When do puppies develop their personalities? Just how does a puppy become either a dominant dog who is on the aggressive side, or rather the submissive type who will roll over or pee when confronting an "Alpha" male?

Puppies as young as 3 weeks of age may show dominant behavior, put forepaws on litter mates with the tail erect, remain still, and sometimes, growl. Some pups react to this dominance submissively, remain quite still or roll onto one side. Such behavior can be seen before, during or after play-fighting, or completely independent of it.

This behavior, as well as outright fighting which culminates with a clear-cut winner, has been interpreted and labeled variously as sorting out the pecking order or the pack dominance order. Its value to the pack is attributed to ensuring social stability, establishing eating priorities that favor the fittest, and ensuring mating only between the Alpha male and female.

An inaccurate view of canine dominance behavior has emerged from these observations. Regrettably, the wolf and domestic dog have come to be regarded as having built-in, stereotyped submissive and dominant behaviorisms. To the contrary - reliable reports, films and photographs show the following behaviorisms as submissive on the part of subordinate dogs and wolves when a dominant pack member, often the Alpha, shows dominance: growling, snarling with teeth bared, hackles raised, even holding the tail upright.

Yet, all or most of these submissive behaviorisms have been erroneously described in many popular dog books as strictly dominant behavior. Thus, many readers fail to learn the subtleties of their pet's behavior and wind up making their problems worse. The sad results of this kind of misinformation have been shown to provide misinformation to many dog owners.

This is not to say that so-called "dominance" handling cannot succeed in stimulating submissive behavior in dogs. For instance, experienced professionals often succeed with clients' dogs. However, we should remember that dogs relate to outsiders quite differently than to their owners. So, while punishment from a virtual stranger may subdue a growl in a professional setting, that response is usually stimulus bound; it is unique to the context and/or persons involved. However, the owner, whose relationship with a pet mainly involves affectionate interactions, faces an entirely different set of circumstances.