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)

They aren't retrievers but I took in a goldendoodle (or so we thought she was we still arent sure lol) and she seems to want to do that lol

The problem is that once a dog is over threshold and at the stage of barking or snarling - trying to distract them with treats or body blocking isn't going to stop them.

I do try and distract mine and will often cross the road or body block or hide behind a car, but if that doesn't work then there's not really anything I can do except walk past as fast as possible and apologise.

Having been on both ends of this, I promise you it's much harder for the person being judged than it is for the one being barked at occasionally.

Speaking as someone who has had a greyhound tear across a beach and throw its filthy dirty front paws up on my chest (clean coat covered in mud) I would say this is definitely not the preserve of small dogs.

All dogs, of any size need to be trained. All owners of dogs of any size need to be courteous and respectful to people and dogs.

Exactly this. Until you’ve had a fear reactive dog you have no idea what it’s like or how awful it makes you feel. Body blocking or distracting with high value treats, toys etc is impossible once they’ve gone beyond their limit, so I apologise to anyone on the receiving end of it and move my dog away as quickly as possible - and if it’s any consolation I feel utterly shit and dejected for the rest of the walk and the day. I try very hard to avoid situations where I know he’s more likely to react but we do get caught out from time to time - it’s not consistent which makes it much harder.

How did a 'small' dog reach the top of your thigh?

Totally agree OP. Rookiedog is trained not to jump on people because he is a big dog and it would be distressing to people ( apart from one notable incident during lockdown when my friend arrived in a rather dog like boucle golden retriever coloured jacket ).

It winds me up no end when my jeans and jackets get muddy because some small poppet dog decides that's a nice way to greet me. My neighbour- who is lovely but thinks she is the oracle on all things dog related- blamed the fact she had in dog sitters on her naughty dog, then proceeded to give me a lecture about how I should wear old clothes I didn't mind getting muddy when walking .

Quite right. My dog wouldn't reach a knee.

Big dog people often just don't like little dogs do they? I think they don't think they are real dogs and think they're powder puff accessories for people who don't like real dogs. It's a shame because they have just as much character, brains and personality without the size. I suppose we just like what we like.

Again.....how do small 'poppet'(?) dogs make your jacket dirty?

I am totally ambivalent to dog size, I just prefer not to have to put entire outfits in the wash,when I'm minding my own business walking my own dog and I get jumped on.

Most dogs however small can reach knee or thigh height when they are on their hind legs - particularly if they launch themselves enthusiastically at you.

My small dog has a large fluorescent sign on her lead that says, ‘DO NOT PET’ because she gets over-excited and sometimes nips.

Unfortunately it’s a sign that appears to be invisible to passers-by, who are also apparently deaf.

Until she gets over-excited and nips. Then they regain their faculties.

I was just thinking that society isn't divided enough these days, so good idea to pit owners of large breeds against owners of small breeds.

Well I can now add greyhounds to my list of leaping offenders, so my little-dog prejudice is being proven wrong 😂 he nearly knocked me flying, definitely more dramatic than yesterday's adorable little cocker and her filthy little puds. I guess I'm just a jump-uppable human, doomed to forever be covered in paw prints and never have a clean hoodie.

And @HaystackHair and @Riverlee you are quite right, here's my leggy girl having a well earned snooze after careening about with said misbehaving greyhound.

Cockerpoos / insert breed-poos, most terriers are more than capable of getting front paws onto jackets with a small leap. Dachshunds not so much.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5074303-owning-any-large-or-giant-breed-is-irresponsible?page=3&reply=135242240

And here’s the opposite side of the argument!

My 6 Kg terrier can jump into my arms 😂

As the owner of 4 large breed dogs I couldn't agree with you more OP.

There are 5 daschhounds in my street and the noise and bad manners is off the scale. Yet the owners stand by and watch with a cheesy grin on their faces cause, you know, 'how cute'.

No, it's not cute. It's terrible behaviour and poor/zero training.

If any of my dogs displayed even an ounce of behaviour that they do I'd be getting abuse off of people (and rightly so)

It's not harder to train small dogs to jump up, what a ridiculous excuse for lazy ownership

You must have a teeny sofa as your deer hound looks tiny on it! Gorgeous though!

I can assure you I also love little dogs and have owned many.

Also small dogs can bounce.

YES THIS

I completely agree OP. Not all, but the majority of small dog owners think it’s perfectly acceptable to have their dog scrabbling around on a flexi lead (FUCKING FLEXI LEADS) under no control whatsoever, and think its “funny” when their small dog barks and lunges at my GSD.

my poor, lovely boy has been attacked numerous numerous times by small dogs either off lead (when mine is on a lead) or on a flexi lead where their owner either isn’t paying attention or just seemingly doesn’t care. It’s infuriating. The vast majority of these dogs are owned by completely clueless owners. Loads don’t pick up their poo either.

She's a runt as far as deerhounds go, smaller than average, sadly she was abandoned because of being smaller of stature than desired and having a defect in her tail. We still love her though, crooked tail and runty height and all!

Daisy is beautiful and I'm sure I'd forgive her if she ever did muddy my jeans. How could I not with a face like that? 😁

@Churchview im a big dog owner. I like little dogs. It’s bad owners (of either) I don’t like, and The vast majority of bad owners I have met own little dogs.

it’s not the dogs fault they haven’t been trained.

Small dogs are definitely barkier when out and about. I was TRYING to enjoy the sunshine last week. Gave up after half an hour of non-stop yapping from a toy dog. I could see it, tied to the railings while its family played in the play park. It was going mental and yapped constantly.

My small dog used to stand up on two legs and hop towards people, think meerkat. Even people who didn't like dogs made an exception. I trained her not to jump but I gave up as people just encouraged her so it was one step forward and one back. She's very well behaved now, but it's more age than training and as she's elderly people tend to ignore her. She wondered for a while what she'd done wrong, that people took no notice of her 😔. I told that's just life.

Small dog owner here, she’s a knob and never off the lead due to her knobbish behaviour.
The only other knobby dogs we’ve met on walks have been small.