This page is going to be a work in progress for some time.  There is so much to say on this subject.  I have spent well almost 40 years years as an adult studying all aspects of canine social behavior, pack dynamics and such.  It's a very complex subject.  I have lived with and worked hands on with packs of pure wolves as well as dogs of various breeds, and have had a passion to understand all aspects of this subject since I was very young.  I had the unique opportunity to live with wolf packs at a licensed wolf facility, at the same time keeping a pack of sled dogs as my own pets and working sled dogs.  I could go back and forth each day, observing the differences and similarities in pure wolves and domestic dogs, both in how they related to each other and to people.   I have also worked hands with wolfdogs of various ancestry, giving me some fun insight into these canines who are somewhere in between wild and domestic canids.

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What I will work on first is just some basics of canine pack dynamics, as that is something that can help dog owners understand their pets better, both in how they relate to other dogs in the home and in public, as well as how dogs relate to people.

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The most very basic fact about canines is they are social pack animals.  In the wild, a wolf pack is usually a family consisting of the parents (usually the alpha male and alpha female), and their offspring of various ages.   There is a rank order that is linear, like the rungs of a ladder, and this is in each sexes.  There is a dominant or alpha male, a #2 male, a #3 male and so on down the line, and the same is true of females.   While there is some amount of dominance interaction between the sexes, most dominance interactions will between canines of the same sex and similar rank. In other words, the #1 or alpha male will dominate the #2 male, and the #2 male will dominate the #3 male, more often than the #1 male will dominate the #3 male.  That is not to say it never happens though, or that a male won't dominate a female or vice versa.  And, unlike some force based trainers would like you to think, lower ranking canines are more likely to offer submissive behavior to their leaders than the leaders demand it.   A good canine leader does not go around beating up all his packmates.  Ones that do are usually insecure bullies.   A lot of time, if things are relaxed, an observer would have a hard time telling the rank orders of pack mates.  It is usually only when things are more active (such as feeding time or breeding season) that you will see more dominance interactions and can tell by behaviors where each animal fits in it's pack. 

Dogs are not wolves however, but they are related. Their rank order is there but more loose.  Like wolves they are also a family, and in my pack the loose rank order as mostly run in order of ages.   So in observing that I learned to be a benevolent but firm, fair leader, not a dictator or bully to my dogs.   I use management to set up behaviors and interactions I want to see, am very proactive.  I also treat each as an individual, tailoring my handling and training methods to best suit each dog.

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 All this is to say that even while  pet dogs are not wolves, we should still understand how that works. But the main driving force for dogs is THEY WANT TO HAVE THEIR NEEDS MET.   They don't wake up in the morning wanting to dominate us, but they do want to get the things they want, which is often food, access to attention, fun, other resources they value.  We can be the leaders simply by controlling all the good stuff like food, toys, access to fun things like walks or social outings, and so on.  We don't need to use force or fear to be the "alpha" since even in wolves, that's not how it is done. 

A puppy is naturally wired to follow a leader, starting with it's mother, and if we raise and train our puppies right, they will continue to naturally defer to us even when they are adults.  I find that positive and reward based training, with some well timed corrections (almost always just verbal) that match the deed work well to raise balanced, healthy puppies.  By this I mean we normally use praise, food or other rewards and only correct once the dog knows what we want and chooses not to do it.  We don't use overly harsh methods.  Usually a firm word is all that is needed to correct, or I may use my body to block access to something. And we don't over punish the "deed".  By that I mean you don't alpha roll a puppy who just won't sit when you tell him to. In fact, I don't even use the so-called alpha roll, as I don't HAVE to since my dogs already defer to me as leader.  Even wolves very, very seldom use a forceful roll and if they do, it's only in the most dire of situations.   I want my dogs to trust me, and to think of "training" as fun, more of a game than a drill.  In doing that, I find the dogs are more eager to learn.  In the older style force based training, dogs were often more afraid of correction and while they appeared well behaved, it was more from fear of correction than actually wanting to work for their human trainer.  That is not the kind of relationship I want with my dogs. And it's not based on good canine behavior principles either.  My dogs respect me and they still trust me.  They are far more eager to do as I ask as they know good stuff happens when they do.  Dogs who are trained with force are not likely to offer behaviors in a training setting, but do them to avoid a punishment. It's been proven time and time again that no creature learns well in this kind of atmosphere (fear.)  Many dogs appear robotic or shut down, and if you watch them, they will often offer quite a number of calming signals such as yawning, licking lips, turning their heads away, and if they can, many will leave the training area.  These are all signs of stress and if your dog shows these while you are training, it is time to reassess your methods.