Small dog syndrome

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by BobbiB

Sorry, but FFS....pit bulls are absolutely NO different physically or mentally than any other canine in the world. Lock jaw? Myth. Human aggressive? Myth. Harder to train? Myth.

As I am very, very, very well-versed in APBT behavior and breeding, I can't even take this post seriously considering all of the negative connotations involving Pits. It is insane, and insulting, and ignorant (in the true definition of the word).

I don't think this post said anything bad about pits. I wasn't even saying anything bad about pits. I'm going by what I have been told by reputable owners who take owning a pit bull very serious. I think it's probably because if it's even not the pits fault but it bites someone with there rep they have an extremely high chance of getting put down. They are up very high on the list of dogs with very strong jaws.

[R-Teddy]

Originally Posted by BobbiB

Sorry, but FFS....pit bulls are absolutely NO different physically or mentally than any other canine in the world. Lock jaw? Myth. Human aggressive? Myth. Harder to train? Myth.

As I am very, very, very well-versed in APBT behavior and breeding, I can't even take this post seriously considering all of the negative connotations involving Pits. It is insane, and insulting, and ignorant (in the true definition of the word).

How was my post insulting to pits. I have been doing nothing but defending pits. I used pits in my original post in a context that showed I was defending them by saying that lady let her dog act all out of control and thought it was funny, but you know dang sure if it was a pit bull that did it she would have thrown a fit. I have four pit bull s in my house, I work for a Pit bull rescue. Sir I most certainly was not insulting them in any way nor would I ever. If anything what I am saying is I am sick and tired of people treating pit bulls that way when they allow there dogs act like idiots. But really I was meaning big dogs, not just pits.

[R-Teddy]

Originally Posted by gemy

The most common complaint I hear from folks who for want of a better descriptive are medium to large dog owners, is that the small or toy dogs, usually are very poorly behaved. They got the nickname ankle biters for a pretty valid reason. And of course many owners do nothing to control the bad behaviour.

And yes there certainly is a pack leader and all humans in the family should be shown to be in charge, and not the dogs!

There are a couple of more dominance behaviours that might seem silly in a way, but trust me they are dominance actions. Your dog always wants to go up the stairs ahead of you or out the door ahead of you. The leader of the pack always goes first, or gives permission for the other member(s) to go first.

Now I never say never ever let them do that, but every so often once a week sometimes more often, I make all the dogs wait at the bottom of the stairs while I go up, or vice versa while I go down. Tripping over a small dog is fun for no-one, and having a large dog bowl you over can be pretty painfull not to mention dangerous on a long flight of stairs.

Another good skill to teach your Yorkie puppy is to move out of the way of human feet. You should not be walking around your dog, but move slowly through your dog, they need to move out of your way!

Second is to teach your Yorkie awareness of doors. That they open and they close, and they don't want to get caught in a closing door.

The head butt especially to your rear end is another typical large dog behaviour that should not be tolerated.

We have a practice that places the dogs outside of the kitchen when we are eating, or when I get tired of them being in my way when I am cooking. All my pups love to be in the kitchen when I am cooking, partly that is my fault, as often when I chop veges fruit etc, I will give them a piece for an obedience command. Not to mention the wonderfull smells from the oven.

My dogs are trained to accept obedience commands from any-one. Many working dog owners don't feel the same way I do. But living in a family, with a sister who is brain damaged they had to learn to obey her too! And not to mention she is not too steady on her feet!

I like the rough rule of thumb, of if you would not accept this behaviour in a 100 lb dog, then don't accept it in a Yorkie!

EXACTLY, this is what im talking about.

[R-Teddy]

Originally Posted by chachi

I agree.

