Dominance in domestic dogs revisited: Useful habit and useful Construct?

In the last decade, the validity and relevance of the dominance model was regularly put into question
regarding relationships between canids like dogs and wolves, and consequently, humanedog
relationships as well. The concept underlying this model, scientifically defined as an intervening
variable reflecting status difference between individuals, is applicable when formal status signals
symbolize the long-term relationship between individuals, resulting in a formalized dominance hierarchy.
This article reviews the basics underlying the concept of dominance and reflects on the value
and importance of some new quantitative studies on the applicability of the concept of dominance in
domestic dogs. The conclusions are, first, that formal dominance is present in the domestic dog,
expressed by context-independent unidirectional formal status signals. Consequently, formal
dominance (e.g., submission) plays an important role in assessing status in dogedog relationships.
Second, that nonverbal statuserelated communication in humans resembles that in dogs to a
considerable degree, and hence dogs may be well able to interpret this human statuserelated
nonverbal communication from their perspective. Dominance is therefore also likely to play a role in
humanedog relationships. Hence, the dominance concept might be useful to explain the development
of certain problems in dogedog and dogehuman relationships. However, enforcing a dominant
status by a human may entail considerable risks and should therefore be avoided.