[Bentleys Momma]

Hi Jen -- This is something I struggle with as well with Monkey. He is well socialized, of course he enjoys sitting on my lap at our social settings but we enjoy ourselves just the same, but let a large dog come into the area and he immediately tenses and starts mumbling under his breath. I personally feel, as does my trainer, that this is not based on him believing he is alpha but more on fear. He knows he is small. He knows he is having to look up at this other dog. We have been learning "quiet" and "watch me" to help break his tension. I give the commands one right after the other. I want to draw his attention away from the other animal so he does not send off any signals of aggression to get the larger dog to attack.

Of course this is all still new to us but we put our training into "real life" practice only with my trainers bull mastiff and my neighbor has a retired police dog that is a giant schnauzer.

In my opinion, larger dogs are simply "gentle giants" (assuming they have responsible humans of course) but that doesn't mean that all of them are able or should be around smaller dogs.

Good luck to you!