I dont think every undersirable behavior has to be trained out of the dog it is up to the owner to decide if it is a behavior they can live with or not. I know we would probably do different with a bigger dog but we are not dealing with a different dog. An example of this is chachi humps his teddy bear. Now someone else may think that is a very undesirable behavior and need to train their dog not to do it. I dont see a problem with it it doesnt effect anyone but us that have to see it he doesnt do it all the time and I dont see the harm in it. If he were a bigger dog though I wouldnt allow it. IK know there are other examples of this this was mine. I dont think people should sweat the small stuff

I agree with you to a point, but, there is some stuff that people may think "at the time" is small stuff that doesn't effect anyone but them, but later on down the road realize it does or will effect others. the humping the toy, probably not, but other acts yes. just as an example, the humping the toy thing. Do you have any children? If not, how would you feel about it if someone you love came over with a child and your dog did that in front of the child. perhaps you wouldnt have a problem with that, perhaps you would, I dont know. or how would the childs parents feel about it. Wonder if the dog decided to start humping the child? .....lol. I guess just what im saying is think of possible occasions where different actions could later become a problem.

[R-Teddy]

Originally Posted by gemy

I do agree with this. If your dog walks out ahead of you, but immediately obeys your command to come to your side, that is fine. At some point in time you will need to reel in your dog very quickly.

But small dogs or not, they should not be jumping up onto strangers or friends legs, nor snarling, gnashing teeth, and or growling at passerbyes on the street. Nevermind their family!

Exactly. And I think some people are missing my point here. yes we all do some things now and then or our dogs do rather. and its ok. but this all started over me seeing post on other sites of people want to re-home thier dogs.

Yes, its up to the owner to decide what they want to train thier dog an what not to train them. And I bet most of those people I saw post of re-homing thier pets probably would say pretty much the same things say, well I dont think thats showing they are the boss of the family just because they do this or that. but the problem is, in the cases of small dog syndrome, most of these people ahve allowed thier dog to do too amny dominet thigs, and obviously it has gotten to the point of the dog thinking they are boss because for example, one ladies dog would bite her child everytime the child came near her ( the mother). so she had to re-home the dog because the dog kept biting her child. Well guess what, the dog is possessive of her, and likely he got that way because of mistakes SHE made in allowing him to think he owns her and that he is the leader.

I feel sorry for the dog in that situation because yeah, of course she has to protect her child, but most likely its her fault the dog got that way. not always of course, but often it is.

[R-Teddy]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

I saw a very happy pit who I think was not a puppy but very young adult and he got really excited to see me and my mom in the pet store and is owner had a pinch collar on I felt so bad for him he was takeing that thing so he could come say hi. I hate choke collars and pinch collars.

I HATE those kind of collars to.

[R-Teddy]

Breaking some of the MYTHS about Pit bulls

[VIDEO] Do Pit Bulls Really Lock Their Jaws? - Just Doggie

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by R-Teddy

Breaking some of the MYTHS about Pit bulls

[VIDEO] Do Pit Bulls Really Lock Their Jaws? - Just Doggie

I don't think anyone in this post said they did. I think what happens to make people think that is say like your playing tug a war with and dog or trying to take a toy most of the time there going to hold onto that toy as long and as hard has they can and obviously the larger and stronger the breed the better and harder they are going to be at it. Where I used to live we had a person down the street who I don't know if they were training them or what but would get the pit bull to hold onto the toy or whatever it was and then they would raise it in the tree so none of the dogs paws would touch the ground and I guess see how long he could hold on.

[Buster Brown]

Buster has always been a rather laid back dog and was friendly with dogs of all sizes and people. Lately I have been noticing Buster adopting some of the small dog issues. He has two girlfriends that he has play dates with and they both have SDS issues and I have been noticing Buster picking up a few of their bad habits like charging/barking at other dogs which Buster NEVER did before. I am now reevaluating some of his "cute" behavior and addressing these issues before they become a bigger problem. Thanks for the wake up.

[yorkietalkjilly]

My son had to try to part two pitties who had locked jaws on one another(meaning neither would give up his hold despite two men over them yelling, pulling/hitting them, trying to get their feet from under them) and continued to sustain their holds, wouldn't let go no matter what and only by lifting up on the collar and cutting off the airway of the one he was straddling did that dog finally let go of the other dog who another man was trying to control and finally did, using the same method my son used. These two, burly, strong, pitbull-savvy men in that dog rehab facility couldn't separate them without extraordinary means and Danny said it took over three long minutes from the time he got there to the fight, which had been going on for about 30 seconds before they could secure the dogs they were working with and get to the fighting dogs and then the other guy joined in for them to finally part them. They both had to go right to the vet for treatment.

