Why are small dogs allowed to run amok?

Laurelin

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#41
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things. My dogs right now would probably horrify some people. Summer pogo-sticking to look over the counter at petsmart. Mia hurtling at you from the top of the couch. Mia standing on your shoulder or hitting you on the head...

The fact of the matter is there is a difference between an 8 lb Summer jumping on you and a 65 lb retriever jumping on you (just an example, thinking of my neighbor's dog). You talk to Summer and reach down to pet her, she's going to put her feet up on you.
 

Emily

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#42
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things.
Me too! Well not about Summer and Mia, but yeah, same. Future black dog will have some more rules, not many ( :lol-sign: ) but some.
 

OwnedByBCs

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#43
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things. My dogs right now would probably horrify some people. Summer pogo-sticking to look over the counter at petsmart. Mia hurtling at you from the top of the couch. Mia standing on your shoulder or hitting you on the head...

The fact of the matter is there is a difference between an 8 lb Summer jumping on you and a 65 lb retriever jumping on you (just an example, thinking of my neighbor's dog). You talk to Summer and reach down to pet her, she's going to put her feet up on you.
See, that doesn't bother me. My Border Collies drive visitors crazy because they are so in your face- but I like that. Riot sits on the back of the couch and rests her head on my shoulder, and I love that. Sadie feels the need to be in a lap pretty much any time one is available. Wesley wants to lick-attack everyone- especially kids. Fiona pretty much never gets reprimanded for ANYTHING because when she is she does this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkR5Rp_MOx8 . Luckily she is exceptionally well behaved naturally, but yeah she doesn't really get corrected.

Really- behavior is what matters to you as an individual. The only thing that can be up for discussion is public behavior- and honestly I don't care if the dog is 6 lbs or 106 lbs- if they come at my dogs I will be incredibly upset.
 

Shai

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#44
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things.
Why does that make you a horrible person?

Heck my dogs have different rules for the arbitrary reason that I have different competition goals for them. Safety is a much more sensible reason.
 

Red.Apricot

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#45
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things.
Elsie and Zobby have different rules, for the same reasons.

He's allowed to be on guests' laps, if they invite him. She's not. He's allowed to put his paws on people's legs to say hi, she's not. He's allowed to crawl from one sofa to the other over the arms, she gets told to use the floor. He's allowed up on the dining room chairs uninvited, she's not.
 
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#46
I'm going to be a horrible person and have more rules for my future bigger dog than Mia and Summer about certain things. My dogs right now would probably horrify some people. Summer pogo-sticking to look over the counter at petsmart. Mia hurtling at you from the top of the couch. Mia standing on your shoulder or hitting you on the head...

The fact of the matter is there is a difference between an 8 lb Summer jumping on you and a 65 lb retriever jumping on you (just an example, thinking of my neighbor's dog). You talk to Summer and reach down to pet her, she's going to put her feet up on you.
Big difference between letting small dogs stand up and put their feet on you or sit on the back of the sofa and whack you on the head than in letting them bum rush other people and other dogs snarling and snapping ;)
 

Laurelin

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#47
I was just responding to this. 'Horrible' was said tongue firmly in cheek. I will shamelessly have a double standard for my dogs' behavior.

I don't know - perhaps I'm just a more stringent person on that level but I'm very particular about manners in any size dog in my charge. No jumping, lunging, mouthing, or mobbing - that goes across the board from a 2 1/2 lb poodle to a 200 lb Ovcharka. Again - that's just me though.
 

Lyzelle

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#48
Yeah, I can't stand rude dogs of any size. I don't care if they get all wild and crazy during play, but every.single.dog is going to have manners in my house. In fact, I wold probably require more of small dogs. Only because I generally find them more annoying than big dogs.

But that is why I have big dogs. ;) And rats when possible. Small dogs just aren't my thing.
 

Dogdragoness

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#49
I agree it's the owners not the dogs, I am lucky my breed really isn't 'that' misrepresented that I have seen so no grievences there.

What really rubs my fur the wrong way is ppl who are so quick to give up on their dogs for what are simply solved behavior probs.
 

Barbara!

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#50
I believe sometimes though, it can be the dogs. I have owned, and seen, so many bat guano crazy smaller dogs due to bad breeding, it's ridiculous. Of course they got that way BECAUSE of people, but not much can be done. I've seen it really bad in back yard bred "teacup" varieties, where they bred small unsound dog to small unsound dog and got completely unstable and fearful mess. Poor doggies.
 

Grab

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#51
I see both large and small asshat dogs equally working at a vet office. For every little dog that tries to snap at me, there's a larger one who tries to snap at me AND drags me down the hall.
 

DenoLo

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#52
I very very rarely come across off-leash dogs of any size. As far as reactivity goes- I find there can be a double standard. Big dogs that are straining and barking at the end of the leash are "excited" and just want to play. Little dogs that do the same behavior "think they are big" or have "napolean complex".

I'm not sure what the need is to generalize and pinpoint bad behavior, whether it's towards small dogs or retrievers or pits. There are bad owners, and badly managed dogs.
 

RBark

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#53
While reading this thread my GF was baby talking Kobe, he jumped up, knocked her down on the couch, and jumped right on her, sat on her tummy.

Hm. I think someone is telling me something. It's 3 hours past bedtime, however, so I shall sleep on it!
 

seashells

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#54
It can be age too. Tyrion is currently a little terror around other dogs because he's not properly socialized yet. I'm doing my best, and feel incredibly embarrassed when he starts barking his head off at other dogs on walks, because I do want him to be a calm and pleasant little dog!

