Small dog rant

[Fireworknight]

What is it with small dogs, that the owners think it’s okay for them to snarl and jump up at your dog (with apologies to responsible owners)?

Had an incident this morning whereby a small french bulldog got loose from where he was tied up and was aggressively barking and jumping at my dog (on a lead). Fortunately, he didn’t get out of the fenced play park area - we were the other side- and a passer-by grabbed hold of the dogs lead to restrain him. There were only two kids with him until then.

if that dog had noticed the gap by the gate, and had got out, …, not sure what would have happened.

Love me a proper frenchie. None of that chihuahua nonsense.

Bloody annoying. I’ve lost count of the tiny dogs that have had a go at my hounds. Often with the comment “oh mine doesn’t like big dogs.” And if my pair went at every pair of small dogs that would be ok too would it?

As a small dog owner I’m really fed up of some people letting their large dogs jump all over mine, and tell me that they’re only playing. They may be but my dog is 6.5 kg and yours is 50 kg so hardly fair.

Works both ways.

Little dogs are so dangerous! These pictures are after a big dog just wanted “to play” with my little dog

If I am completely honest...I hate most dog owners.

I put 'he's so friendly' (usually Lab/Goldie/Bernese) owners up there with 'oh he doesn't mean any harm' (Chi, JR, Pug, Frenchie) owners.

Sometimes I wish breeders and rescue centres would do monthly check in with the owners of the pups they've sold, so they can see how bloody awful 90% of dog owners are.

Yep, in my experience it's always small dogs who run over with an owner calling out "it's okay, they're friendly!" while their dog bounces all over mine.

A friend of mine ended up in A&E after he was out running his dogs (on lead and harness) and two Jack Russells came bombing round the corner and attacked his dogs, pulling him over and fracturing his wrist and smashing his head.

I've also had multiple episodes of small dogs leaping at mine and biting him (or trying to bite him). Whenever a large dog has bounded over, the owner has always been mortified and full of apologies.

Conversely I’ve never had an issue with a small dog. They tend to ignore mine. Large dogs on the other hand. I hear the inevitable whistle then know we’re about to be assaulted by a gundog. Usually Labrador. Or some kind of large doodle. Very few collect their dog. I’ve only ever had one apology and that was from a distance when I was trying to fight their dog off mine so I could pick her up as she was crying.

But yeah. Small dogs 😐

Well, we can only go by our own experiences.

Yep. Which shows it’s deeply unhelpful to generalise. I know great owners of all sizes as I do poor owners.

Pretty simple really. Keep all dogs on a lead whilst walking them in a public area. There are enclosed dog fields popping up everywhere these days and at £5 for half an hour for up to 4 dogs a session you cannot go wrong if you are a responsible dog owner. I speak as as someone who has had four dogs of my own at various stages of my life and they have been small, medium and large in size. I am now a foster dog carer too.

I'm not generalising - I'm just giving my experience, the same as all the other posters who said the same as me. I never said "it's all small dogs", I said that whenever I have an issue, it's always small dogs - not the same thing.

I get it must be frustrating if you own a small dog to always hear the negatives though.

I agree. The vast majority of the time when my dog is harassed by another dog it’s a large dog. When my dog was attacked, it was by a large dog. So many people who get big dogs and have zero control of the animal on the lead so decide to just let it off. I see far more owners with small dogs keeping them on a lead if they have poor recall. Are some small dog owners irresponsible? Yes. But so are plenty of large dog owners. It’s an owner problem. My dog is a small dog and I get SO many comments from annoying people who let their large dogs jump all over him and then when he tells their dog to get lost they reply “Oh it’s always the small ones”. My response is always “He wasn’t a problem until your dog came and made a nuisance of itself!”

Interesting. The small dogs are being harassed by the larger dogs, and the large dogs by the small.

Here-here!!!!

I live in rural Wales and HATE hearing about these idiotic dog owners taking their dogs to farm land and allowing their dogs to attack poor sheep. Makes me mad. The land owners should have the right to use arms against such people and their dogs.

I worry with my toddler and baby so much I have to carry a small utility mutlitool thing that has a small knife on it so if a dog comes close I get it ready one wrong move and I will defend my children! Small dogs or large all the same.

