MY dog think he is boss???

a guy who owns a dog wash mobile came over to look at my dog. has worked with dogs some years. my dog started scratching and marking the garden and kept staring hard at him.

the guy said he thinks he is boss of me and that he is showing its his teritory.

but how did he figure he was boss of me? how can you tell. what body langauge do you look for?

That guy is a nut. He might be protecting his territory from him, but that is what dogs do. He didn't bite or bark.

I guess the guy figured that because your dog was marking your territory - the garden ( assuming that it was your yard ), your dog showing dominence over you, as the theory goes. Whether it's true or if this was the case in your situation I don't know.

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that's stupid IMO. He was just marking that does in no way mean he was marking it against you. My dog always lifted his leg when he peed just because that is how he liked to do it or he was marking over another dog's pee. I usually think it means they are marking against other dogs.

That's ridiculous. Your dog is just being a dog and by lifting his leg he is not threatening or trying to gain control over you. I doubt it had anything to do with you.

That had nothing to do with you - other than your dog probably figuring you needed to be guarded - and everything to do with warning this guy that he was trespassing. I don't know that I'd want someone that clueless handling my dogs.

The whole dominance thing is bunk anyway. They guy is obviously uneducated when it comes to dogs.

I agree with all the above comments!!

he did more scratching with his back legs on the grass then anything else and standing next to me or slightly in front?

it wouldn't matter if he stood on his head and recited the pledge of allegiance, what dogs do has very little to do with the dominance myth. In the dogs world he (or she) who controls the resources is leader. So unless your dog is plotting to take over the morgage payments and do his own grocery shopping, you are safe. (http://dogcentral.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4321516)

Dogs will display behaviour that we may not like, so that is simply an indication that we need to train our dogs, not an indication of a declaration of war.