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Originally Posted by tranquility  I'm confused, if we humans are supposed to be the 'alpha male', how come when a threat appears the dobe will (usu) take on the threat 1st? Shouldn't it be us being the alpha male? |
I see where you're coming from but it doesn't really work that way. A dog with a weak handler is more likely to be either fearful or fear-aggressive in the face of a perceived threat, rather than assertive. If you've ever seen a fear-aggressive dog, you'll immediately notice how different that is to confident assertion. Fear-aggressive dogs overreact to perceived threats - they respond in a hysterical, uncontrolled way. There are various reasons why dogs can be fear-aggressive but a common one is because they have no faith in their handler and lack confidence as a result.
Confident, assertive dogs tend to be confident and assertive precisely because they have Alpha handlers. They respond calmly to perceived threats - checking them out, standing their ground, thinking, assessing the situation, and remaining receptive to the handler's cues and commands. The handler of course then must respond in some way to the situation and direct the dog as to what happens next. So what happens next might be the handler telling the dog to stand down, the guy with the lump hammer has just come to fix the fence. Or it might be reaching for that gun ...