Big Dogs or Small Dogs?

Is the "small dogs == high-strung and anxious" formulation on actual thing?

dogs have evolved to be so in tune w/ us socially

I watched a thing on PBS the other day about this, and if you let a dog watch you put a treat under a cup, and then tell the dog the treat is under a different cup (when it is not), the dog will trust the human over his own eyes and go first to the cup without the treat that the human pointed to.

Temple Grandin says that what you really need to watch out for are dogs (any animals) with a large amount of white fur. Something about the gene that makes animals white correlates with the gene that makes them neurotic.

Also, if the Australian Sheepdog is representative in size for all sheepdogs, I'd vote that, then.

xp
Which book does she say the white fur thing in?

white dogs drive like this

xelab - Animals in Translation, I am pretty sure. I went through a phase of reading a bunch of her books but I think that is the one.

"Three years a young dog, three years a good dog and three years an old dog. All else is a gift from God."

xp
thx. That is probably the only one we don't have, but I will check it out because she is great.

I watched a thing on PBS the other day about this, and if you let a dog watch you put a treat under a cup, and then tell the dog the treat is under a different cup (when it is not), the dog will trust the human over his own eyes and go first to the cup without the treat that the human pointed to.

I read a blog post on that very thing. I could not take part in that study, poor doggies.

xp that's a great quote, what's that from?

it's a swiss saying about bernese mountain dogs

Voted cat person, but big dogs are clearly the best kind; somewhere between a husky and a direwolf.

my husky is a lot of white fur and she's not neurotic at all BUT she is a real asshole to me sometimes (and a total suck-up to strangers).

ok let's redress the balance over all this 'in my experience' and 'it seems like' crap above about small dogs. a badly brought up dog is a badly brought-up dog - difference is, your 200lb monster could do way more damage if it flipped out than the tiny dog ever could. ya also seem kinda blind to the fact that walking down the street with a dog that has jaws bigger than a human head is super intimidating for kids, mums w/ prams, old folk, etc. like i said, i like all sizes of dogs but don't pull this crap about little dogs being inherently more troublesome than your donkey-sized gentle giant (hint: p much every dog is gentle to their owners)

too much rage against tiny dogs on here. well-trained little uns are amazing, super full of personality and flat-out funny. big dogs great in a reliable old comfy sofa way too. basically love all dogs except ones that are bought to exist as a 4-legged threat

― NI, Wednesday, June 11, 2014 5:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

have experienced excellent dogs of all sizes and breeds, and a minority of badly-behaved/badly-trained ones across all sizes as well. badly-behaved little dogs are annoying, badly-behaved big dogs can be pretty terrifying.

alsatians are the only dogs i dislike because #acab

(i actually used to be a cat person as a kid, then i developed allergies, so i just like to look at pictures of them now. luckily we live in the best ever age for that)

I am absolutely not blind to the fact that people are intimidated by my dog. People regularly cross the street and walk on the other side when they see us coming. Their loss.

i forgot to say yesterday that flexi leashes are the fucking worst and make bad dogs. Small dogs especially should not be allowed to range about freely on their 10' flexis. It makes them psycho.

The main problem with small dogs is that people think they need less exercise than big dogs. Ha ha ha ha, people are stupid.
So they take them out for ten minutes on the lead and the little dog is like "WTF? Right then, I'm going to bark at everything, all day long. I will never shut up, never!"
I love my jack russell. People tell us we shouldn't trust her with children. She adores children. People tell us we shouldn't trust her with cats. She sleeps on my lap with our oldest cat in the evenings. She will not be told what to do.
She does like the sound of her own voice, though.

the thing that freaks me about jack russells is the absolutely plumb-line vertical jumping 4 feet in the air

dogs of all sizes being generally awesome = otm

― dan m, Wednesday, June 11, 2014 12:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Anyone that votes pets of all kinds suck - I will never understand you.

OTM.

The only real reason I don't have much bigger dogs is because I don't want to have to deal with massive poos, and I don't fancy trying to lift a huge dog into the car when it's too old to get in by itself.

In fact, not only will I not understand you, I will probably worry about you a little bit.

It's hard enough to lift a gangly medium-sized old dog into cars! To add to the general unwieldiness, there's a 30-second co-operation window before squirming. Ken can't go down a flight of stairs any more, but he can manage one flight and he can also manage jumping on/off beds and sofas. A really rickety and HUGE old dog would totally break my heart.

