next time maybe not.    I have taught my alpha male (all my dogs actually) to generally leave smaller dogs alone.   I also make sure I do not set my alpha dog up to have to choose between obeying me and knocking the fire out of a small dog.   In a dog fight, I know my dog would win and that is just too much of a headache to deal with.                 N

I'd say my boy is a dominant type - though whether he's also an Alpha type is debatable;  he is inclined to be a bully with other males of any size
especially when there is also a bitch in the picture...  but he is equally always being hen-pecked by bitches (entire or not), who - including GSDs -
are almost always smaller than him.  He defers to some really quite mild mannered bitches when they won't let him have his wicked way with
them !  Some of his girl friends have been tiny.  They all walk all over him.  Tiny males who threaten him, or not !, conversely, tend to get rolled
up into a ball by his front legs, and played football with.  Real strongarm tactics.

IMO, you should be the alpha in the the pack. Which puts your dominant dog as beta. There's always going to be a battle to find their place in the pack. Your beta may challenge you, just to see if he's become alpha. Your omega may challenge the beta, to see if he can assume that role. It's natural. Like fawndellas says, the little one may have won today, but the beta may win tomorrow. I've seen what hundmutter is talking about, that a dominant male can be put in his place by bitches, yet still be considered a leader in the pack. I have a dominant female, who is always challenging me for the alpha role, because she's already put the other bitch in her place. This is a 4 month old pup we're talking about who thinks she's 100 lbs and the alpha in the pack. Depends on the dogs and the dynamics of the pack.

The most dominant alpha types are so sure of themselves that they will ignore a smaller, annoying dog because they know they "don't have to win every battle to win the war", so to speak. Confident, very dominant alphas consider having an altercation with such a pipsqueak a waste of their effort and "below them".  

You might want to consider how your dog backed off, if he displayed any type of anxiety or stress, if his his body language seemed to say that he was chastened by this smaller dog. Was his tail tucked? were his ears held back. Did he carry his head low? (Etc.)

oh yeah i was talking about same sex animals

I realize that opp sex males will let females get away with ANYTHING lol I know a really alpha male will let a lot of females just pull his toy away but if any male tried that he will sit on them and roll them all over the field lol


My case was female on female, I think my dog tried to have rough play with my cousins dog but then my cousins dog really let my dog have it and my dog backed off and wimpered a bit which is very unlike my dog. No tail tucking no submissive stance just backed of. There was some teeth slashing and bluffing going on for a bit. I think my dog may have been the aggresor but got told off. Me and my cousin were in deep convo cause we had just seen a huge wolf type animal near by. So we were in shock also when this happend. IT was on total nuterual ground. The first time they ever met. We leashed them after and just walked the whole way.

We have a Mini Grate Dane (didn't get big enough and ended up at a shelter). She's the dominate dog in our home. She puts up with tons of crap from the other dogs, just ignores them, but the other dogs completely respect her when she's serious, she has nothing to prove. None will even consider channenging her.

Perhaps this has nothing to do with your dog but it will tell you that having an alpha dog or one that needs to assert itself in all situations does not mean that you have a "better" dog. There are many roles in a "pack" besides the alpha male and female, and everybody else underneath.

A friend has a male who seems to show aggression, oddly enough, toward dogs that have been abused or that act very strangely. You may not know if the other dog has been abused, or perhaps is sick. But such a dog will know. A dog like this is referred to as a "terminator" and is given the rather unappetizing task of eliminating the sick or weak dogs that often leave the pack open to attack from a competing pack.

Aside from this situation, the friend's male is not only very calm and clear-headed, he is very tolerant of stupid behavior of people and the rambunctious behavior of puppies, showing no inappropriate aggression. His bitework is is super and he is in the medium-hard range. He recovers from corrections very quickly and pretty much ignores baton hits.

Such a dog is not the pack alpha.

Subordinate does not mean weak or inferior. This tends to be a human distinction, especially if you live in a capitalistic society or have misunderstood "survival of the fittest". The most fit are those who are able to adapt successfully to a changing environment - not necessarily the one who is the strongest or most aggressive.

The best type of dog to have is one who is resilient.