Indeed, there are people who refuse to train their large breeds and people who refuse to train their small breeds.
I remember the neighbors used to have a toy dog (looked like a Yorkie mix, but I was never sure) which they permitted to do its business in our yard.
My dog loathed that dog, but had never been able to get to the toy dog in time to make its displeasure known.
One morning, I noticed my dog was suspiciously quiet. I found it outside, her jaws surrounding the offending neighbor’s dog neck, looking at me as if to say “oh, it SOOOO deserves this, please don’t make me drop it, please don’t make me drop it.”
Needless to say I made her drop it. The toy dog ran back over to its yard and lost all compulsion to relieve itself in our yard (in fact, I never saw it in our yard again).
you have a well-trained dog! People don’t train their small breeds and tolerate stuff that wouldn’t be tolerated in big breeds — well, in one way it’s understandable — a nippy small breed can’t do as much damage as a nippy big breed.
I've read on some dog pots here that little dogs tend to be yappy and biting. My Yorkie has never done that - she is calm and quiet unless we are playing. She only barks if she sees something move outside and comes to my chair to tell me. Then, the barking is over.
I can't say I trained her this way - she just is this way. I wonder if it's because I am calm and we live in this house by ourselves. I got her when she was 5 weeks old so I am the only master she has ever known.
One night she thought there was something outside in the back garden and I heard an aggressive bark come from her which was entirely different than anything I had heard from her before. That bark meant “get the hell out of here or I'll come get you”. I told her, “It's okay”, and she gave up that bark.
I have a Yorkie story too.
Last year I took my dogs, one large (Sam), the other small (Gizmo),
on a river canoe trip to a camping area accessible only by water.
There were people there when I arrived
and before I got out of the canoe I asked if there were other dogs around.
I was told there were so I had my dogs on leash when I got on shore.
There were a couple of larger dogs around but everything was fine.
I headed to a secluded area to camp (away from the noisy drinkers)
and as I passed a tent I could hear the yapping of a little dog.
Had a great night with my boys and in the morning headed with them, on leash, to check the canoe.
As we turned a bend leading to the main camping area up ahead I could see a group of women
the next thing I knew an off-leash Yorkie belong to one of them tore off down the path,
making a beeline towards my guys while snarling and barking. He was out for blood. lol
The owner was chasing the yorkie, calling her dog to stop. She knew what her dog was going to do.
I held Sam’s leash short while allowing Gizmo to get ahead a bit.
My idea was that if the dog was going to attack it was better it attack Gizmo than Sam.
I figured the owner would catch up before too much damage was done
and I sure as heck didn’t want her dog going after Sam.
Sure enough her dog launched right into Gizmo.
When a pair of dogs fight, any other dogs in vicinity have instinctive reaction to become involved.
Usually backing one dog or the other. So Sam became agitated as well.
While I was concentrating on Gizmo and the devil dog, Sam backed out of his collar.
What happened next was so quick I couldn’t prevent it....
Sam grabbed hold of the Yorkie..wasn’t a whole lot of it remaining outside his mouth... and gave it a small shake.
At that point the women started screaming hysterically, the owner caught hold of her dog,
I straddled Sam’s back holding him to the ground and worked to open his mouth.
I was afraid he had already killed the Yorkie (it was no longer barking)
but in case it was still alive I was frantic to prevent further damage.
Even though her dog was off leash and was the aggressor,
Sam could face the death penalty for his actions.
My heart was sunken very low. I had little hope of a good outcome.
After what seemed like a long time but was likely quite short
I was able to open his mouth and she snatched up her dog.
While I was putting his collar back on
I listened for the bad news as they examined the little dog ...
but...
there wasn’t scratch on him!!!!
Sam had just held him in his mouth!, as grown dogs will do with unruly puppies.
The woman apologized profusely for not controlling her dog.
I was so happy about the outcome that I told her all’s well that ends well.
Over the course of that day [and many times since] I praised Sam for his restraint.
Later I walked the boys passed the lady, who was wisely holding her dog in her arms this time.
When the little bugger started to growl at the boys,
the lady told the dog to stop and asked if it hadn’t learnt a lesson from the morning.
Some other campers told me that the Yorkie had been nasty and aggressive towards them.
I’m thinking the owner had spoilt the dog..too much ‘snookums’ treatment.