1. Summary
Dominance is a well-established phenomenon in ethology, however the dog-owning public often misuses the term. A questionnaire study was launched to investigate the validity of owner-derived estimates of dominance in dog dyads sharing the same household (N=1151). According to the owners, dominant dogs (87%) have priority access to resources (resting place, food, and rewards), undertake certain tasks (defend the group during perceived or actual threats, bark more when a stranger comes to the house, and lead the group during walks), display dominance (lick the other’s mouth less, win fights, and mark over the other’s urine), have a certain personality (smarter, more aggressive and impulsive), and were older than their partner dog (all p<0.0001). An age related hypothesis has been suggested to explain formal dominance in dogs; however, we found that dominance status was a better predictor than age status for 11 of the items examined. Results suggest that dog owners’ estimates of dominance rank correspond to previously established behavioural markers of dominance displays. Size and physical condition were unrelated to dominance. Surprisingly, in mixed-sex dyads, females were more frequently dominant than males. For future studies that wish to allocate dominance status using owner report we offer a novel 6-item survey.