Whatever their disagreements about the particulars of these issues, none of the researchers I spoke to said that any of this should be taken to mean that dogs, as a species, want to dominate humans. Serpell suggested that this idea derives from a “semantic problem to do with confusing ‘dominance,’ which is about relationships, with ‘dominant,’ which is a behavior — in other words, behaving in a dominant way.” He said, “The notion that you should behave in a dominant way toward your dog, for example, to avoid it trying to assert itself and push you further down the hierarchy, really doesn’t seem to be an issue with dogs.”

Read More