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Are dogs domesticated wolves? Do dogs have a dominance hierarchy?
- William Chandler-Duff
- Mar 9, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 25
Yes they are, in fact scientifically speaking there is absolutely no difference between wolves and dogs genetically. Dogs and wolves can still breed and produce fertile offspring. They can also interact socially with one another and display similar dominance and submission hierarchies.
Although there is a difference between them, the difference has been massively exaggerated by the ‘force free’ community.
With statements like this:
"Dogs are not wolves. The idea that dog behavior can be explained through the application of wolf behavior models is no more relevant than suggesting that chimpanzee behavior can be used to explain the intricacies of human behavior.” – Association of Pet Dog Trainers (founded by Dr Ian Dunbar)
How can educated dog training professionals consider organisations like the APDT, a reliable or valid source of dog training information.
Considering the APDT was created by a veterinarian and animal behaviourist Dr Ian Dunbar, you would expect them to at least provide accurate information, even if they still have their own agenda.
There was a study published in the Royal Society that “tested the myth that dogs are tolerant and wolves are inherently more prone to aggressive interactions”.
Here's a quote from the abstract of the study (I've highlighted particularly interesting parts):
“In this study, we compared intraspecies aggression and tolerance of dogs and wolves raised and kept under identical conditions by investigating their agonistic behaviours and cofeeding during pair-wise food competition tests, a situation that has been directly linked to cooperation. We found that in wolves, dominant and subordinate members of the dyads monopolized the food and showed agonistic behaviours to a similar extent, whereas in dogs these behaviours were privileges of the high-ranking individuals. The fact that subordinate dogs rarely challenged their higher-ranking partners suggests a steeper dominance hierarchy in dogs than in wolves. Finally, wolves as well as dogs showed only rare and weak aggression towards each other. Therefore, we suggest that wolves are sufficiently tolerant to enable wolf–wolf cooperation, which in turn might have been the basis for the evolution of dog–human cooperation (canine cooperation hypothesis).”
The study showed that dogs in fact not only have a dominance hierarchy similar to wolves but that they actually have a “steeper dominance hierarchy” than wolves do.
“with serious fights occurring more often in dogs in contrast to the ritualized agonistic behaviours of wolves.”
I would suggest, this is due to their not being such a strong need for domesticated dogs to cooperate with each other, in comparison to how wolves have to cooperate in order to survive.
I'm going to reference a study now, that sent telephone calls and questionnaires to over 200 dog owners whose dogs had previously bitten them. The results from the study showed that a significant portion of the dogs showed ‘dominance based aggression’:
“Aggression which would traditionally be defined as dominant or possessive had been demonstrated by 75.6% of the dogs in at least one of 17 specific situations outlined in the questionnaire. Dogs with a history of this type of aggression were significantly older (P=0.02) and of lower body weight (P<0.001) when compared to the remainder of the dogs, and were more likely to be fearful of a variety of stimuli.”
Are you sure that dominance based behaviours from dogs are not exhibited towards humans?
Conclusion:
Dogs are not only genetically similar to wolves, they are in fact regarded as the same species. Dogs do have a dominance hierarchy that is in fact in some ways ‘steeper’ than that of the wolf. ‘Force free’ dog training ideologists would have you believe that dogs and wolves are completely different species. This is not the case, dogs are indeed ‘domesticated wolves’.
Scientific references quoted in the article:
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