I have to apologize to reader musteryou who said that dogs recognize dominance in people. I said this sounded ridiculous.
But on the very next day, a very aggressive and loud dog Lola saw me, rolled on her back, and raised her paws.
I’m now thinking there might just be something to this theory, as bizarre as it’s sounds.
After years of riding horses I can tell you that animals absolutely perceive confidence and dominance!
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It’s because they’re pack animals. A pack will have tiers of dominance, which dogs will recognize. They do that amongst themselves, with humans, even other animals. It’s partly why you need to be careful when introducing two dogs to each other, too.
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Oh c’mon, I cannot believe that you don’t instinctively understand that ;-D
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Of course, they do. Animals aren’t humans, but they aren’t exactly machines either.
That’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to have a dog. Don’t think I have enough dominance naturally, and animals feel (see and smell) you faking it. Instead of spending energy on controlling a dog, I would choose a cat, if had to have a pet now. Some cats are social, also like spending time with owners and don’t expect either to lead or to be led. Instead of pressure to “Be a Leader \ Alpha”, just enjoy friendship-ike relationship.
Btw, what can somebody, who wants to teach school children, but isn’t dominant naturally do? One can love explaining new material, etc., but have problems with projecting authority / dominance. If people can work on themselves in psychoanalysis f.e., surely *something* can be done to improve (“playing a role” in a way) during work hours. Would love to hear any insights. Am afraid you’ll say nothing can be done here, even though you wouldn’t say so about numerous other problems.
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No, this is definitely something you can work on, and I don’t think an analyst is needed for this.
You are on the right track when you say that this is about playing a role. At first, you might have to make effort to put yourself in the teaching mode, and then it will become automatic. Think of how you can use clothes, hairstyle, music to put you in an authoritative mood.
And most importantly, remember that the most efficient teacher is the one who never ever brings emotions into the classroom. Students react aggressively towards any vulnerability because it reminds them of how insecure and vulnerable they feel. Nothing that students say it do should evoke any emotional response from you. Your personality or self-esteem should never be affected in any way but what students do.
I see colleagues take things students do personally. And that’s a huge mistake. This is where they begin to get into tugs of war with students and lose all authority.
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Domestic (not wild or feral) dogs are very tuned into humans socially and pick up on a lot of cues that more intelligent animals don’t (or just don’t care about). IIRC dogs will/can follow human eye movements (without accompanying head movement) much more than other animals. As Pen says they’re pack animals by nature and that requires constant awareness of your fellow pack members’ moods and intentions.
And Lola (per the pictures) looked like a cute little furball and not very aggressive though I guess she might seem more threatening if you’re really uneasy around dogs.
Generally rolling over exposing the stomach is a sign of submission for dogs toward strange large dogs whose intentions are not clear (probably how she perceived you). If she realized her pack leader (your friend) didn’t find you threatening and was treating you as an equal she would want to signal her acceptance of this new dominance dynamic as well.
Horses IME are also very tuned into humans. My mother used to say that by the time you got on a horse for the first time it had already figured out exactly how experience you had with horses and would act accordingly.
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Appearances are deceptive. This creature might look all cute and innocent. But she kills every non-human creature that comes into the house. There was a pair of canaries who are no longer with us. . .
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\\ she kills every non-human creature that comes into the house.
It’s a prey instinct and has nothing to do with aggression. When we kill chicken to eat it, we don’t feel aggression, which is an emotion reserved for social partners. Cats kill mice not out of aggression either. A cat vs mice and a cat vs you are completely different things in quality, not quantity.
Thank you for the teaching answer.
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As far as I understand, a dog may be human-aggressive, but have very low prey instinct, or the opposite. Or both.
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Yes, I’m sure if I were a canary Lola would be terrifying…
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If you were born in Africa, you would know the whole of the society bends to these laws of primal social dominance, even in relation to the authorities of the law. You need to be able to hold your stance ande bluff your way through at times. This comes very naturally to me, with animals as well as people in that context. A huge part of social attitudes and behavior there are based on bluff. I guess that was related to the war, too. Otherewise people push you around at check points and so on. And of course I rode horses and played with animals — and yes, you learn that how you posture is very important, for instance never run away from a large, aggressive dog (as many of them were) or they will chase you. Even if a lion chases you, stand still and once it is close up, flick it really hard on the nose with a piece of cloth. These were the sorts of thigns we were taught.
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But that specific kind of dominance absolutely doesn’t work in Western culture, not even all that much on the animals, that are somehow denatured. To be dominant here, you show you have no emotional needs. Then people run from you. But they may also try to gang up to break you down to try to prove you are as emotionally needy as they. If you know this is the aim, you can avoid the outcome, sometimes be relocating. 🙂
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I think my main problem with teaching Westerners is I’m not deeply tuned into the “mammalian” side of social existence. It just doesn’t interest me at all, the gossip and the gender roles and so on. By contrast I AM very clued in to the primeval. As Cliff Arroyo describes in relation to dogs, I also follow the eyes of people in organisations and am extremely aware of issues of dominance and what is likely to happen next. I can read power dynamics without any problem at all and they interest me a lot. But I just don’t care about who is getting on with whom, or how people believe they are being socially perceived, and whether this has hurt their feelings. And this is what most people seem to think is important. It’s not important to me at all. I’m oriented more towards adrenaline cues.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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