Alpha Theory & Dog Dominance Explained: Temperament vs Pack Role in Dogs

Who vs What: How the current theory is wrong

Collectively, we need to come up with different words to describe either the level of dominance and confidence a dog is born with (Who), or the words to describe a dog’s hierarchical position in a pack (What) to add clarity to this confusing topic.

At the Balanced Mother Canine Care Centre, we believe in stable behavior mirroring that of a Mother Dog, not an Alpha male. Healthy leadership is calm, clear, and consistent. It is not dominant, reactive or forceful. Dogs organize around that solid rock of calm, assertive and affectionate strength which is represented by the Mother Dog.

Who You Are

There are three types of dominant dogs based on the level of confidence and dominance they have, their instinctual level and desire to lead and protect. Alpha, Beta and Charlie.

If an Alpha, a Beta and a Charlie were hunting together, the Alpha would go to the neck, the Beta would go the belly, and the Charlie would go to the hind legs, all working together as a team to take down prey.

• Alpha dominant dogs are like the generals of the old days who actually led their troops into battle. They are completely fearless in battle or when protecting themselves or their pack. When they come at you, they do not bark. They do not hesitate. They do not divert eye contact. They have no thought of death or being harmed. When an Alpha corrects or challenges with intent, they will bite you with their canine teeth and leave big puncture holes or large tears requiring stitches. There will be 1 to 4 holes spaced apart matching the distance between their canine teeth.
• Betas are the elite soldiers of the dog world. They are born to back up the Alpha in protecting the pack. They are the teachers and enforcers of the pack and as such do most of the correcting and challenging within the pack. They will come at you barking but will stop within a few feet of you if you calmly stand and hold your ground. They will not bite you unless you move forward to challenge them or you turn and run. When challenging or correcting, Beta dominant dogs will bite with intent using their incisors, their front teeth, leaving a wide bruise, a number of small puncture holes close together, or scratches or small tears close together.
• Charlie dominant dogs are the foot soldiers of the pack and half of them do not want to be in battle, they want to be back home on the farm, so to speak. These are the nanny dogs, teachers, and players of the pack. Their role in the protection of the pack is to alert to danger, not to physically take on the danger. That’s the job of the Alphas and Betas. A Charlie dominant dog will run towards you barking, but will stop usually 5 to 10 feet away from you while continuing to bark at you. If you move towards them they will either back away while maintaining eye contact and continuing to bark, or they will do quick lunges forward while snapping at you with no intention to bite you. They rarely act in an offensive manner. When a Charlie dominant dog corrects or challenges with intent, they use their molars, where they put their whole mouth over and touch you with their back teeth. You will see a long jagged bruise, red mark, scratch, or tear usually requiring stitches.

There are two subtypes of dominant dogs, Diplomats and Apexs.

• Diplomatic dominant dogs are the Buddhist Monks and Buddhist Warriors of the dog world. They are never offensive, they are only defensive. They never instigate a challenge and they only correct when needed and they do so with the appropriate amount of assertive dominant energy. They rarely bite when correcting or challenging, using energy, sound, and touch instead. They may look and sound vicious, but it is all a show. With their pack and human family, they are extremely loving and affectionate. And I mean extremely affectionate. You have not been truly loved until you are loved by a diplomatic dominant dog, especially an Alpha. Diplomatic dominant dogs never start trouble, although they can be annoying as they learn rules and boundaries.
• Apex dominant dogs are the ‘assholes’ of the world. They are always starting trouble and chaos. They have no conscience or respect for others. They challenge for everything and they will correct or ‘attack’ just to assert their position. They are the bullies of the dog world. They are always offensive. Most of the time they don’t bother with sound and touch, they just look at you and then bite you. In order to earn the trust and respect of an Apex dominant dog and live with them safely, you yourself must be a Diplomatic dominant person who is more dominant than your dog. This means only Diplomatic dominant people can safely own an Apex dominant dog. Both only make up 0.5% of their respective populations and are therefore very rare. Many Apex dominant dogs have to be muzzled whenever they are with others or in public or they may need to be euthanized because they represent a direct danger to their family and/or society. Understand that Apex dominant dogs are always biting people and other dogs leaving serious punctures or tears requiring medical care. They are vicious and do not stop, they bite and hold on, they cause serious damage. If your dominant dog does not do any of this, your dog is not an Apex, they are a Diplomat.

