in the past decade, & most-especially in the last 5-years due to media saturation by a certain TV-host,
dominance became the meme-of-the-day in dog-training. This is unfortunate, as the likelihood
of the average-Jane or -Joe actually witnessing dominance behavior & recognizing it is low... while a much-more
useful concept & term languishes unremarked & unused, yet dogs display it constantly.

deference is not a synonym for 'submission', which has a very clear definition in behavior science -
just like dominance, which is about resources, occurs between conspecifics, is an event
not a character-trait or personality-type, & if it is part of a hierarchical social structure, is consistent:
if a hierarchy exists, dog-A is 'always' or over-85% of the time in control of any resource;
dog-B only gets what s/he is permitted by dog-A.

submissive behavior occurs in many more contexts than dominance, it can be active [ingunial exposure,
licking the dominant canine's lips or jaw, etc] or passive - crouch & pee, sink down & turn one's head away, etc.
puppies often display both active & passive submission to a strange adult-dog; it reduces aggro toward
vulnerable pups & is a clear behavioral signal of their youth.

deference for the unitiated is the negotiated settling of differences, often over resources -
in order to avoid conflict. dogs are not keen on conflict, they invest considerable time & effort to avoid
physical fights... which is why they have that extensive grammar of body-language & posture, specifically
to reduce the chances of a fight without a bloody-good reason - signaling comes first, only if that fails
does a fight ensue [normally - there are those dogs who love to fight, ignore signals & simply attack others;
such dogs will even attack puppies, which is very abnormal. Blessedly, their numbers are few.]

deference is familiar to anyone who lives with more than one dog, or sees dogs interact freely with toys,
food, treats, etc; it's also called differential allocation of resources, but i think U'll agree that deference
is handier for use. any 2 dogs agree between them that X is for one, & Y is for the other: one dog loves stuffies
& squeaky-toys passionately, the other is a maniac about any ball or frisbee - whenever there's one or the other,
the dog who wants it less, defers to the dog who wants it more.

very simple, very effective, & even stranger-dogs can negotiate in a matter of seconds:
2 dogs on the beach, one dog's owner has flung a ball, which floats by the other dog, swimming.
that dog picks it up, turns for the beach, & the dog to whom it 'belongs' intercepts her on the beach.
rapid signals, the dog with the ball drops it, the ball-owning dog triumphantly trots off to return it
& continue the game; no bloodshed, no long-drawn point-by-point diplomatic hoohah at a long table -
simple, safe, rapid.

deference is much-more fluid & flexible than dominance; deference can be renegotiated endlessly,
on the fly with housemates, on the moment with strangers, it can change by the hour - or be consistent
for years on end, as Sneakers always gets the squeaky-toys & Ginger always gets the ball.
dogs in the same household tend to have pretty consistent deference patterns about things truly important
to them, & more variable deference over stuff that they don't really care much about.

used in a sentence -
Jamie almost always defers to Toby over tennis-balls, unless Toby is tired of playing fetch.

deference is about what matters, & how much it matters to this individual, compared
to that one; they negotiate to decide who gets what, based on who wants it most.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007