So called animal "behaviorist" focus too much on "dominance" and not on the specific situations for pet's behavior, i suppose it has to do with todays crowded conditions, where pet owners dwell in closer quarters than in the past, as more and more people in the larger towns and cities own pets. Let me begin with an analogy; If a cable repair person comes into our home, and sat down on our couch, picked up the remote and helped himself, we would feel off-put by such a behavior and it is a behavior of dominance, the cable repair person feels he can get away with such a behavior. Now lets say your daughter came into your house, sat on your couch and helped herself to the accomodations, is she showing "dominance?" In a way, she is, she certainly thinks she can get away with such a behavior and rarely would a parent object. In the same way, if your pet leaned on you, for reasons she/he wants to play, be petted, or to have physical contact, is it a show of dominance? It certainly might be, but same as the daughter that came into your home does not do it for the sake of dominance, but to perhaps wait on you to join her for whatever reason, a pet will do for the same reason. They just want to play, be petted or have close physical contact with you.
Getting back to our current living conditions, it certainly will be beneficial for you to have a well behaved pet when you are around strangers, so the behaviorist focus too much on obidience with no specifics, you can see why they might not be giving the best advice to us, when they focus on "dominant behavior" and not enough on specifics. I hope every pet owner learn their pets behavior and give them plenty of attention and love to your pets to really understand them better.
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