Leadership verse Dominance

Question
I have read a few of your answers to aggressive problems and stated that the GSD is a dominate dog and we have to take a leadership, not dominate position with the GSD. What do you mean by this?  My mother was a person that was so scared of dogs period it was almost a phobia, but I could not remember a time in my life growing up that we did not have a dog in the house (literally).  When my mother told me about her fear, she told me ecencially, that her dog protected her from the ones she was scared of.  I have no fear of dogs, but have learned to respect the fact that if pushed the wrong was, it might not be pleasent.  I have always heard that we needed to teach our dogs that we were the dominate.  Please explain what you mean between dominance and leadereship.  thank you.

Answer
Hi again Keith  :),  In Leadership you are leading a dog, just like a leader of a pack would out in the wild.  You are being an Alpha, which is top dog in their eyes, but you are not beating them or doing anything domineering to them to make them do what you want.  In the wild, a pack leader does not dominate a dog unless he is challenged for leadership of the pack.  That is what is happening in your dog's situation.  In your situation, your Jack was leader due to age, but your GSD became of age so nature told her to try and assert control over the Jack and take over the pack.  In the wild, the leader would either kill or be killed, drive out or be driven out, or give in to the challenger.  In domestic dogs, obviously they can't be driven out, but they can be hurt very badly or they can give in.  you have a terrier & a GSD.  Neither breed is known for giving in.  That is where your major problem lies.  If you use leadership training you use their natural instincts to train them, and guide them into what you want them to do.
In dominance training, you are basically dominating the dog to get them to do what you want.  i.e. Shock collars, prong collars, choke chains etc.  These items can work fine, but if you dominate a dominate dog, you are normally butting heads in one way or another.  They will fight back with you, in different ways.  Sometimes they become more aggressive or destructive if that is the problems you are having with them, or they will cause problems with other members of the family because those members haven't dominated them to get them to do what they want.  I call it getting you back but not in a direct way.  A lot of dominate dogs will do that because they are in fear of the dominance, but will still retaliate in their own way.  Hope this helps clear things up a bit.

Dawn