If you have a bigger dog and a smaller dog...

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Do you ever wonder if your smaller dog realises the bigger one could eat them as a snack if they so wished?

My dogs get on great, for the most part. The bigger dog has never shown any type of aggression toward anything. He's great at communicating his intentions (play bow/lowering his belly to the ground/tail wagging etc)

My smaller dog can be feisty at times. She loves playing with the bigger dog but if he accidentally hurts her or gets too close to her food she attacks him. A full-on, attempting-to-rip-his-throat-out attack, usually aimed at his ankles since she cannot actually reach his throat. He never appears to notice and simply carries on the game for the most part or just stands still and waits for her to calm down.

But it makes me wonder does she just have 100% faith that he would never, ever retaliate or does she not realise that she is smaller than some of his snacks or is she ever so slightly suicidal?

My smaller dog bosses my bigger one around. Bigger one let's him. My small dog thinks he's a huge dog though 😂

They are lovely ! i have exactly the same size dogs ,my little one is 3 years younger than his brother from another mother and when tiny would have fitted in his mouth ,yet he is the boss , he gets what he wants just by staring at the big ones face.
He can also do the rip your throat out , but they really do love each other and it melts my heart when i come downstairs and find them curled up in one bed,
I think its a confidence thing ,huge personality in a tiny body , scared of very little!

We have giant dogs and a small(er) dog.

The 75kg boy is bossed about by my 25kg bitch. He does exactly as he’s told when he’s told, she also wrestles him to the ground on a regular basis. She’s so much faster and more agile that he could never catch her if he wanted to eat her, maybe she knows she has the advantage 😄

My smaller dog fulls goes at my bigger dog if he's in a cranky mood. He's very lucky, he's 10 years older than her and if she wanted to she could do him some serious damage.

I grew up with a jack russell and a mastiff. If you could have asked him, the terrier would have told you with absolute 100% certainty that he was the larger dog, and completely in charge. Not an iota of doubt. It would never have crossed his mind that the mastiff was in anyway superior.

The big dog isn't mine (DPs) and just visits at the weekends.
My dog has no idea that big dog could rip his head off, and he totally lords it over big dog.
He does know that he has to be careful if big dog gets boisterous when moving about though, and will dart under bushes, the table, a chair etc to ensure he doesn't get trampled!
Picture doesn't do their relative sizes justice, the Great Dane is about 70kg and the Cocker Spaniel just under 10kg.

I've a miniature dachshund who absolutely does not know that the border collie could kill him dead instead of tolerating him hanging off his throat. I say tolerate, I mean he doesn't get murdered, the snarls and air snaps are an epic riposte.

OP is that a chi? If so no they don’t think they could be eaten. They KNOW they are really the size of a Great Dane and could totally demolish anything that tried it on. 🤣🤣

I don’t think dogs recognise size and weight in the same way we do. It’s why when a little dog kicks off at a big dog and the owner just laughs it off it’s so frustrating- the other dog only recognises that it’s been the target of aggression.

She is a Chi but we have cats who have done a very good job of teaching her she is small and insignificant and only allowed to exist because they allow it

She's really shy of other dogs, it's only our other dog she attacks. I do intervene but the bigger dog doesn't seem to understand aggression and doesn't bat an eyelid at the Chi's outbursts. He was taken from his mother too early and hand reared by a rescue in a room full of puppies. He wasn't socialized with older dogs until we got him when he was four months. When the cats attack him he thinks it's a great game.

We have similar cats here OP. Two torties who keep the wolfhounds in check. 😆

Mine love each other. The dashie thinks he is a Labrador though 🤣

I have a big dog (9 months)and a small dog (2 yrs), the small one is fiesty and has always liked big dogs, he tells them off on behalf of his small friends. I do worry the big one could hurt the little one though. They play fight lots always instigated by the big one, it stresses me out but the little one doesn't seem scared ever, just really irritated when he just wants to sleep.

The small dog has never been great at being left alone till we got the new pup. He is now fine with it but often will sleep next to the pup when we're not there.

I think all small dogs are born with body dysmorphia because they all think they are massive! Our BT totally thinks he is in charge of our lab. Sometimes I wish our lab would stop being so nice and polite….