The catch-22 is, you can't socialize a leash-reactive puppy without letting him at least see other dogs, but you can't make a polite dog out of a leash-reactive dog without some exhibits of poor behavior at first. :/
 

~Tucker&Me~

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#55
The catch-22 is, you can't socialize a leash-reactive puppy without letting him at least see other dogs, but you can't make a polite dog out of a leash-reactive dog without some exhibits of poor behavior at first. :/
I'm not sure if this is what you mean by that statement, but generally if the dog is reacting you are past the point of learning and need to backtrack. Once he is barking his head off he is way over thresh-hold, so it's your job to keep him under thresh-hold and keep him close enough that he is aware there is another dog but far enough away that he isn't yet reacting and is still fairly comfortable. Of course accidents happen but generally having the dog react is exactly what you want to avoid most when training a dog like this.

Again, not saying that you are purposely getting him to react to 'train' him, but if anyone was lurking and thought that was what you meant I just wanted to clear it up.
 

CharlieDog

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#56
It can be age too. Tyrion is currently a little terror around other dogs because he's not properly socialized yet. I'm doing my best, and feel incredibly embarrassed when he starts barking his head off at other dogs on walks, because I do want him to be a calm and pleasant little dog!

The catch-22 is, you can't socialize a leash-reactive puppy without letting him at least see other dogs, but you can't make a polite dog out of a leash-reactive dog without some exhibits of poor behavior at first. :/
I'm sorry, but I totally laughed.
 

Dizzy

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#57
Last night a daschund puppy screamed and snapped at Fred. The owners reaction was "oh he doesn't know his own strength, his paws are so big". Ie, Fred did it. He's tinkerbell, he wouldn't hurt a fly ...

It was YOUR dog Mrs, Freddie pie was no where near! It did annoy me that he was blamed because he's a big puppy.... Her dog got picked up and cuddled. I guess that's a lot of why small dogs can end up snappy.
 

seashells

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#58
I'm not sure if this is what you mean by that statement, but generally if the dog is reacting you are past the point of learning and need to backtrack. Once he is barking his head off he is way over thresh-hold, so it's your job to keep him under thresh-hold and keep him close enough that he is aware there is another dog but far enough away that he isn't yet reacting and is still fairly comfortable. Of course accidents happen but generally having the dog react is exactly what you want to avoid most when training a dog like this.

Again, not saying that you are purposely getting him to react to 'train' him, but if anyone was lurking and thought that was what you meant I just wanted to clear it up.
Ahh no that's definitely not what I meant. Thanks for pointing that out, I can see how it could be misread that way. Yeah we're currently at the "stay at a far distance" stage with strange dogs because he's still so reactive, but sometimes one surprises us around the corner or something and he's set off before I have a chance to react. :/ He's always on-leash when we're out, and kept close, and when an incident like that does happen, I turn around and leave instead of just letting him go nuts at the dog, but I still get embarrassed and just hope the owner understands that I have a new puppy, and am still working on training him.

I'm sorry, but I totally laughed.
He was well-named. ;)
 
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#59
Last night a daschund puppy screamed and snapped at Fred. The owners reaction was "oh he doesn't know his own strength, his paws are so big". Ie, Fred did it. He's tinkerbell, he wouldn't hurt a fly ...

It was YOUR dog Mrs, Freddie pie was no where near! It did annoy me that he was blamed because he's a big puppy.... Her dog got picked up and cuddled. I guess that's a lot of why small dogs can end up snappy.
Kharma ran into something like that when she was 3 months old and we were at Lowes. She was sitting quietly by my feet when a Chihuahua a woman was carrying saw her and went ballistic.

The woman complained loudly about my three month old puppy, who was sitting quietly by my feet, on her leash, leaning against my leg just looking at her and her dog and DEMANDED that I have to remove my vicious dog from the store. Several other customers got angry with her and told her off, lol. She left.

Kharma is still more than welcome in Lowes

And then there was the weight pull event. We used to do them in the warehouse at the local Tractor Supply. We were done and several of the participants (and their dogs) were walking through the store, some even shopping. A woman with a little longhaired white dog in the cart started complaining to the manager about "all those bad dogs" in the store, how they shouldn't be out in public, blahblahblah, "they're dangerous, someone's going to get bitten . . ."

Well, she was right. Someone did get bitten.

HER DOG jumped up in the cart and bit one of the weight pull judges on the arm as she walked past them in the main aisle. Yes, it broke the skin and was a nasty bite, not just a little puncture.

She didn't even apologize. She didn't even acknowledge it!
 

Doberluv

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#60
Kharma ran into something like that when she was 3 months old and we were at Lowes. She was sitting quietly by my feet when a Chihuahua a woman was carrying saw her and went ballistic.

The woman complained loudly about my three month old puppy, who was sitting quietly by my feet, on her leash, leaning against my leg just looking at her and her dog and DEMANDED that I have to remove my vicious dog from the store. Several other customers got angry with her and told her off, lol. She left.

Kharma is still more than welcome in Lowes

And then there was the weight pull event. We used to do them in the warehouse at the local Tractor Supply. We were done and several of the participants (and their dogs) were walking through the store, some even shopping. A woman with a little longhaired white dog in the cart started complaining to the manager about "all those bad dogs" in the store, how they shouldn't be out in public, blahblahblah, "they're dangerous, someone's going to get bitten . . ."

Well, she was right. Someone did get bitten.

HER DOG jumped up in the cart and bit one of the weight pull judges on the arm as she walked past them in the main aisle. Yes, it broke the skin and was a nasty bite, not just a little puncture.

She didn't even apologize. She didn't even acknowledge it!
:yikes: That's incredible!!! What a bunch of morons.
People like that should be put out on a desert somewhere without a horse!
 

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