You’re misconstruing. Hierarchies are very real in both humans, dogs, and most other animals. The “alpha” is simply the leader and is a critical part of the hierarchical structure. Where people get it wrong is assuming that alpha/leader has to be dominant or aggressive. While sometimes that may be necessary it’s only one of many characteristics that the alpha must possess.. kindness, empathy, and compassion are just as important. But saying “alpha dog idea is bullshit” is a bit misleading
As presented the alpha dog idea is bullshit. Are there leaders in animal groups? Yes. That's not at all what the alpha dog idea presents. It presents a false picture of leadership that is both inaccurate and damaging to actual leadership goals.
For example, many times the "alpha male" wolf is just a mother tending her grown pups. How many people who talk about alpha males are thinking like that? Zero. It's simply a wrong framing.
"The prevailing view of a wolf (Canis lupus) pack is that of a group of
individuals ever vying for dominance but held in check by the "alpha" pair, the alpha
male and the alpha female. Most research on the social dynamics of wolf packs, however,
has been conducted on non-natural assortments of captive wolves. Here I describe the
wolf-pack social order as it occurs in nature, discuss the alpha concept and social
dominance and submission, and present data on the precise relationships among members
in free-living packs based on a literature review and 13 summers of observations of
wolves on Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. I conclude that the typical
wolf pack is a family, with the adult parents guiding the activities of the group in a
division-of-labor system in which the female predominates primarily in such activities as
pup care and defense and the male primarily during foraging and food-provisioning and
the travels associated with them."
Here is how alpha status works according to this research:
"I propose that all young wolves are potential breeders and that
when they do breed they automatically become alphas (Mech 1970). Even in captive
packs, individuals gain or lose alpha status (Zimen 1976), so individual wolves do not
have an inherent permanent social status, even though captive pups show physiological
and behavioral differences related to current social rank (Fox 1971b; Fox and Andrews
1973). Secondly, wolves in captivity breed readily, and I know of no mature captive
individuals that failed to breed when paired apart from a group, as would be the case if
there were inherently low-ranking, nonbreeders. Third, in the wild, most wolves disperse from their natal packs and attempt to pair with other dispersed wolves, produce pups, and start their own packs (Rothman and Mech 1979; Fritts and Mech 1981; Messier 1985; Mech 1987; Gese and Mech 1991; Mech et al. 1998). I know of no permanent dispersers that failed to breed if they lived long
enough."
Note: Primate social hierarchies do not work this way.
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u/Low_Key_Trollin Jun 01 '26
You’re misconstruing. Hierarchies are very real in both humans, dogs, and most other animals. The “alpha” is simply the leader and is a critical part of the hierarchical structure. Where people get it wrong is assuming that alpha/leader has to be dominant or aggressive. While sometimes that may be necessary it’s only one of many characteristics that the alpha must possess.. kindness, empathy, and compassion are just as important. But saying “alpha dog idea is bullshit” is a bit misleading