Most research points towards alpha theory being extremely outdated. Even wolf packs function far differently than what was once believed and it is now known that feral dogs form much, much looser "packs" than wolves. Things are much more fluid in wolf packs than what was once assumed and even more fluid in dog to dog interactions.
A great example of this with my dogs is that in the house, I jokingly refer to Loki as the Queen Dog. The other dogs are intimidated by her and take extra care not to invade her space or seem like they are interested in stuff that she has. All of the dogs offer appeasement behaviors towards her and she can be very loud and intimidating if they do something she doesn't like. Old school of thought would say this is a "dominant, alpha type" female. Yet outdoors, she's just another dog and the others act fairly indifferent towards her (and she to them). That is very typical of dog social interaction, it's fluid and depends on the situation and not that there is one "alpha" who always rules all dogs in a group.
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