Dear Small Dog Owners,

[MonsteraMama]

Dear Small Dog Owners,

I get it, I truly do. Your cavapoo, dachshund, westie, yorkie, frenchie, or whatever variant of weenie little dog you chose is adorable. They really are.

But please for the love of all that is good and holy train them.

Them being small does not make it ok for them to jump up on strangers, paw at them, bark at them, chew their shoes or fingers, cover them in mud and god knows what else. I know they're harmless, I know it's different for me because if my Deerhound jumped up on someone she could be face to face with them and that's far scarier. I know lots of people think it's cute to be leapt all over. I know I'm only in scruffy Primark jeans that probably need a wash anyway.

But it's not ok. It happens nearly every time I walk my dog anywhere. Please teach them at the very least to keep all four paws on the ground when saying hello to strangers.

Sincerely,
Muddy Jeans

(Ps, I'm sure this has been mentioned many times on here, for which I apologise in advance, I'm just cheesed off at having to wash my jeans again 😂 so having moan)

To be fair it is harder to teach small dogs not to jump up. As you said, large dogs jumping up is typically discouraged by others due to the safety implications but a lot of people encourage small dogs to jump up. Whilst you may not like it, the vast majority of strangers do encourage it with small dogs, which makes it difficult for the owner to correct. Obviously, if the dog is being allowed to run up to strangers, that's a completely different matter and the owner needs to train some recall. I'm talking about situations when someone is chatting with the owner and strokes the dog or two dogs are greeting. My own small dog doesn't jump up at anyone though as he doesn't like strangers!

Additionally, a lot of large dogs are also not trained. It's not a small dog thing, but a dog owner thing. I had a stranger's golden retriever with its paws on my shoulders the other day.

@brownbear201

I've had multiple small dogs and managed to train all of them not to jump up and to be stroked by strangers while remaining sitting or standing. If a stranger encouraged them to jump up I'd tell them not to.

If you can't manage to do that, you shouldn't have a dog of any size tbh.

"It's hard" is a bit of a shit excuse for not training your dog not to paw at strangers, and 99% of the time it is small dogs.

I've definitely not noticed this being a small dog vs big dog issue. I've had as many big dogs as small dogs plant their front feet on my legs/torso/shoulders (depending on height).

TBH, I pretty much don't mind when other people's dogs mildly misbehave to my cost -- because another day, despite my best efforts, it could be my dog misbehaving (or just annoying someone without particularly misbehaving), which is waaaay worse.

After decades of dog ownership I've learnt not to be judgey.

There but for the grace of god and all that.

I've had stern words with Daisy and she's going to try harder in future.

@brownbear201 bollocks - small dogs are dogs first and foremost. Training, consistency and control are all required whether it's 2kg or 40kg. If your dog jumps up on people, put it on a damn lead and NOT a bloody extendable one.

A pug tried to attack my very large dog at the weekend. It was barking, growling and baring its teeth as it ran at my large dog at the weekend. Mine was on a short lead when this bloody thing shot at us and got within inches of my girl's ankles before the bloody owner finally got the extendable to stop and he dragged it back. Who knows how much damage is happening to that dogs trachea, neck and spine in being yanked around on that lead as well.

I was absolutely furious as we were walking quietly and well away from them when this happened and yet this sort of thing happens at least twice a month. My girl is reactive and I keep her well away and close to me to create space and teach her calm behaviours, but so many twats think it's ok because "he's only small" or "he's got small man syndrome" etc.

A few years ago I lost my temper with one owner and pointed out that if my dog behaved like theirs, I'd have been in court on charges of having a dog dangerously out of control. Wankers.

Oh Daisy! You bad bad lovely sausage.

(Love that Daisy wears a poppy. Do you have another dog called Poppy who wears a daisy?

PS. Daisy never ever got someone's jeans dirty above the knee.

My dog doesn't jump up at people and is never off lead but he barks like a fucker. Sorry about that.

I wish !

1000% agreed. Also as the owner of a larger hound just because he's bigger than your dog doesn't mean he likes it when your dog with no manners comes and bothers him, especially when he's on lead and yours isn't.

