There have been a number of posts about the whole alpha concept ...... are we over complexifying things with the whole pack structure thing and trying to analyze it?

The dog simply has to understand that it must submit to all people in the family .... through a combination of obedience and reinforcement from day one ....... and that the owner controls the level of interaction between other dogs in the family and obviously controls the dogs interactions with any small children from day one.

There are some good articles for dealing with the dominant dog (My most dominant dog was an intact male welsh terrier btw) which most pets I have seen really are not.they just have been allowed to get away with behaviors that should have been nipped in the bud........

I don't know - I have had 4 GSDs, one was what you would call a dominant dog, the rest not, and it just never seemed to be an issue. I know there ARE dogs (and real good dogs!) with real Rank issues but the average pet owner should not own these dogs as they need knowledgable handling.

http://www.leerburg.com/articles.htm

Great resource stuff here.