Dominate the dog? Train it? Or maybe… cooperate with it?

Podczas uczenia psów warto wyjść poza myślenie o prostym warunkowaniu i brać pod uwagę ich cele, motywy, to że posiadają pamięć i zdolność rozumowania.

“Dominate your dog, or he’ll dominate you.”

Sound familiar?

It’s one of those myths that deserves a one-way ticket to the trash bin.

Traditional dog training often stems from outdated ideas: that dogs are basically wolves, and you need to establish yourself as the “alpha.” That you must always walk through doors first. That if you let your dog win tug-of-war, you’re doomed.

The problem? Dogs aren’t wolves. And wolves don’t even behave the way those early dominance theories claimed.

We now know dogs have their own unique social systems, motivations, and a very different evolutionary path. They didn’t become man’s best friend by being submissive—they did it by being social, adaptable, and emotionally attuned to us.

Yes, operant conditioning works. Dogs learn through rewards, repetition, and consequences. But they aren’t machines.

They think, they feel, they remember. They solve problems and read human emotions. They don’t need a boss. They need a partner.

This isn’t boot camp.

It’s a relationship.

---

Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods, The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think, Dutton 2013 Roberto Bonanni, Simona Cafazzo, Paola Valsecchi, Eugenia Natoli, Effect of affiliative and agonistic relationships on leadership behaviour in free-ranging dogs, Animal Behaviour 2010