Dominance conundrum

This is a situation that I had several years ago. Two of the dogs have passed after living long lives and the third is now over 14 years old. I've just always wondered what was going on within my little pack.

The oldest dog was a female German Wirehaired Pointer. She was an outgoing, confident dog that I bought as an 8 week old pup. Right from the start she was easy to train and seemed to worship me. She was fairly aloof toward all other people and dogs; she was very tolerant just not very interested. She preferred to play with toys rather than dogs. She was spayed without ever breeding.

The next dog was also a female German Wirehaired Pointer. I got her about 6 months after the first dog and she, too, was 8 weeks old when I brought her home. She was/is a very timid dog. Given her soft personality and my own training limitations I found it nearly impossible to train anything beyond the very basic obedience commands. She was never expected to be anything more than a pet so her lack of training has never been (for me) a problem. She fell quite naturally into a very submissive role. She was not nearly as aloof as the older one but very cautious in new situations. Too happy to be a fear biter but cautious, cautious, cautious! She preferred to play with other dogs and was, in fact, afraid of squeaky toys. She was spayed without ever breeding.

The third dog was a male Dogue de Bordeaux. I got him as a 10 week old pup. The older dogs were 3 and 3 1/2 years old when I brought him home. Even as a pup it was obvious that he was dominant though not aggressive. When the other dogs would run from a scary situation (a tree falling on the house!) he ran toward it. The others would bark and back away from intruders but he would bark and advance. He immediately took the alpha role away from the oldest dog just through the strength of his personality. These dogs were together for eight years and there was never any squabbling. The Bordeaux was very bright and trainable; he was completely devoted to me but always happy to meet new people and new dogs. He loved playing with toys and other dogs. He was attacked twice by smaller dogs and seemed to not even acknowledge them---too much pride to stoop to bad behavior. He was neutered without ever breeding.

My questions are about the very submissive female. She never plays with toys but loves to play with other dogs and was especially fond of playing with the Bordeaux. She is very old now and has really slowed down but back in the day she would play as hard as anybody with no holds barred. The Bordeaux was large even for his breed and liked to play rough. The two of them would play at any opportunity with the female never failing to give as well as she got and never shrinking from his overwhelming physical dominance. Why would a very dominant dog and a very submissive dog be best friends? Why would a very submissive dog engage in very rough play with a dog 2 1/2 times her size?

The activity that always amazed me the most was...well, ummm...humping. The submissive female would climb aboard the sleeping Bordeaux and hump him. He would wake up and tolerate it with no more concern than if a fly had landed on his back! Why would a very dominant dog accept this behavior from anybody? Why would a very submissive dog even think she could get away with this? (Well, she did get away with it.)

George
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