Your dog is still a dog and needs to be treated and trained exactly like a bigger dog. His small size is not an excuse.

Also, if your small dog is barking at me or my dog, feel free to apologise - you know, just as common courtesy.

I've never known the owner of anything smaller than medium to bother.

I don't know why owners of small dogs so often fail to feel the need to teach them to walk properly on a leash. Just because it is possible to control them and not be pulled over doesn't seem a good enough excuse. I regularly see people with their small dogs walking solely on their hind legs, leaning at 45 degrees into their harness. I couldn't be doing with it.

I see them too - and have noticed a lot of them stay on the lead (I presume they are not recall trained) while my (bigger) dog is trotting around off lead under control. The amount of times I have wondered if small dog owners think they come ready trained!

I've got my first 'small' dog in a long time (had larger breeds since). I've been training him the same as my previous large breeds because I know how annoying it is. However, more people come up and grab at him then they ever did with my staffy/GSD. It's not helpful when you are training at all. So I'll teach him to behave and if everyone else could stop treating him like he's a toy, I'd be grateful 😊

Dogs in general have 0 boundaries these days because their owners mostly treat them like actual human children.

I can't remember the last time I came across a dog that was well trained. Of any size.

We're trying...

It's a work in progress.

There must be a whole other dimension of the UK that I have no access to. None of this remotely matches my experience. I see good, bad and mediocre owners of large, small and medium dogs alike. Most owners are more or less trying to get it right; most owners more or less fail in a few respects from time to time -- including those of us that take pride in trying to do all the training.

If anything, I'd say largish dogs of the gundog type are the most likely to make a nuisance of themselves - by being too friendly with humans or with smaller dogs that don't appreciate their accidentally intimidating galumphing.

I have a small border terrier. She never jumps up at me or any of my family as she knows it's not allowed.

She has also worked out that anyone else is fair game as they don't tell her off. Literally anything more than brief eye contact and she's convinced they want to be her best friend. It's just in her. I can't make her stop. I put her on her lead every single time we pass another person. If she'd done that to you on a walk I would be mortified and embarrassed.

@thistimelastweek
Omg she's too cute she can jump on me 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Oh gosh you’d have hated me 10yrs ago with my bouncy deerhound who would jump up on people!… Thankfully he grew out of it! 🙈

There’s definitely a small-dog syndrome in the village I live in.

At least once a week I seem to come across a small terrier/-poo mix that will snarl at my dog, and some quite aggressively, which you wouldn’t get away with in a larger dog. Some owners you can see are trying to train their dogs out of it, but others just pull (drag) their dog away or passively say no to it (in the same way that Pandora would say to little Balonz ‘We don’t make nasty noises, do we darling’. )

Rant over.

I'm truly sorry if my 10 month old small dog jumps up. She is getting a lot better and I'm getting better at predicting who she will jump up at. ATM it's people taking on there phones Her puppy trainer has also armed me with ways to stop her doing it. Like distracting her and she is getting a lot better but I'm so sorry.

9 month old small dog here too. Am desperately trying to train her not to jump. Agree with pp though that strangers are awful for encouraging it. I'll often flat ask them not to encourage her to jump and they reply 'I don't mind!' As I'm frantically trying to drag her out of their arms.

I'm afraid it does really rankle to be told that small dog owners don't train their dogs. We've had two and have worked very hard to teach them manners and make sure they aren't a menace (current puppy is a work in progress). I've also experienced big dogs which have rushed past my small children and knocked them flying and who frequently stick their noses into my treat pouch because it's convenient for them. Or who mob my small puppies and won't back off even when they're on their backs crying or trying to hide behind my legs. All dog owners need to take responsibility

100% this. Allowing your dog, of any size, to jump up a stranger is rude and irresponsible. Extendable leads are pointless if you are not actively controlling your dog. Not everyone likes dogs.

My very lovely smallish dog understands and obeys ‘gently’ and ‘paws on the floor’, as she approaches people. But the minute they tell her she’s lovely and lean over to pat her, she will bounce up. She accepts disinterest, but may be a bit over enthusiastic with encouragement….

white jeans are just so tempting.