In your example the dog got loose accidentally. (And was also behind a fence and the lead picked up again.)

I hardly think that means the owner thought it was ok.

An annoying incident for you and your dog but it’s not an example of ‘small dog owners thinking it’s ok’.

So you're going to hold onto your children and open up a small knife to stab a dog with. Do you imagine an attacking dog will just stand there and wait while you grab the kids and find the right bit of your multitool? Good luck with that 🙄

Agreed! Bloody fed up of big dogs jumping on my mini schnauzer, she's a confident sociable dog but big dogs can easily injure her. Big dog owners please control your dogs.

@BrightLightTonight I hope your gorgeous dog is healing well and not scared to walk now x

I've got three small dogs all jack x patterdale , always on the lead unless at the dog park I pay to hire for the hour and I am constantly ran at on walks by off lead dogs .. more often labs , or spaniels with the ever heard "oh it's fine mine is friendly "
Lovely but mine f**king aren't and if mine were to bite I'm
Sure they'd be flaming me for it

Yes!

No, the answer is to keep your dogs under control. For many dogs, proper free running is essential to their well-being and the vast majority of dogs are civil to each other anyway.

Keeping dogs on-lead increases the odds of problems as the dogs can't express themselves fully.

Most dog owners around where I live are sensible. I went on a fairly typical off-lead walk at the weekend and I:
Kept my two away from a young dog in training whose owner put her on-lead so she wouldn't get the chance to bomb over and bounce at us (we had a chat from 10 yards distance across the sugar beet);
Called my two in to weigh up a couple of approaching dogs who I was assured were fine, and they looked it, so the dogs all introduced themselves and we continued in our different directions;
Encountered a spaniel we have met before, had a nice chat to the owner while dogs blagged treats off us;
Saw a cockapoo who flattened himself into the grass but the owner said, as I called mine, not to worry, he'd be fine - and he had a very quick play with one of mine and ran off with his owner;
Kept them away from another cockapoo as we went over the playing fields, but only because I wanted them at heel as there was a football match underway close by.

We get the odd brief fracas when a rude young retriever gets in my older dog's face (she tells them to fuck off, they do, and then come back round to say sorry and introduce themselves politely). There's one dog whose owner is insanely anxious about contact between her dog and mine, so we avoid her, and a border terrier who will launch teeth-first, so we avoid both of them. Otherwise, we just keep clear of on-lead dogs and anything being long-lined I less told it's okay.

I get the odd over-excited paw-print on my jeans, and training interrupted sometimes, usually by a puppy whose recall isn't quite going to plan.

Maybe where I live is weird, but it's very rare that we have an issue.

ETA to add, I'm not saying that problems can be entirely avoided by your own dogs being under control - just realise what I said could be read that way. Everyone needs their dogs to be under control and the few big issues we have ever had has been middling or being dogs being dickheads.

I'm taking the middle ground here.

Small dogs are undoubtedly more snappy and overtly aggressive towards big dogs, but most of the tiny dogs that I encounter seem to be on a lead.

However, I think the confusion is what is classified as a big dog, because almost all of the dogs that come bounding up off the lead here seem to be medium sized breeds like Labradors, Border Collies, Poos and Doodles. Those, in my experience over the last 50 years, are the ones more likely to bite and they are the ones that I am most wary of.

I have generally less issues with very large breeds; around here there's a couple of Leonbergers, a Great Swiss, a Tibetan Mastiff and an Estrela, but none of them run loose in public (and nor does my Pyrenean) so they don't cause any issues. The ones you have to watch for are definitely the medium sized breeds, and where I live, Cockerpoo's seem to be the worst for dog aggression.

Thanks - this happened a few years ago. It took a while, but she is fine now. And the owner if the big dog accepted responsibility and paid all vet bills

I had an on lead BT. Loved her mates.

But, OMG. I said to my walking partner once “For the next dog, I am going to remember I am wearing steel toed wellies and I am going to use them.

Or “let them sort it out. Mine just wants to play” until I say “mine doesn’t and yours will be dead”.

In an ideal world it's my opinion you are correct and I respect your thinking.
Society is changing and more and more often I come across too many people who are very ignorant and I would never risk a dog's safety for an ever increasing attitude of people who are poor owners. I liken it to poor parenting.
We must agree to disagree.