To put it in the human perspective, most of the people in prison are Apex dominant, while most of the police who helped put them there are Diplomatic dominant.

A dog is born an Alpha, Beta, or Charlie, and that will never change. A Beta can not ‘learn’ to be an Alpha. Many, but not all, Apex dominant dogs can learn to be more diplomatic, but their Apex nature will always be present. Most Apex Alpha dominant dogs will need to be euthanized because they are so dangerous.

What You Are

There are positions in a pack that are based on your job, such as teacher, nanny, enforcer, nurse, player. Then there are positions based on the leadership of the pack, the pack’s hierarchy, and these include Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

• The Alpha postions are the pack’s leaders. There are two, the Alpha male and the Alpha female. In feral conditions with wolves, the Alpha male chooses the Alpha female, and he usually chooses a born Beta female because they make the best Mothers. Alpha females can be too rough with their puppies. Apex Alpha females will hurt their puppies leaving puncture holes, or they may even kill their puppies. Understand that just because a puppy yelps does not mean the Mother Dog hurt the puppy. If she is not putting punctures holes in them, she is most likely not hurting them. The Alpha male leads the pack, the Alpha female leads the puppies. These positions are similar to the President and First Lady.
• The Beta positions can be seen as vice president’s or colonels. They back up and support the Alpha in the protection of the pack and hunting. The will always alert bark to challenges, threats or danger. They are the teachers, enforcers, players, and keepers of the peace of the pack. The main factors that differentiates Alphas and Betas is their instinctual ability, confidence and desire to lead. Alphas lead with confidence, Betas lead with uncertainty and insecurity. Most of the dogs I work with in my practice are Beta and Charlie dominant dogs who are insecure because they feel they have to take on the responsibility of the Alpha, but they know they were not born to take on that responsibility. 
• The Omega is the bottom dog in the pack. They are usually very insecure diplomatic dominant dogs who have no desire or intention to fight back, challenge or correct. Their extreme insecurity threatens the stability of the pack and the Omega is usually picked on by others in an attempt to ‘toughen them up’. Omegas are generally extremely affectionate and loving with humans and tend to be very clingy.

A Real World Example

I will use my dogs Melina, Jake and Jack as an example to help bring some clarity to these dominance types and positions.

Melina is a born Beta dominant dog. Her husband Jake, is a born Alpha dominant dog and he took on the role of the Alpha Male in my little pack many years ago. Jake and Melina mated as he selected her to be the Alpha female and Mother Dog of his pups. This happened in the back of my Suburban without my permission or consent as we traveled through Saskatchewan.

Jake is a born Alpha and held the position of Alpha male. Melina is a born Beta and to this day she holds the position of Alpha female. Their son Jack is a born Alpha like his father and he now holds the Alpha male position in the pack. Jake is now an old man and has retired to become the pack’s Grandfather. This now puts Jake in a Beta position in the pack, as there can only be one Alpha male, just like there can only be one president.

As my pack grew, every new Alpha female would challenge Melina for the Alpha female position. Because Melina is a born Beta, she will never challenge back or fight a born Alpha, she will always concede. That is why I, acting as the Alpha Mother and Alpha male of the Pack, would correct any Alpha female who challenged Melina to teach them that they had to accept Melina’s position and respect her as the pack’s Alpha female and Mother Dog. Apex Alpha females would never concede to a Beta and would still challenge Melina if I was not there. I was always there or they were turned out separately from Melina.

Dominance DOES NOT mean aggression.

Not all dominant dogs are aggressive, but all aggressive dogs are dominant. This was explained earlier with the difference between Diplomatic and Apex dominant dogs.

