Why are small dogs allowed to run amok?

Seriously, Why? Why are people less inclined to step up to the plate and do serious work with their smaller/tiny dogs?

I know smaller dogs in the hands of competent owners of course - and they are wonderful. But the vast majority of yorkies, chihuahuas, terriers, and any sort of small dog in general have bad manners, are super reactive, snappy, annoying, and just PITA's across the board.

This afternoon we were walking and this offleash terrier ran up to us and started barking it's head off and growling - this is completely out of the blue and unprovoked. Katalin just stands there and he keeps barking and snapping - Katalin barks back; this is the only sign of her irritation/displeasure - other dogs I know may have been inclined to put a hole in the antagonizing party by that stage. The terrier's human starts growling herself -

"HEY! My dog is friendly! Yours needs to be muzzled!"

......I tell her politely to please get her dog away from us NOW. She says he's friendly once more - I ask if she considers it friendly to violently harass passerby's trying to get on with their day. I add that she'd better keep her dog restrained until her control of it is taken to a higher level - otherwise other dogs he tries to pull this kinda sh!t on may not be so forgiving.

She gets him on leash promptly and we walk on.

Whatever my brother gets - it will NOT be allowed to turn into one of those tiny terrors, UGH.

It's not the dog's stature, it's the owner's. This happens with all breeds.

I see it far more in little dogs, it's largely because people are more comfortable with an ill behaved often comically naughty and "tough" little dog than they are with a big one behaving the same way.

Sucks.

Yep. I've gotten swarmed by some large and medium sized dogs too.

It's not the breeds/size, it's the owner. I know tons of small dogs (including my own), including small fluffy dogs and terriers that don't act like that.

It can also sometimes be the bad breeding of the dog.

I didn't read the OP as "all little dogs are asshats" but why is it common for little dog owners to be more tolerant of inappropriate behavior than big dog owners.

In my experience it's because a bigger dog acting like a jerk is scary, smaller dogs it's more often just annoying or in a lot of my clients and or people I run agility around it's something to shrug off or even giggle at.

Around here most the asshat dogs are bigger than mine. Well... most dogs are bigger anyways. But I run into a lot of dogs that are medium/larger and not behaved than smaller. I don't run into too many toy dogs around but most seem pretty well behaved.

I, too, see it far more in little dogs. And I perfectly admit, it's much easier to let allow to a 4lb yorkie vs. 100lb Rottie. I dogsit for both... and the 4lb yorkie is very reactive, and while it's somewhat of a nuisance, it's not really hard to just keep walking, pull them away, and other people just laugh at them. So then what tends to happen is that little dogs can just get away with it easier without training or correction, owner gets lazy, etc. Having that little 4lber pull on the leash is like.... well, nothing! lol. I hardly feel him. The Rottie I watch is somewhat reactive, and having 100lbs pulling you, or lunging is NOT the same whatsoever.

But I agree, I hate seeing little dogs getting away with it. It gives a bad name to all. People are always surprised to meet Jackson, because he's not a yappy nippy lunging little monster on the end of the leash lol. Oh and he's actually a REAL dog that DOES things *gasps* Little dogs can be freakin' AWESOME in the hands of the right people.

I also think a lot of the big dogs that are badly behaved just don't get out at all because they can't be handled. Like my neighbor's golden is so bad on a leash that she just never gets walked because they can't handle her.

I do notice certain BREEDS that are more often than not terrors.

Because a little dog behaving like a jerk is not as dangerous as a large dog. It's easier to shrug off their bad behavior. You're in deep doo-doo though if you have a german shepherd snarling at people.
The small dogs at work are always the worst... we are constantly muzzling chihuahuas and min pins and whatnot, but the large muzzles don't get taken out as often.

Even with my own dogs, some of the things Lucy does that I just say "whatever" about, I would NEVER allow from Juno.

Exactly - Thanks Adrianne =)

I personally think that intolerant behavior is intolerant behavior - regardless of size and it should be nipped in the bud right there and then. I would just as readily correct a teacup pomeranian acting up as I would a 100 + lb dog. There's nothing funny about aggression, hyper-reactivity, unprovoked DA, biting or anything along those lines in ANY size canine.

Jacksonsmom,

I concur - but unfortunately most small dogs I come across here are really spoiled, nasty, bad examples of what they should be. I've only met two civilized male yorkies - both owners knew what they were doing and both were fabulous little dogs =)

Laurelin,

It's the opposite here! Most of the larger dogs I've seen around here have been pretty much under control or the owners were at least abit more vigilant - of course there are exceptions to this. I would say around 85% of small/teacup sized dogs in my area are really out of control in some ways - the owners treat them like little teddy bears and the concept of discipline or training doesn't even cross their mind.

I think its just because they are small, so obviously aren't going to be a bother to anyone, and everyone should just think they're cute.

I was out running the other day and this furry black muppet dog started to chase me, so I had to go back to the house I saw it come out of and wait for its owner to come out. She let out her bully breed of some kind, lost control of it, couldn't get the muppet to come to her, and her bully was off roaming the neighbours yard. It interrupted my run, very irritating

Perspective

Around here, ALL the PITA dogs are smaller than mine :rofl1:

But even Tallulah's been jumped by small dogs a few times -- usually a yorkie-sort or a mini Schnauzer. Bear used to get bumrushed by a pair of at-large Pekes.

Kharma gets it from a pair of Collies in an e-fence, and then there was the neighbor's white GSD, who has decided it's better to rant and rave at her from a distance, lol.

Yeah, it seems to be the smaller dogs around here. A lot of people around here doesn't feel the leash law applies to them because they are small dogs.

That's terrifying! I'm super vigilant about having Tango on leash because he'd be **** near impossible to see at night from a car. Tiny dog = easier road kill.

That said, it seems like people are more willing to excuse small dog behavior. Tango has been having issues at work and people are just sort of like "Oh it's ok, he's small" And I'm freaking out thinking I'm going to get fired while they laugh at him growling and lunging. I don't get it. They would be telling me to put my dog down or lock it up if I brought Izzy or a bigger dog in with the same behavior.

For me, it seems like some smaller dogs just end up with poor temperments due to poor breeding (Thanks a lot puppy mills! :rollseyes or a lack of early socialization. I like to think Tango would be a better adjusted dog if I had him as a puppy instead of the PoS that nearly killed him. Then again, I'm fairly certain he's not from a reputable breeder either so that is another stumbling block.

Due to all of these reasons, I try to be super vigilant and keep him on a harness that I can use to pick him up and keep him from screaming at another dog or human for whatever reason. Not only does that keep him from barking (He doesn't like to bark when I have him suspended in air) but it also keeps him safe in the event that another dog decides he's lunch.

For the same reason that it's cute when puppies bite, bark, jump and act obnoxious... but it's not ok once that puppy grows up!

I would say at least 50% of small dogs around here are on flexis, and are reactive, and their owners NEVER utilize the "stop" button. They just give their dogs the freedom to run up to and bark at anything in sight. I understand that aggressive small dogs are much less dangerous. But they are still dangerous... and their aggressive displays and confrontations put their own lives in danger! My neighbor has this adorable Norwich Terrier who is a straight up bitch. She runs out of the front door all the time while I'm walking my dogs, and jumps up on them, snarling and snapping. My dogs find it hilarious. Once when they were walking by our driveway, I was putting Fozzie in the car and he walked over to say hi. I allowed him to give them a taste of their own medicine. Her owner picked her up and yelled "THAT dog could kill her with one bite!!!" Umm ok? You KNOW Fozzie wouldn't touch that little brat, and if you were so concerned about her well being, you'd train her and keep her contained!

My boss is even guilty of this stupidity. Her granddaughter has a Chihuahua who is straight up vicious. Like, that dog will chase you, biting your feet, and will snarl and bite your hand if you try to touch her. She'll also go after other dogs. I wouldn't TOUCH the thing! They make stupid excuses for her and let her run around the shop off leash... meanwhile, my boss bitches about every single dog over 20 lbs who comes in and isn't perfectly behaved. She calls them assholes and rants about how lazy and dumb their owners are for not training them, and talks about how she doesn't trust Pit Bulls constantly. Meanwhile her granddaughter has a straight up vicious little dog who has bitten anyone who tries to touch her!?

Small dog owners tend to not feel the need to manage the problem, because they can just walk away with the dog.

I know that will upset most small dog owners on here, but by virtue of you even BEING here, it does not include you

A few weeks back, my husband and I were in a park with Ma'ii and Charlotte, just hanging out next to this pond with a friend. The pond has a bunch of flocks of various ducks and geese that had been donated by the city. I had run across the street to get a coffee, and as I was returning, I saw a small Dachshund barrel into the road after a goose, narrowly getting the goose hit by a car. I look up and notice a group of about 5 girls, probably in their early 20's, walking 7 small dogs of various breeds, mostly Chihuahuas and Dachshunds. None are on a leash, and they are racing all over the place. The girls have no reaction or care. Suddenly, their dogs see our two and come racing over to them, snapping and snarling and instantly Charlotte and Ma'ii are on their feet, roaring back at these little monsters that are up in their face. I will always do what I can to prevent Charlotte from hurting another dog, but it's times like this where I seriously can't blame her. The girls do NOTHING, and eventually the dogs take off after them.

A few minutes later, they start coming back, and as they do, our friend says half jokingly that those dogs look like lunch to Ma'ii and Charlotte, and I say in my passive-aggressive way "If they get close enough they WILL be". At this point, one of the girls turn around, and in this snarky, bitchy tone replies "If your dogs eat one of ours, how about WE eat YOU! Huh!? How would you like that!?" My husband starts laughing hard. I shout back "PUT YOUR DOGS ON A LEASH!!" They shout a bunch of threats at us, as they're walking away, and I reply "No wonder you can't control your dogs, you can't even control yourself!"

They never said anything back, and just kept walking. But as we watched them walk around the lake, we noticed their dogs run WAY ahead of them and harass other people and dogs while the girls just casually walked along.

I've experienced BS from dogs of all sizes, but I notice this a LOT more with small dogs. People definitely have a mentality that just because their dogs are small, they can get away with crap. If you call them on it, and happen to have a larger dog with you, they turn it around and make it sound like it's your dog's fault. That doesn't fly with me.

I've only ever been harassed, attacked and bugged by large dogs. Small dog owners here seem to be more vigilant because of the sucky attitude larger dog owners have towards our "not real dogs"