kvastion

That's not a backdoor into BDSM, that's just plain being a sadist. You can be a sadist without being into BDSM in any way.

This sounds weird, but try moving sideways. I've got sighthounds, and they react much more to sideways motion than towards/away motion when it comes to playful behaviour. I used their playfulness to get them to come back to me, since it removes any percieved negative things from the dogs brains :)

Some accepted "facts" surrounding alpha roles are thought to be BS, but dogs as a pack animal is still a thing AFAIK.