Thursday 15 July 2010

Further reading on debunking dominance theory in wolves and domestic dogs

A friend had asked me for some links on research that debunks dominance theory in wolves and dogs. It was a nice request as I was reminded to go back through some links and start to look around to see if I could find some more to read myself.

This list isn't exhaustive, and I'll add to it as I go on. Perhaps I'll create a specific link page because as a subject it is so important. Every single dog trainer I've seen has emerged as steeped in dominance theory and eventually waxed lyrical about how wolves use dominance to raise their young. They live in family units of two parents and the pups. Early wolf studies used captive artificial packs. And in any case, domestic dogs are not wolves. Studies of feral domestic dogs show more relations in pairs than packs and relations are opportunistic and sporadic.

Here's my quick list:

Nice blog post from someone who used to believe in dominance theory and then changed his mind. This is a rare thing:
Retrieverman links to a peer reviewed paper from the Journal of Vetrinary Behavior: Clinical Applications Research: Dominance in domestic dogs—useful construct or bad habit?
Dr Sophia Yin on dominance with video clips from Cesar Millan's show as a point of discussion:
"4. Wolves in the wild generally do not gain their high rank by fighting their way to the top. Instead a male and female breed and the pack is a family unit comprised of the parents and the offspring. The parents naturally become the leaders. The offspring naturally follow their lead. As a result of this discovery regarding pack structure, wolf biologists no longer even use the term alpha with wild wolf packs."









1 comment:

  1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/131415199/Debunking-%E2%80%9CDominance-Theory

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