It doesn’t excuse the behavior regardless of dog size. A small dog can still pose a problem or threat in the right circumstance. They can catch someone unaware and harm them just as much as a big dog could, you’d probably let your guard down more easily around a small dog. My opinion is that an owner needs to imagine their cute small dog as a large breed and ask themselves if their behavior would still be acceptable, if it isn’t they need to reassess and retrain themselves and the dog before someone gets hurt.
My experience has also been that small dog breeds become very violent and neurotic because of owners’ lax attitudes.
Yes! There’s an (extended) family dog that is always described as a sweetie…who just happened to send two people to the emergency room on two separate occasions.
Yup. I have (thankfully minor) facial scars from the family Dalmatian who I encroached on when I was around 2-ish. I got stitches and the dog and I had an understanding regarding personal space after that.
Every vet (including both in my family) secretly hate little dogs for exactly the reasons you say. They are almost invariably violent little shits with no training, but they get away with it because they are 15 pounds. If they were 150 pounds, they’d had to be put down for being way too dangerous to handle by anyone. I’ve been bitten hard by a small dog who meant business though and it still sucked pretty royally.
Our older dog (a Collie /Terrier mutt) scared the hell out of me - and my brother - when he charged at us one day and growled at my brother with his teeth bared. At that point, we’d had him for ten years, and he’d only barked at strangers. We were roughhousing after school, and my brother was holding me up in the air while I was screaming and laughing. Our dog always bonded most with our mother, and I guess he was trying to protect me. We froze, and I whispered to my brother to put me down slowly, while we both made soothing noises to the dog to calm him down. We never played like that around him again.
The other unexpected dog behavior came from our younger dog, who was very friendly with everyone. His goal in life seemed to be to lick people in the face (by trying to jump as high as their heads to reach them, if necessary). If he couldn’t do that, then he’d lick legs, ankles, whatever he could reach. The first time my brother brought home a girl from college to meet the family, the dog ran forward to greet them - and promptly peed on her feet. She was wearing sandals, and we were all horrified and mortified - because he’d never done anything like that before.
We put the dog away in a room, cleaned up the mess, and apologized profusely before sitting down to get acquainted with this woman. Turns out his assessment was correct. My brother broke up with her a year later, met my SIL (who passed the initial inspection and was given our dog’s lick of approval). They’ve been married for 25 years now…
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All dogs I’ve known do the “no fighting” thing with family…can’t afford to loose a member of the pack /s . Also tend to freak out about guns in the house. The peeing might be a submission response, perhaps? Had a dog who was normally friendly wouldn’t let a guy in the house once; wrapped his paw around the guy’s leg, let him participate from the doorway I’ll accept the dog’s judgement in such matters
Well, she did turn out to be pretty mean, but she was in the doorway when he passed judgement on her. Afterwards, we wondered how he just knew. Wish he was still with us, so I could bring him along on dates!
Yep, re outliers; I’ve met two people who have had Golden Retrievers who developed “Rage” (Springer Rage), which is an incurable neurological condition. I think it must be some kind of seizure disorder. They are fine until they are not; they could be four or five years old, and snap for 5-10 minutes and savage anyone around them. They have to be euthanized.
Yeah. A friend’s got a little pit bull like dog and she’s an absolute sweetie. I tease my friend by calling the dog a “pot roast” because she’s just a spherical lump of muscle, but I’m always delighted to see her.
And yet I can’t come near 100% relaxed with her, and I can’t imagine, for instance, feeding her when no one else is around.
My current dog’s previous owner died, and he and the dogs (there was another dog too) weren’t found for four days. I asked no questions when I heard the story from the rescue group. I will say that if my dog had to eat me to stay alive after I died, I’d be okay with that.
They are almost invariably violent little shits with no training, but they get away with it because they are 15 pounds. If they were 150 pounds, they’d had to be put down for being way too dangerous to handle by anyone. I’ve been bitten hard by a small dog who meant business though and it still sucked pretty royally.
My brother broke up with her a year later, met my SIL (who passed the initial inspection and was given our dog’s lick of approval). They’ve been married for 25 years now…
I’ll accept the dog’s judgement in such matters
Well, she did turn out to be pretty mean, but she was in the doorway when he passed judgement on her. Afterwards, we wondered how he just knew. Wish he was still with us, so I could bring him along on dates! 
