Dominant or Confident Behavior
Identifying Dominant or Confident Behavior
One of the benefits of dogs being so strongly guided by instinctive pack behavior is that dogs generally have little desire to truly injure each other. If in the wild every dispute in a wolf pack was resolved with a fight then the number of injured and mauled wolves within the pack would increase and the number of healthy wolves available to hunt for food would decrease. It is not conducive to the survival of the pack to risk grievous injury over every dispute, this is the reason that most dogs will try to demonstrate their superiority and dominance through other means such as posturing and body language.
Dogs trying to appear dominant will approach each other confidently with the head held high and the hair on the spine erect so as to make them appear larger. Ears will generally be forward and the tail will be stiff and held high or vertical while wagging. The eyes will have a hard expression and they will stare each other in the eyes. Their whole posture will signify aggression. If one does not back down or begin to act submissively then each may attempt to scare the other into submission by snarling, wrinkling the nose and a teeth-baring display to the other dog what harm could be done if provoked.
If one has still not backed down by this point it may escalate on step further into a physical confrontation where they lunge at each other and begin what appears to be full fledged fight when even at this stage it is still not full combat and may only last a few seconds as one still has the chance to retreat and back down, if during this stage neither dog submits then it will escalate into full combat with each dog trying to seriously injure the other. This process is not conducive to the survival of the pack, Thus fighting is for most dogs a last resort when either cornered or challenged
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