There is no such thing as ‘aggressive barking’. Barks in that context are warnings, and warnings are the opposite aggression. The dog is telling you to stay away. Barking dogs do not bite, unless you ignore the bark and continue to move into the dog’s space or touch the dog, or you turn and run away, at which point you now become prey. If you stand your ground and face a dog who is coming at you barking, they WILL stop, and they WILL NOT bite you. Continue to stand your ground and silently face them as they move around you and eventually the dog will go away or become disinterested in you. Wait until the dog disengages and walks away before you continue on your way.

An Alpha dominant dog will not bark as they approach you with the intent to bite you. They can even just casually walk up to you and bite you with enough force to break your bones and then just casually walk back to where they came from like nothing happened.

Not all bites are aggressive. A dog who ‘bites’ in a defensive or in a balanced, corrective manner is NOT being aggressive. Defensive bites can sometimes cause damage or injury, but corrective ‘bites’ rarely cause any damage or injury. A dog who bites with absolutely no provocation or disrespect and causes injures breaking the skin is being aggressive. A dominant dog who consistently bites their owners have taken over the leader or Mother Dog role in their home and the dog is correcting or challenging their owners just like they would another dog. About half of these dominant dogs are acting in an aggressive manner, the Apexs, and the other half, the diplomats, are not.

It’s About Protection, Not Domination

When a dominant dog enters a human home, they do not instinctually, and immediately see their new owners as their parents. They enter a home and see the humans as members of their pack, and as they do with other dogs, they are going to test and challenge their owners to see who is above them in the pack, “who is going to protect me“, and who is below them in the pack, “who do I have to protect“.

Denying dominance exists is the basis for the failures the force free and animal kind dog trainers and behaviourists have with reactive or aggressive dominant dogs. Referring to these behaviours as ‘fear based’ is like saying a professional boxer or MMA fighter is fearful entering the ring. Not all soldiers are fearful entering battle. Most are, but some soldiers have no thought of death or injury. That is a level of drive, desire, and confidence most people will never be able to understand.

Reactive and aggressive dominant dogs DO NOT accept treats when they are in an alert state of mind, just like soldiers don’t stop in the middle of a fire fight to eat. When a dominant dog perceives a challenge, threat or danger, they will immediately go into territorial, protective, or defensive mode and at that moment they will stop smelling and panting. That is why they do not accept treats. In that moment, the dog needs you to either take over that territorial, protective, or defensive role, or they need you to tell them they do not need to take responsibility for being territorial, protective or defensive in the first place. The ONLY way you can do that is to communicate your intentions to the dog through the projection of energy, sound, and touch, they way their Mother Dog or Alpha male did, to ask or tell the dog to ignore the trigger and to be calm and relaxed in the triggers presence instead.

In order to fully understand reactivity and aggression in dogs, you first have to have a full understanding of dominance in dogs, it’s types and subtypes, and the specific and predictable behaviours used to establish and maintain an individuals position in a pack.

If you ever find yourself in a position where you need to be defended, do you want Pee Wee Herman in front of you, or Mike Tyson. Do you want a passive, submissive dog behind you, or a dominant dog in front of you? Many people dislike ‘dominant’ people and dogs until they need these fearless fighters to protect them.

Love and Affection

I would like to make one point about love and affection. Dominant dogs do everything with more intensity, including loving you. The more dominant the dog is, the more intense their love is. You have not been truly loved by a dog until you have been loved by a dominant dog, especially an Alpha. I have had many people who have owned dogs all their life or who work in the dog industry tell me that they have never seen dogs show as much physical affection and love to their owner as my Alpha dogs show to me, their Mother Dog.

‘Fear Aggression’ is a Lie

Finally, there is no such thing as ‘fear aggression’. It simply does not exist. A truly fearful dog will NEVER fight back or attack you, they will ALWAYS freeze, going straight down on all four paws and turning their head away from you, or they will turn and run.

Once cornered, a fearful dominant dog will wildly lunge and/or snap at you to tell you to leave them alone, but they will NOT attack you. They are reacting to humans the dog perceives as attacking them. A dog who holds their ground against you but moves back as you move towards them while maintaining eye contact, is a Charlie dominant dog or an insecure Beta dominant dog. A dog who comes at you without hesitation is an Alpha or a confident Beta dominant dog.