People with their *foo-foo* dogs Rant

[Roxy's CD]

well that women about chloe in the store was pretty rude......what a moron.

that being said mean comments to small dog owners just because their little dog barks is not very nice either.

i got comments like that before and it sure doesnt make me feel great.

to all big dog owners with a holier than you attitude "GET A LIFE"
oh yeah, picking on the little ones makes you look really tough........
what do you get out of it? make somebody feel bad, is that so much fun?

how can you tell if somebody treats their dog like a dog or like a child in the first place?
just because you watch them for a minute carring their small dog through petsmart?

i carry baily in petsmart sometimes, simply because of the fact that about a million dogs already peed in there and i dont need him to mark on top of it.....
that doesnt make him less dog.

just the other day i was in petsmart and a women with a golden retriever puppy came towards us. of course baily barked. baily was excited and jumped towards the pup wanting to play.
the women pulled her dog back and said to me: "looks like she was going to bite!!!!" pointing at baily.

i hate morons like that. first of all: just because it is small doesnt mean its a girl! please people rething your stereotyps...
second: if my dog ever bit another dog does she really think i would bring him to petsmart?????
baily is totally harmless just overexcited. if they give him a chance they see that he will play not try to rip the other dog apart.....

i know big dog owners do get a lot of stupid comments from idgit small dog owners too but it goes both ways..... if a little dog barks, so what? after all it's a DOG (who would have thought dogs would bark ...)

My dogs DO NOT bark at other dogs. Plain and simple. They see dogs all the time, and know that they are not a threat. I don't allow us to get close enough to other dogs, so it may appear that they were lunging at is. But I do imagine if I did, Roxy would bark or growl or lunge back. But that's never happened, I can only assume.

The facts, IN MY TOWN, are this: Older people and people who just want a cute dog get small dogs. They have had no training or socializiation whatsoever for fear of their own small poochie.

WE WERE ATTACKED BY A SMALL DOG NO HIGHER THAN MY KNEE! If the dogs had not dragged me out of harms way, I imagine there would've been a seriously injured little dog, from ME kicking it! ANd then who would look bad? ME, even though that little stupid dog came running out growling and snarling at MY dogs, who were scared to death and took off up the street.

*sigh* It happens all too often, and even though mostly it's smaller dogs, yes big dogs do bark at us too.

NOT ONCE have my dogs EVER barked at ANY size of dog on our walks. EVER.

 

[jess2416]

NOT ONCE have my dogs EVER barked at ANY size of dog on our walks. EVER.

Chloe hasnt either, even when there are tons of dogs barking at her....

 

[Giny]

LOL RD, I say the same thing to Kassie, who's a bit bossy when it comes to other dogs. I will say things to her like, "If this dog wanted too it could eat you in one bite". It's never intended to offend other owner's dogs, it's more to show Kassie to simmer down. Never do I think that the other dog will eat her, more like IF they wanted to she'd be gone in one swoop and stop this Napoleon complex attitude.

As for soft pawz’s post, I can understand her frustration. Owners of small dogs DO go through a lot of stereotypes and we tend to take in as much as we can till it eventually blows over at times. Just like the types of stereotypes that affect owners of big dogs. It can truly be enraging at times! I try to be a good advocate to small dog owners in making sure that they know to treat their dogs like a dog but I still love to baby my dogs, just like any dog owner do whether it be big or small. But just because mine are small it’s perceived differently, as though the dog is part of my accessory and darnit they are DOGS just like any others dogs. And if one more person says, “Sheesh, why get a dog this small, why not just get a cat?” I think I’ll go ballistic. This is not a rant against anything the OP wrote, just a rant of my own.

 

[jess2416]

What I guess I didnt mention the fact that several times before people have said that to Chloe BUT they were laughing and joking about it while we were talking about our dogs....

This time it was different.....

 

[Roxy's CD]

I in no way am stereo typing. It's my experience with small dog owners. There are some small dogs in classes with my dogs, and both of my dogs were wary of them, I'm sure because of our experiences.

I didn't just decide out of nowhere this opinion. There's been many experiences where small dogs, if they were any bigger, would've dragged their owners and tried to attack us.

I know that there are many people with small dogs that train and socialize, like soft pawz, but it just seems that the ratio from big dogs with training to small dogs with training,the small dog owners are slacking, and they think it's OK just because their dogs are small.

 

[Boemy]

I think there truly are more ill-behaved small dogs than large dogs . . . the reason being if you have a small dog that jumps / pees in the house / snarls at everyone, the owner can laugh it off ("Oh, isn't she cute, she's trying to bite you! Awww!") or ignore it, plus they can physically control their dog because, well, it's small!

