A watcher who reads bodies treats every small motion as meaningful, so minute changes produce outsized effects. Leaning half an inch forward or back can draw a frightened animal in or drive it off. Squaring your shoulders can decide whether a command is obeyed, and holding your breath can tip a tense meeting into a fight.
Trying to dominate an animal breeds anxiety and fear instead of cooperation. Most dogs want to live with a fair, benevolent leader, not someone trying to be the boss. The belief that dogs act like wolves, which props up many dominance methods, ignores real differences between the two species.
Two species with different native signal systems constantly misread each other, and much of what looks like defiance is simply a message lost in translation. Primates talk with words and show love with hugs and direct gazes. To a dog, the same hug or stare can read as a threat or a challenge.
You get better results by adjusting your own behavior to the other species' signals than by expecting it to decode yours. A dog comes when called more readily if you act less like a primate and more like a dog. Saying a command once, instead of repeating it, keeps the signal clear.
Good play is joyful exercise, and it also teaches both players to coordinate, to hold back while excited, and to share what they want. Rough-and-tumble play in the human style can push a dog past that restraint and cause trouble. The right kind of play builds the self-control that the wrong kind wears away.