People Who Don't Train Their Little Dogs

Well, I could imagine their dogs being run over and they'll go buy another dog, probably from a byb, and let it run loose, too. In spite of being a sapient species, humans can often prove that their dogs are smarter than they are.

I'm sorry astaracheetah - I wasn't attacking you or anything. I thought I had possed it as a question, agreed with you and stated "it seemed" as though you were bashing samller dogs.
 
In any case, no offense intgended...

My aunt has a maltese who is SPOILED beyond all reason. She is fed off of my aunt's plate so she expects to be fed off of everyone's plate. Actually, my aunt also expects everyone to share their food with the dog. She'll say things like "Oh look, Maggie wants a little of your turkey." I just look at the dog and say "Oh, sorry Maggie, but I don't give doggies food off my plate." She's also a hella resource guarder. My aunt is completely convinced that when Maggie vicously snarls at anyone within 2 feet of her treat that it's "because she wants you to play with her." Right. Would she still think that if my 55 lb pit bull was doing the same thing? I think not.

 
I think this pretty much says it all!  There are SOME small dog owners that just will not treat their small dogs as dogs.  They are not human children, nor should they be a replacement for them.  It does the dog such a disservice and can create aggression issues to boot. 
 
How about "Oh look, Kato wants a little turkey off your plate"......[sm=rofl.gif]

As a newbie to small dog ownership I have realized it can be difficult to train the small dog...not because the dog itself is hard to train, but because of the people around us!![8|] Dasher is very well behaved and listens well...however his one big issue that has been tough to work on is his jumping on people.  I think this issue would have been licked from the get go had it not been for others encouraging this behavior.[:@]  Drives me batty.  Everytime he starts jumping on people and I say "no jump" he will stop, but then these knuckle heads say..."ohhh, its ok, he is soooo cute" [8|] and start talking baby talk and encourage the jumping. [:@]  And when he is on lead and I am trying to get him to listen before I let him off, he will be fine, then as soon as I let him off lead these people start getting him riled up and he starts jumping.  I just want yell at the top of my lungs..."stop messing with my dog!!"  And when I insist that he not jump they look at me like I have condemed the dog to death, "oh poor Dasher" [8|] They would not be saying that if Dasher weighed 50 lbs!!

I had one person recently ask me if Dasher knew any tricks (this was after I went on and on about me working on his jumping issue).  I showed him some tricks and then the guy said..."oh have you taught him to jump into your arms?" Hmmm, well I am trying to teach him not to jump, why at this point would I try and encourage this behavior? [8|]

Having both large and small dogs, I have to catch myself constantly on being indulgent with my little guys. Perhaps indulgent is not the right word, lax, or consistency with training may be a better choice.

ORIGINAL: papillontaxi

I have a similar situation, having two 15 lb dogs and one 80lb dog; I plead guilty to allowing certain behaviors from the small ones that I would not let Mason get away with.  Do I think it's right? - Of course not, but it happens.  Don't get me wrong, I do train my small dogs, and they both have a great recall, and respond on the first cue to No or Leave It. They are still required to "down" before their meals are served, etc. 

What I'm saying, is that I do allow them to get on the furniture, my voice automatically goes into what Sheprano referred to as the "Mickey Mouse" voice when I'm talking to them, I allow them to run crazily through the house, and the worst part is that I'm not consistent about keeping "four on the floor" as I am with Mason.  In my defense, it is nearly impossible to be consistent with the "Four on the Floor".  I started this training with them at around 5 mos. old.  When I came home from work (hubby is home first, so they are usually out of crate), I would ignore them until they were no longer jumping, then I would squat down and let them great me.  This never took, because my husband said "I love it when they do that; it makes me smile", [8|]so he was always encourging it and my mother really encourages it when she visits, and the kids across the street do it too!  It was hard for me to ignore them too, but I really wanted to have "unusually well-behaved small dogs"!   I gave up on the jumping - I felt defeated.[sm=banghead002.gif]

Now, the neighbors across the street are a whole different story.  They have a long-haired doxie that is definitely THE BOSS of their home.  She has no training whatsoever and they just continue to work around her bad manners.  The dog has bit 2 of their grandchildren in the face. The dog bit ME when I was standing in their kitchen - not even looking at the little $#@$!! She's horrible - but I realize it's not her fault - it's their fault - but she's the one who suffers and misses out on things.  When they go on vacation, the boarding kennel won't even touch her to put her in the kennel; they ask the owner to do it, and she has bitten her owner twice when dropping her off in the kennel. (She is not crate trained either - has the run of the house[8|])

ORIGINAL: Mastiff

How about "Oh look, Kato wants a little turkey off your plate"......[sm=rofl.gif]

First I LOVE that picture of Kato in your sig - gives me a big grin each time I see it so post more!
Second couldn't agree more.  Bugs is a midget at 95+lbs compared to Kato but I have had 2 run-ins with small dog owners who brought their 14lb & 20lb terriers to MY home and let them go on the furniture, jump on their laps at the dinig table, etc.  I asked them nicely to suspend this behavior or put the dog outside.  Both owners were peaved (1 is my sister) but I'm like - this is my house and whatever rules apply to Bugs in HIS house applies to your mutts too!
I know its the owners but I have not met a well behaved small dog in my life.  The amount of times in his short life (17mos old) Bugs has been nipped, growled at etc by small dogs whose owners asked me in fear is he aggressive and then their dogs turn on him while he's wagging & sniffing.
The 'attacks' on Bugs have further fueled my irritation as have the double standards of stores/hotels etc. with weight limitations on dogs allowed to shop or stay.