Whereas if you have a large dog that pees in the house, it's like the Niagra Falls. If you have a large dog that jumps on people, it can knock them down. If you have a large dog who snarls and tries to attack strangers, it may be able to physically pull itself close enough to attack, while the owner is dragged haplessly at the other end of the leash.

Most of the dogs who end up at animal shelters are large or medium. I think they are the dogs with clueless / ignorant owners who dumped them after they started some unacceptable behavior. I think that small dogs with the same problems are kept a lot more by their clueless owners. So you see them "out and about" more than untrained large dogs.

Edit: BTW, I trained my large dog not to bark. I was trying to teach her not to bark excessively . . . that one or two barks were okay, but not barking for ten minutes straight. She got the idea, but took it to heart so much that she stopped barking completely. She wouldn't even bark at strangers. She would bark at squirrels once in a while and howl when she heard a siren, though.

 

[soft pawz]

yes julie, of course baily is getting training like every dog should regardless of size and he is already doing a lot better too and not barking at every dog he sees anymore.....

with my post i did not mean anybody particular who posted here so i have no clue why some people think i talked about them.

julie baily is not my child and i doubt i ever said that. i love him as much as i would love a child (see the difference?) and he is my little baby but of course he is and stays a dog and i will always be treating him like a dog and not like a child.

i have no problems with people who actually DO treat their dog like a child though. if it makes them happy......

i love dogs of all sizes. i happen to have a little one right now because i just couldnt do a big dog justice right now. not once have i said anything bad to an owner of a big dog on my walks even if that dog wasnt well behaved simply because i dont know if and how much energy the owner already put into training the dog and i just wish baily and i would get the benifit of the doubt more often too.

 

[tac_1]

OMG!! I actually said that to Missy at the vet. when she was going insane over a full-grown GSD!! Of course, I don't think the owner was upset. I told Missy that the GSD could have her for lunch and the owner laughed and replied, "more like a snack". And we both laughed. I have big dogs and Missy, so I'm not anti-big dog. In fact, I used to have a beautiful black and silver GSD. He was one of my very best friends growing up. Not sure why, possibly ADD, but I can NOT seem to stay on topic tonight! lol

 

[tac_1]

And shamefully I will admit that my big guys aren't trustworthy around other dogs. They were never properly socialized. I will admit, I was an ignorant mom. Thank God for computers because, as I'm sure for many like me, it's been a wonderful source of information. Sadly the greater portion of dog lovers are not dog experts. Nor have they socialized their animals properly. I say kudos to those who are trying, whether their dog is big or small...at least they are trying. In my case, big dog certainly doesn't mean better behaved.

 

[Babyblue5290]

I've had sooo many problems with small dogs attacking or attempting to go after me and Lucas on walks and only one with a fenced large dog that was just protecting it's property. Small dogs, in my experience, have been horrible about being aggresive. Just a few days ago Lucas was attacked and bit by two small schnauzer mixes that where off-leash with no owner around. When I told the owner about it they said "they couldn't of done much damage, they are small!" I think being small makes a lot of people let little dogs get away with a lot for reasons stated by boemy.

Lucas does tend to howl at some other dogs if he wants to play with them and only if they bark/howl first, but if I tell him "Shush" he will quiet down. As for small dogs they seem to just fly off the handle most of the time. I don't mind it too much, but when they are barking and jumping around like a nutcase it sure doesn't inspire me to "say hi" or think it's cute or nice at all! And even if a small dog jumps around and barks out of excitement it is so much harder to read it's body language as the small body springs around while a large dog could jump and bark and it would be easier to see it's body language.

Oh and some people with aggressive dogs still bring dogs to petstores. So I never assume a dog is nice because it is in an area for dogs.

 

[Babyblue5290]

oops....double post sorry

 

[tac_1]

I wanted to add one more thing...ALL of my dogs are treated like babies, not just my chi. She is, however, only allowed in stores around other dogs in her tote, until I can get her properly trained. I let her out and ask the cashier if they would mind holding her though. Atwoods is so awesome about it. They even have little jerky treats for the "kids" that visit. Our vet. even calls all of our animals our kids. I don't think they suffer, by any stretch, lol. As for the incident with the GSD?? Missy was in her tote and there were several women that were dying to see the "tiny" dog, so, foolishly, I took Missy out to show them, without regard to the fact that there were other animals around and she is far from being ready to behave correctly. My bad. And of course, as the saying goes with chis, she has the heart of a lyon and thinks she is super bad. Yes, it'll be a great time socializing her with other dogs.