25/08/2026
𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕤 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕥? 🐾
It’s an uncomfortable question, but perhaps one worth asking.
We see a tiny, fluffy dog charge towards someone, barking furiously, and people laugh.
“Awwww, look at him! He thinks he’s so tough!” 😂
🤔 But if a German Shepherd charged towards someone displaying exactly the same behaviour?
Suddenly, it’s 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔.
😆We see a little dog barking and lunging at another dog on a lead and it’s dismissed as “𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑜𝑔 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑒.”
🤔 But if a Mastiff did exactly the same thing?
People cross the road.
A small dog snaps or “nips” at someone and we hear:
💁🏼“Oh, he’s just a bit grumpy.”
But if a Doberman did it?
🤔 We’d be talking about a 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒆.
😁A Dachshund growls when someone tries to pick them up and it’s considered funny or “𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐲.”
🤨A Rottweiler growls when someone reaches towards them and suddenly they’re considered 𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆.
But here’s the thing…
The behaviour hasn’t fundamentally changed.
🛑A growl is a growl.
🛑A snap is a snap.
🛑A bite is a bite.
🛑Barking and lunging is barking and lunging.
🛑Fear is fear.
🛑Discomfort is discomfort.
⚠️And communication is communication.
⭕️Yes, the 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 can obviously be very different. A 5kg dog cannot generally inflict the same level of injury as a 50kg dog.
But that doesn’t mean the 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒈’𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒓, 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒇𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔.
➡️And 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 is where I think humans have developed a huge double standard.
We interpret behaviour through the lens of appearance.
🔻Small.
🔻Fluffy.
🔻Cute.
🔻Friendly-looking.
🔻Big.
🔻Muscular.
🔻Powerful.
🔻“Intimidating.”
Certain breeds are 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 to communicate discomfort repeatedly because we don’t perceive them as particularly threatening.
Others are 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 for the slightest sign of discomfort because of their size, breed or appearance.
And ironically, both groups of dogs lose out because of it.
The little dog loses because nobody takes their communication seriously.
🌀Their growling gets laughed at.
🌀Their barking gets ignored.
🌀Their snapping gets dismissed.
🌀Their boundaries are repeatedly crossed because “what are they going to do?”
Until one day the behaviour escalates.
Not because they are a “bad little dog”, but because their earlier communication repeatedly failed.
Meanwhile, the large dog loses because their communication is often given too much negative meaning.
↪️A growl isn’t recognised as valuable communication - it’s labelled aggression.
↪️Barking isn’t investigated - the dog is labelled dangerous.
↪️Reactivity isn’t approached with curiosity - the breed gets blamed.
And sometimes 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆, 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒈.
👀Perhaps we need to stop judging behaviour by the package it comes in.
Instead of asking:
“What breed is it?”
Perhaps we should be asking:
“WHY is this dog behaving this way?”⚠️
What happened immediately before it?
🤨Is the dog frightened?
🤨Frustrated?
🤨Overwhelmed?
🤨In pain?
🤨Protecting something valuable?
🤨Trying to create distance?
🤨Has their communication been ignored previously?
🤨Have they learned that barking, lunging, snapping or biting is the only thing that actually makes people listen?
🚨Because behaviour doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
‼️And dogs aren’t born knowing how humans expect them to behave.
👌𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚙𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚜, 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢-𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜, 𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚜𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚎𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢, 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚑, 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚙𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝.
And humans influence an enormous amount of that.
💯We choose which dogs reproduce.
💯We choose what traits we selectively breed for.
💯We control puppies’ early environments.
💯We decide how they are socialised.
💯We decide whether their boundaries are respected.
💯We decide how they are trained.
💯We decide whether fear is supported or punished.
💯We decide whether warning signals are listened to or suppressed.
And then, when the resulting behaviour becomes inconvenient…
We often blame the dog.💯
There’s another uncomfortable side to this too.
Sometimes our breed stereotypes become self-fulfilling.
❌We expect the tiny dog to be harmless, so we tolerate behaviour we would immediately address in a larger dog.
❌We expect the large, powerful dog to be dangerous, so we may handle them more harshly, restrict them more, become tense around them or punish communication earlier.
✴️Neither dog is being treated as an individual.
One gets underestimated.
The other gets prejudged.
Neither is fair.
💢𝚂𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚊𝚏𝚎𝚝𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 - 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚎 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚕𝚢.
Of course we need to recognise risk.💯
A large, powerful dog displaying concerning behaviour requires appropriate management because the potential consequences of a bite are greater.
That is responsible risk assessment.
😳𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑘 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑜𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔．
We can acknowledge physical capability while still recognising that every dog deserves their behaviour to be understood.
The Chihuahua growling deserves to be listened to.
The Dachshund snapping deserves investigation.
The little fluffy dog lunging at dogs deserves help.
And the German Shepherd, Doberman, Mastiff or Rottweiler displaying those behaviours deserves exactly the same thing:
💢𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭.💢
Because perhaps the biggest question isn’t:
“What’s wrong with that dog?”
Perhaps sometimes we should be asking:
“What has happened to this dog, what is this dog trying to communicate, and what can WE change to help them?”
Dᴏɢs ᴅɪᴅɴ’ᴛ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇ ᴏᴜʀ ʙʀᴇᴇᴅ sᴛᴇʀᴇᴏᴛʏᴘᴇs.
Hoomans did. 🐾
And if we want better dog behaviour, perhaps we need to start by looking beyond breed, size and appearance - and start listening to the individual dog standing in front of us.
