Big Breeds Good With Little Dogs

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

Well, Missy is excellent around little dogs - but I have no clue if that's just her, or Rottweilers in general. She and Jack are best friends (he's 22 lbs), and I currently have a foster Pomeranian mix (who's 7 lbs), and she's perfect with her as well.

[CharlieDog]

I would definitely caution against dogs of breeds with high prey drive. Knox can play with (and will, quite often) smaller dogs, he actually prefers to play with them. I have to watch him very very carefully though, because the ones he plays with tend to break off play to do zoomies, and it can turn into predatory drift extremely extremely quickly. I do NOT let him play chase games with smaller dogs, ever. He's shown me that he's willing to run down and kill cats, so I know he's got prey drive and I would hate for it to kick in with a small fuzzy dog. You also need to be aware that the barking/squeaking noise some small dogs make will turn a dog on quickly.

He's very good at self handicapping, much more so than Enzo, even, and will often lay down to play with smaller dogs.

[AdrianneIsabel]

I wouldn't commonly get a small breed with malinois.

I had and know a lot of people who pair pit bulls with chihuahuas.

I agree that Leonbergers are pretty rock solid dogs with anything if you go to a good breeder.

[JacksonsMom]

Wow, think I have a new obsession. Leonbergers! Never looked into them much before.

A large breed dog is far far off in the future for me, but it's fun to imagine.

Jackson loves big dogs who are respectful. He loves to play back with them and stuff, and he's definitely not a snippy little dog who will start stuff. But there's been some big dogs who don't know when to stop or take his signs and he doesn't like that and gets irritated quickly. But he's never done anything more than a growl to warn them to back off - and when they don't listen, I just take him out of the situation.

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by JustaLilBitaLuck

Well, Missy is excellent around little dogs - but I have no clue if that's just her, or Rottweilers in general. She and Jack are best friends (he's 22 lbs), and I currently have a foster Pomeranian mix (who's 7 lbs), and she's perfect with her as well.

I dogsat a Rottie for a long time who always did very well with Jackson. He displayed lots of resource guarding though, sometimes with REALLY stupid objects (like I dropped the poop bag holder on the ground once and he growled at me when I went to pick it up) so the guarding concerned me and I never let them off leash together in the house. They went to a dog park a few times when it was empty and always did great; he was always very respectful of Jackson, never did any major pouncing or wrestling, etc, when around him. Never saw any kind of predatory drift (or whatever it's called) or anything of the sort.

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

I would definitely caution against dogs of breeds with high prey drive. Knox can play with (and will, quite often) smaller dogs, he actually prefers to play with them. I have to watch him very very carefully though, because the ones he plays with tend to break off play to do zoomies, and it can turn into predatory drift extremely extremely quickly. I do NOT let him play chase games with smaller dogs, ever. He's shown me that he's willing to run down and kill cats, so I know he's got prey drive and I would hate for it to kick in with a small fuzzy dog. You also need to be aware that the barking/squeaking noise some small dogs make will turn a dog on quickly.

He's very good at self handicapping, much more so than Enzo, even, and will often lay down to play with smaller dogs.

I've noticed this with my uncle's shepherd so I always watch very closely too. Although one day Jackson was chasing her around the field, and that was pretty funny. They both were enjoying themselves.

Thankfully, Jackson doesn't really have a squeaking kind of noise, and he's not extremely small (16 sturdy pounds) and he can be rough and tumble when he wants to be.

Also, Jackson's luckily always been pretty aware of his size as well. He knows better than to get involved in a wrestling match with two much bigger dogs or whatnot. He tends to enjoy just greeting with some sniffs, maybe some play bows, and then he likes to be the one to chase the big dogs if they encourage it.

[MicksMom]

Originally Posted by JustaLilBitaLuck

Well, Missy is excellent around little dogs - but I have no clue if that's just her, or Rottweilers in general. She and Jack are best friends (he's 22 lbs), and I currently have a foster Pomeranian mix (who's 7 lbs), and she's perfect with her as well.

My best friend's Rotts were always really good with cats. After her female died, they got a Mini Dachshund. The male Rott she had at the time was great with the Dachshund, too.

ETA- to me, there's a difference between being aggressive with smaller animals and being rough/clumsy.

[SarahHound]

My greys are good with small animals, but Lucy can get carried away in play, I think that's why Kyle the Corgi doesn't like her much. She doesn't mean him harm, just doesn't realise her own size.

[monkeys23]

My Sibe/GSD mix is fantastic with small dogs. She's neutral to the not so nice tempered off leash toy breeds that have charged us in the past and she's utterly fantastic with all well mannered toy breeds, even playing with toy breed puppies very appropriately.

Scout is also very good with small dogs. One of her best buddies was a pug that someone I knew had for a while (long story there!). I would totally trust her with male small dogs, but perhaps not completely with female. Thats not the same thing as predatory drift though because I wouldn't trust her with any size of strange female dog both because of her social ineptness and GSD tendancy to not like the same sex. But she's very well mannered just like Lily is around strange dogs... its never my dogs that I have to worry about in social situations.

Both girls are fantastic with my cats if that has any bearing. Both will go after strays with no hesitation too... they definitely know the difference between "their" cats and some random cat.

I've also had them both around ewes and lambs and they did fine. Just dang good dogs. Sure do like this mix.

[momto8]

my Great Pyrenees is excellent with small dogs, my Ibizan Hound is not I would not recommend any sighthound at all.