Unfortunately, far too many dog trainers fail to understand the ethological meaning of the terms dominance, submission, and aggression and misuse them. If this topic interests you more, I highly recommend the books by ethologist, Roger Abrantes and animal behavior expert Temple Grandin.

Dominance and submission are terms ethology defines, not dog trainers. To explain these, we have to examine their origin briefly. This starts with a look at the dog's ancestors—wolves.

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Buy Ralf's book If Your Dog Could Talk - Understand Your Dog Like Never Before (5th Edition) on Amazon.