Is dog licking a sign of dominance or affection? The Short Answer

Is dog licking a sign of dominance or affection? Modern behavioral science doesn’t support “dominance” as a useful explanation for licking, and the wolf-pack theory it’s usually borrowed from has been substantially walked back by the researcher most associated with it. Licking is better explained as affection, appeasement, information-gathering, or a learned attention-getting behavior — often several at once.

Where the Dominance Idea Came From

The idea that dogs are constantly jockeying for “alpha” status traces back to research on captive wolves in the 1930s and 40s, conducted by animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel. The wolves in that study were unrelated adults forced together in a confined zoo enclosure — a highly artificial and stressful situation with no equivalent in the wild.

The Researcher Who Corrected It

Wildlife biologist L. David Mech spent over a decade, from 1986 to 1999, studying wild wolf packs in their natural environment and found something very different: wild packs are essentially family units, made up of a breeding pair and their offspring from the past few years, structured much like a human family rather than a battleground for status. In 2000, Mech published a paper in the Canadian Journal of Zoology explicitly stating that the dominance-based “alpha” model was misleading, precisely because it was built on the behavior of captive, unrelated wolves under duress rather than real wild packs.

Why It Matters for Domestic Dogs

Even setting aside the wolf research, domestic dogs are behaviorally quite distinct from wolves after thousands of years of separate selection pressure — treating dog behavior as a direct translation of wolf pack dynamics has been compared to using chimpanzee behavior to explain human behavior. Licking specifically maps far more cleanly onto documented functions like appeasement, greeting, affection, and attention-seeking (all covered in our main guide) than onto a status contest.

Where the Submission Piece Comes From

There is a real, well-documented behavior underneath the confusion: lower-ranking dogs do lick the muzzles of dogs they defer to, as an appeasement gesture — but “appeasement” and “submission” describe a social smoothing behavior between individuals, not evidence of a constant rank struggle. Your dog licking you fits this same category far better than it fits any dominance narrative.

So is licking ever about status at all?
In the narrow sense of appeasement between dogs, yes — but that’s a cooperative, tension-reducing behavior, not evidence of dogs trying to outrank each other or you.

Should I stop letting my dog lick me so it doesn’t think it’s “in charge”?
No — this reasoning is based on a debunked model. There’s no credible evidence that allowing licking creates a status problem.

The Bottom Line

So, is dog licking a sign of dominance or affection? “Dominance” is a poor lens for understanding why dogs lick, built on outdated research about captive wolves that the field has since corrected. Affection, appeasement, and learned behavior explain the licking you actually see far better than a status hierarchy does.

Why Does My Dog Lick Me?
What Does It Mean When a Dog Licks You? The Science and History

Sources

Mech, L.D. (2000). Alpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77(8).
Pet Behavior Consulting — Debunking the Dominance Myth.

All factual claims on Pawsidor trace to peer-reviewed research, university studies, or books by credentialed animal scientists.

Sources & References

  1. Horowitz, A. (2009). Inside of a Dog. Scribner.
  2. Bradshaw, J. (2013). Cat Sense. Basic Books.
  3. McConnell, P. (2002). The Other End of the Leash. Ballantine Books.

All factual claims on Pawsidor trace to peer-reviewed research, university studies, or books by credentialed animal scientists. Learn about our editorial standard →