Hi Val
The idea that dogs on sofas allow them to acquire dominance status is a tired and false notion. It is based on the dominate the dog school of dog training and harks back to Schenkel's flawed research into wolf pack behaviour. It is now widely accepted that as he used unrelated animals in his research the behaviour observed on which he based his ideas of dominance hierarchies within wolf groups is wrong. Many subsequent subsequent studies to Schenkel tried to apply his theories to dogs and this idea of alpha males and females has stuck. Wolf and dog behaviours are quite different in many respects. Lock food in a cage and present it to a wolf and it will try and try to get access. A dog will try for a short while and then stop look at it's owner as if to say "help me out here boss".
A dog well trained using positive re-inforcement techniques is a far better socialised creature and will experience no discomfort accommodating other pack members in a variety of situations. I.e anger at being displaced from a sitting place. It will comply to maintain harmony in the pack. Dominance seeking behaviour will still be present but any intelligent owner will know that until dogs can have credit cards, buy can openers and develop opposable thumbs humans will always be the top of the pile.Regards
Gary Shanahan
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