A dog is a dog - regardless of size.  My experience has certainly been that small dog owners do not treat their pet as a dog and as a group, small dogs tend more to being untrained than to being trained.

Better stop this is turning into a rant.
Bugs says he'd like to play with Kato

accepting (or even encouraging) bad behavior in puppies because they are small and cute is a big reason why so many large breed adolescent dogs end up in shelters.  I think one should approach training a dog by pretending the dog is a 700 pound tiger. Is it cute to be dragged down the street by a 700 pound tiger? no, it's terrifying. Is it cute for your 700 pound tiger to jump on the neighbor's kid? no, it's really quite scary. Can you get a 700 pound snarling tiger off the bed by scolding him, then grabbing him and picking him up? no of course not; you'd better teach that tiger to jump off on command.

ORIGINAL: Presley

I'm sorry astaracheetah - I wasn't attacking you or anything. I thought I had possed it as a question, agreed with you and stated "it seemed" as though you were bashing samller dogs.

In any case, no offense intgended...

No problem. I am just glad everyone understands what I was saying now lol. >^^;<

Oh boy... I have to go to work... *grabs the nearest throw chain and walks out the door* >9.9<

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

accepting (or even encouraging) bad behavior in puppies because they are small and cute is a big reason why so many large breed adolescent dogs end up in shelters.  I think one should approach training a dog by pretending the dog is a 700 pound tiger. Is it cute to be dragged down the street by a 700 pound tiger? no, it's terrifying. Is it cute for your 700 pound tiger to jump on the neighbor's kid? no, it's really quite scary. Can you get a 700 pound snarling tiger off the bed by scolding him, then grabbing him and picking him up? no of course not; you'd better teach that tiger to jump off on command.

This is a very good point.  Since Jack is our first pup and will grow to 70+ lbs, we have kept this in mind the entire time we've had him.  He's actually pretty good about jumping but when he does do it and I correct him I usually get someone saying "oh, it's OK, he can jump on me."  I usually just smile and ask them if they'll still feel that way when he is 75 lbs--that generally shuts them up.

The thing that bothers me about the "little monsters" is that the owners totally dismiss you if you dare complain.  Slick gets terrorized pretty regularly by the same batch of tiny terrors in the neighborhood.  He is always alarmed and a bit disturbed by the snarling, lunging, growling, etc.  Whenever I say, "Can you please restrain your dog?", they ALWAYS laugh at me and usually say something like - "Oh, Please!  She couldn't hurt him if she tried"  or something to that affect painting me as an over-reactive kook.  I can't even say "My dog is very aggressive and will try to kill your dog!"  as he's very obviously not.  So, Slicky is learning to let it roll and I'm learning to extend my foot towards the monsters in an attempt to "block" them. 

I snapped at a woman, one day, at the pet store. I had Emma, beside me, in a heel. We looked at toys, and generally fiddled around the store. The snapee had a Chihuahua, on a Flexi. Said Chihuahua was IN HEAT and approaching every dog in the store, going around corners WAY ahead of her owner, etc. She was a very pushy little dog, and very in the other dog's face. I know that Emma doesn't like that, so I kept Emma away from her.

When I got in line, guess who came flying up? Miss Pushy Chi. I picked Emma up, because I couldn't really move, and Miss Pushy put her feet on me, and nose bumped Em's rump. What happened next was not very nice, but the pushy little dog ended up being picked up, I got nasty looks, and Emma returned to her down stay until I finished making my purchases.

The point of that long story is that Emma could have easily hurt that little dog, and she would have been more than happy to, had it come down to it. People are just stupid.

I have a few people just down the street that do the same thing with there dogs (they just happen to be small). I think that some people think that small dogs dont need training cause as I have as heard from a quote from one of those people "They couldnt hurt anyone like a big dog could". It doesn't matter to me that they are big or small but that I have my dog on a leash and they come running up to my dog snarling and barking when I take him out for walks. *ARGGG*

One of the main reasons why people weren't training their small dogs, aside from the fact that they didn't perceive their rude behavior to be as serious as if the dog was large, is that, until recently, if you wanted to go to class with your little dog, you were mixed in to classes with large dogs.  Not much was done to protect the little dogs, and instructors often told the owners of small dogs to just let the dog get used to being with big dogs.  Well, that's ok if the big dogs are safe big dogs.  But, I wouldn't want to see a 4 pound toy dog try to hold its own playing with two Boxer pups and a half grown Lab or two.  The advent of "petite pals" classes has made it much easier for owners of small dogs to feel safer bringing their dogs to group classes.  And, Deborah Wood's book, "Little Dogs - Training Your Pint Sized Companion" makes it easier for those who don't live near a training facility to get some help with small dog issues.

K, first I have to say I have not read all the posts but I have a little dog and would never think of letting her run anywhere.  So it is not about untrained "little" dogs but untrained dogs.  Does the size really matter?
 

ORIGINAL: astaracheetah
I'm not bashing small dogs... *I* have a small dog.  A well-behaved small dog, because I provided him with proper training and socialization.  >9.9<

I was bashing the OWNERS who do not TRAIN their small dogs.  I'm well aware that there are untrained large dogs as well.  I get followed up the street (barked at/charged/etc.) weekly by new dogs of all sizes, because their owners cannot teach them to COME.  I'm afraid I've moved into a neighborhood of idiotic dog owners.  >X.x;<

But lemme say it one more time - THIS particular thread is about small dog owners who do NO training, spoil their dogs, and let them attack people.  It is something I can't STAND.  >O\/o<

I hope the people who assumed that see this.  I figured I had been here long enough (over 2 years) that you guys would know I'm not like that but I guess I was wrong.  >X.x;<

 
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