I have found it more common among owners of small dogs that their dogs are rude. What do I mean by rude? Jumping on people, jumping in laps, nipping at people, aggressiveness toward people, aggressiveness toward dogs, and barking at people. People are more willing to tolerate rude behavior from small dogs because of their size. A Jack Russell Terrier who jumps on you or nips at you will not do much or really any damage. Therefore, some folks view the rude behavior as cute and harmless. They even unintentionally encourage it by rewarding the behavior. If you have a Mastiff who displays these rude behaviors, you’re in for trouble. A 150 pound dog who jumps on you can knock you over.

Dogs in general have no concept of their size. My neighbors Pomeranian wrestles with Politically Incorrect Dog all the time. Occasionally, he’ll step on her and she’ll let out a yelp. Otherwise, she thinks she weighs seventy pounds too. And Politically Incorrect Dog struggles with the concept that he’s not lapdog sized. He sees the Pomeranian in a lap and wants to be in a lap too. He is corrected when he tries.

A recent example of bad behavior: last night the Mrs. and I were checking out some of our property. We had our dogs with us and were walking around. Being responsible pet owners, our dogs were on leashes. Another vehicle pulls up about 50 yards down the road and opens the door. Out jumps a Jack Russell Terrier and a Miniature Pinscher. The two dogs, who were not on leashes, immediately start barking with hackles raised and charge at us. We’re not scared because the little guys are, well, little. I give Politically Incorrect Dog a sit and stay command and the Mrs. does the same with Politically Correct Dog. They comply. They sit quietly with ears raised as the two rude dogs circle them and bark frantically. Politically Incorrect Dog wags his tail and does a play bow. The owner runs up to retrieve her dogs, calling them to come, at which point they run down the busy road away from her. If they don’t come on command, you have an accident waiting to happen. She chases her dogs for several hundred yards. All this could have been avoided with proper training and socialization. Even simpler, it could have been avoided by using a leash.

Politically Incorrect Dog is not dog aggressive. Politically Correct Dog is dog aggressive. Had Politically Correct Dog not been well-behaved and restrained, he could have easily done some major damage to these two rude dogs. Of course, I won’t allow him to.

I’m not a person who despises little dogs. I like little dogs fine, as long as they are well-behaved. I do find that little dogs are more likely to bite children. After all, if a child tugs the tail of a small dog, it will hurt and the dog will feel threatened. And the dog will defend itself by biting. A big dog will not feel as threatened and will likely just walk away, if properly socialized. Size is not an excuse to justify bad behavior.

Posted in uncategorized on March 11th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |