Wednesday, June 17, 2009

More little dog issues

I’ve been on the subject of little dogs the past few days, and I’m not quite through yet. I have more to add.

Discipline
“He’s so small,” says the owner of a little dog. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
Why must we always equate discipline with hurting our dogs?
Do we say that about children? No. Why? Because we don’t assume that disciplining a child has anything to do with physical violence.
And we shouldn’t assume that physical violence has any role in disciplining a dog.
Discipline can be given to dogs in many forms, depending on the situation and the dog.
If it’s a puppy who bites during play, appropriate discipline would be to take the toy away and ignore the dog for a little while, making sure it is displaying desirable behaviors before we give it any attention.
Discipline can be firmly correcting a dog’s behavior — giving a verbal signal like the word, “No!” to express that we disapprove of the behavior, and then asking the dog to do something else, like sit or lay down.
There is nothing about taking a toy away, telling a dog “No!” or asking your dog to display different behaviors and following through on it that would hurt a little dog.
What I’m saying is, there’s no good reason to not discipline a dog, whether it is 200 lbs or 10 lbs.
Stop with the excuses and start making sure your little dog is well-behaved.

Exercise
I’ve always thought it was well-known that big dogs generally require less exercise because their weight slows them down and tires them out more quickly, and vice versa.
The smaller the dog, the greater the energy, the more exercise that’s needed.
Walking Sensi with the Pomeranian was a great example. We’d walk a mile and a half. About half-way through the walk, Sensi would be panting and plodding along tiredly at my side. But the Pomeranian never tired.
She always struggled against the leash and had more energy to expel. I often felt I could walk her and exercise her all day and she’d never slow down.
So here’s my question: What is up with this dog-purse thing?
Why are we putting the greatest bundles of energy into purses where they sit and tremble and fill up with anxiety?
Why don’t we use that opportunity of being out and about to let those little dogs walk around on their little legs and burn up a fraction of that energy?
It would do wonders for the anxiety and fear they carry around. A tired dog is bound to be less worried and less anxious and more calm.
I hate those purses. Dogs have four legs that are good for walking. Little dogs, more than other kinds, need to use those legs to burn energy.
So let’s stop carrying around our dogs like they’re little babies and let them be who they are — dogs.
We’d have healthier, happier dogs if we could just treat them like dogs and not human babies.

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