11/04/2023
Have you ever heard the phrase “Small Dog Syndrome”?⠀
Often, people use it to refer to smaller breed dogs who display behaviours like barking, biting, growling, snapping, lunging, etc. People will say that that’s just how small dogs are or that small dogs are just trying to make up for their size.⠀
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The problem with this thinking is:⠀
😩 We don’t get to the root of why the behaviour is happening.⠀
😩 We end up not doing much to change and to help our small dogs out with their worries and fears.⠀
😩 We blame the behaviour on our small dogs and use punishment to stop their behaviour, stressing them out further.
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The truth is that small dogs aren’t simply more “aggressive” than dogs of other sizes. It’s the fact that when they show subtle signs of fear, stress, and anxiety, they often get ignored and therefore need to use more obvious signals like growling, barking, snapping, etc. to get their point across and get something scary to stop.⠀
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For example, a small dog may be regularly petted over the head by various people when they don’t want to be, and the dog may have started off with stress signals such as tucking their tail and licking their lips. But as that goes unheard, they now have resort to air snapping to stop people from coming over to pet them.⠀
It is so important to listen to our dogs and see their behaviour for what it is, rather than apply labels such as “small dog syndrome” which do not help us with understanding our dogs better and helping change how they feel as well as their behaviours.⠀
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Small dogs deserve to be heard just as much as bigger dogs. Their little “no”s and signs of discomfort need to be respected and taken seriously, rather than be laughed at by us. While cute and little, they are sentient beings who have feelings and the right to communicate them. 💜⠀
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Need help with your little dog’s barky, lungey behaviour? Book a call with me in the link in bio. 💌
ID: In a small hand-drawn style box on the top with text that says “It’s not small dog syndrome”. Underneath that is a larger hand-drawn style box with text that says “It’s small dogs regularly have their signals of discomfort and fear dismissed so they have to escalate to biting/lunging/growling to communicate”. Next to this text is an image of a brown chihuahua looking scared with a hand over the top of its head.
