I've always had dogs, and used to subscribe to the dominate/show who's boss method of training and ,yes, it worked pretty well. My Doberman helped my daughter to walk by letting her hold onto him and slowly walking around the house (beautiful to watch). But that was 30 odd years ago, and the last time i used what was the accepted training methods of the time.
Since then i've had Alsatian cross, whippet, rotti/lab cross and currently have a Rotti and a Nuttall Patterdale (from proper fox killer stock) and have used treat/praise/NILIF based training methods. This has worked extremely well with the Rotti that, as a breed, doesn't respond well to 'threats' or aggressive methods. The Patterdale was a little bastard and wouold fight anything for the first 6 months. Now it's as good as gold (apart from chasing bin lorries and wheelbarrows) and rarely goes on a lead. Both dogs have been brought up with young children in the house without any issues (some basic rules should be followed including 'training' the kids how to treat the mutts)
An interesting development here is if i put terriers food in a corner for it to eat it will start growling when the other mutt goes near. Away from the corner there's no problem and both eat together at same time.
The food training is simple and should be done from day one (with a puppy). Put food down, let it eat a bit, take food away, put back down and repeat.
