There is so much misconception and myth about all of this.
Kevin Behan has written a book called Natural Dog Training I feel it has groundbreaking material that will affect the way we view our dogs and interact with them.
Kevin puts it all together very nicely before we got bits and pieces here and there it is a work that is over 30 years in the making.
Let's take the wolf for instance and the concept of the Alpha. Kevin feels the Alpha is the wolf with the most uninhibited temperment. What drives the wolf and our dogs are their prey drives. It's not that simple but a good starting point. Dogs don't have intellegence but are in tune with nature and their natural drives.
During a hunt is when it all comes into play each wolf has his own job this is not communicted by the alpha but flows naturally thru the prey or hunt drive they instivily know what their job is at the time of the kill each wolf attacks a specific part of the body.
This is not light bed time reading but it will help you better understand your dog and to be in harmony with him so both of you can have a much deeper relationship and for once truly understand how to train your dog working with him not against him.
Natural Dog Training is avaiable thru Amazon.com Kevin's web site is
http://www.naturaldogtraining.com