I read this article today and it made me think of how humans have a weird way of looking at leadership.
Mostly, we don't choose our leaders based on their qualifications to lead, we choose the based on their ability to be nice to us, or agree with us, or give us what we want. Look at CEOs. Often they don't even know much about their product. Look at managers, often they can't even do the work of their "subordinates", and yet they are paid more. This is dominance, and you've probably experienced it, and probably didn't like it.
It makes sense that most humans can't grasp what real leadership is when working with their dogs.
Now try to think about real leadership. Real leadership is when an experienced person knows what they are doing and where they are going, and then other people follow them because they want to either try it out, or learn how to do what the leader can do. Think about something as simple as the leader of a walk through Paris. The leader doesn't punish the people or get mad at them, he makes it interesting for them. At the end of the day he wants everyone involved to be better off for that walk and happy. After that, the people will be tired, have some dinner, and go to sleep. That's a dog's life, almost exactly.
If you think about it, that's how our life should be. Go to work, learn, be productive, if you know less than someone else they help you and make it fun for you, go home, eat, watch TV, go to sleep.
So with your dog, do you know where you're going and how to get there? Sometimes you need your dog to sit, do you know how to show him that and make it fun? I bet if you think about it, you might not. People often just want dogs to exist and be fluffy and give kisses at the appropriate times. But dogs need leadership, they don't know how to live in our world. When they are full of energy they need guidance on how to spend that energy. If you don't give it to them, they'll figure something out on their own and often you won't like it. But is this their fault? Of course not, they need a leader.
But as the article notes, being a leader has nothing to do with dominating your dog. It's just being a leader, leading your dog into good things and behaviors ending in happiness for all. It's totally possible for anyone to learn how.