What difference to the victim is it whether the dog's jaw would lock itself by some mechanism that doesn't exist or he won't let go by sheer force of will and determination - the latter of which seems worse to me? The truth is, once you are in the jaws of a highly aroused, vicious bully-type dog, it can take an enormous effort to get him to let go of his prey.

The fact exists that there are far too many pitbulls who can behave viciously when their prey-drive is aroused right along with so many others that are truly wonderful babies who are as gentle as kittens.

[gemy]

When I was training with my first working dog trainer, I got to see how they did employ I don't remember now what they are called, but they look like a rolling pin without the pointey handles. A Rottie and a Anatolian Shepherd went at each other! Not a pretty sight. That wooden thing was used to break the hold of the Rotties jaw. Oh and BTW both dogs were neutered, and fully adult and in an advance obedience class
And Jillie there ended up three guys keeping those two apart, and were big burly men.
I certainly did not see what started it off, but I followed my training and got the hell away from the area with Magic!

[gemy]

Jeanie I know in protection training, that I observed, the trainers teach the dogs to hold onto that sleeve that they wear. There are studies somewhere that measured the biting power or crushing power of different breeds, and pitbulls were right up there, along with many *mastiff* type breeds.

Magic could easily crush a human tibia bone, and maybe even a femur bone - but god be willing - I will never actually know that for sure.

[yorkietalkjilly]

These big, powerful dogs of all breeds can be frightening when fighting or attacking, especially those bred for their vicious qualities, including holding onto their prey until it stops moving or the dog is pried away, such as the bulldog type breeds have been and still are when they are bred for professional pit fighting.

Dogs bred for police or military work should be bred and trained with the ability to call them off an attack and any that don't or can't measure up to that skill should be placed in a home with a knowledgeable dog handler who knows the danger he's potentially undertaking and sufficient fencing as to keep the public safe.

But when those dogs carrying the genes bred for professional pit fighting get into the public sphere as "pets", it can be potentially very dangerous. I can't imagine anything crueler to do to a wonderful dog breed and the pets and humans who might come into their orbit than breed it for its more vicious, dangerous dog-fighting qualities such as sustaining a death-hold until the prey stops moving and then allow some of those dogs to get out into the public as pets for unwitting families to own!

[chachi]

Here is my take on pits and other large prey driven dogs. I know there can be trained well behaved pitts because of the show pit bulls and paroles on animal planet. Those arent the kind of pits I encounter out on walks and in neighborhoods. The ones I encounter bark angrily and try there best to get to us to attack us on walks. They are not trained and they want to hurt me and my little dogs that are just minding their own business. For this reason I will never trust a pitt with my dogs or I would never trust them around my child. I may have a prejudice but it is based off of experience and not ignorance.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

These big, powerful dogs of all breeds can be frightening when fighting or attacking, especially those bred for their vicious qualities, including holding onto their prey until it stops moving or the dog is pried away, such as the bulldog type breeds have been and still are when they are bred for professional pit fighting.

Dogs bred for police or military work should be bred and trained with the ability to call them off an attack and any that don't or can't measure up to that skill should be placed in a home with a knowledgeable dog handler who knows the danger he's potentially undertaking and sufficient fencing as to keep the public safe.

But when those dogs carrying the genes bred for professional pit fighting get into the public sphere as "pets", it can be potentially very dangerous. I can't imagine anything crueler to do to a wonderful dog breed and the pets and humans who might come into their orbit than breed it for its more vicious, dangerous dog-fighting qualities such as sustaining a death-hold until the prey stops moving and then allow some of those dogs to get out into the public as pets for unwitting families to own!

Yorkies were bred to break the necks of rats