Our guy has hind-end problems and can't reliably do things like climb stairs. For those situations we bought a Help-em-up harness, and it has made a world of difference. It also provides a handle to hold him steady while he's dumping out (big poos) so he doesn't fall down in his own pile.

boxer-sheepdog size is where I see myself if/when I can get ever get a dog, I like almost all dogs (all well-raised dogs of course, and ok I find pekes a bit weird, like they're snuffling 70s sci-fi creatures or something). I suppose I do lean a fair bit towards huge dogs – Great Danes are lovely & I really, truly would love an Irish Wolfhound.

Jesse and I were in the park a few weeks ago and we saw the BEST DOG. It was a Jack Russell/beagle mix, and her name was Casey, and she was so adorable and well behaved. Her human said that she loved babies so she came over and gave my infant daughter a sniff and a very polite lick on the head. Jesse and I gave Casey some pets, and then we all parted ways best of friends.

It was an excellent small dog interaction.

I've had to be told STEP AWAY FROM THE RESCUE DOGS WEBSITE because I was starting to obsess over this (slightly too big) guy:

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dogimages/1116513_ERNIE_20140530120207_20140529_142701_w800.JPG

Aw, he's nice.

My friend Casey has a rescue pit bull named Telly that she Instagrams like constantly:

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/p417x417/1620605_556332120202_1280096566_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1796549_556514654402_564533669_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1488156_554412247642_249005901_n.jpg

The dog had a lot of anxieties when she adopted it but she's really settled down. (They had to spend a lot of time getting her used to the cat, which is named Batman.)

I would instagram that face all day.

I was anti-little dog until my parents got a Havanese, and it has kind of brought me around to the "bred for generations to be nothing but an exceptionally emotionally well-tuned lapdog and ladies' entertainment." He is just the best-tempered and least anxious and least demanding dog ever and apparently will keep his playful puppy temperment indefinitely. He's neither willful or particularly intelligent, but after 3 collies and a standard poodle who was nothing but a selfish pain in the ass, I think we were all ready for something very sweet and quiet and not too bright.

Before moving to Chicago, one of our Dane's two best dog friends was a Havanese

I ASK YOU

http://www.7cedarsranch.org/Havanese_puppy.jpg

like i said, it's not all small dogs who are awful - it's the shitty owners with neurotic and aggressive small dogs who let them terrorize MY dog, while i'm expected to restrain her. there's a dude i see on my way to work a lot who lets his chihuahua off leash to torment neko every time we see them. i've never seen ppl with big dogs do either of these things.

xp if you could just drop that dog off at my office that'd be swell

chihuahuas are p gross

http://i.imgur.com/6o41kBK.jpg

Enid, my tiny dog in the foreground, friend's medium sized dog in the middle, my dog's best dog friend Norris in the background - they were kind of the same size when they were puppies, now he's ten times larger.

xp if you could just drop that dog off at my office that'd be swell

― Disagree. And im not into firey solos chief. (Phil D.), Thursday, June 12, 2014 4:33 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

MY OFFICE TOO

Havanese puppies 4 evry1!

http://twinshavanese.com/images/havanese8.jpg

This is the best thread. :')

I love miniature Schnauzers, Boston Terriers, pugs, and Jack Russell Terriers, so I guess small to mid for me.

I voted "Pets are the worst" btw.

Not that I needed a reason to post his picture on ILX but I feel like I haven't done so in a while so here's my monster being particularly cute this morning while perfecting the pug head tilt:

http://i57.tinypic.com/o7n6ee.jpg

Although Norris clearly does not suck and has an amazing face with actual sad eyebrows, c'mere guy, I have a chew toy with your name on it, yes that's a good man, get the chew toy! Go get it! Yes, you're a good doggie!

well if everyone else is doing it...

this is Vonn wondering why I'm still in bed late on a Saturday morning

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t31.0-8/1501036_10100109566943827_7986281953596015801_o.jpg

Norris :)

Vonn!

I'm guessing there is some food off-camera in Joygoat's pic?

https://ithelpstodream.tumblr.com/post/127807954992/amanda-jones-has-dedicated-the-past-20-years-to-an

Very nice photos of aging dogs

I'm not joking, this fucking jerkoff plumber comes into my house today, with poser gym muscles and tribal tats down his arms, and then shits his pants when he sees a soft old 12 yr old black labrador. The soft twat refuses to do the gas safety check until I take the dog out of the property. Sometimes I think fatal industrial diseases that affect tradesman, like asbestosis are not so bad after all. even tho i've probably got it myself.

little dogs are the all time best, nothing in the world like them

We just got a tiny little dog, named Josie! She is a Mi-ki, and she is very chill and cuddly:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51057693562_0993b0cb39_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51056888858_f4677b4309_c.jpg

!!!

that is a real muppet

Josie got a new coat!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51721552619_81677276d2_c.jpg

that dog is so cute! I'd never heard of a mi-ki before today