One more thought:

A dog just wants (needs) to know his positon " in the pack" . The dog doesn' t really care if he is the Alpha or the Omega or somewhere in between -- he just needs to know where he stands. At ABOUT 8 months, 1 year, 2 years and maybe at 3 years, a dog will check his level of dominance or submission (place in the pack). Once he finds out where he stands, he is a happy pooch. Like I said, he doesn' t really care where he is in the pecking order, he just needs to know where he stands.