In article ,
FurPaw wrote:
I don't have much experience with Dachshunds, but I'd bet the
same kind of thing happens with them.

I kind of hate to say it but I think dachshunds are just
naturally difficult little dogs. Hard to housetrain, too
darned bossy. That's not to say that it's not the owner's
responsibility to civilize the little, uh, "beasts," but
that they're somewhat tougher than average.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

FurPaw spoke these words of wisdom in
:

diddy wrote:

I agree about chihuahua's I've met more nasty than nice ones. But I
don't fear for my life from chihuahua attacks. If worst came to worst,
and i really feared for my life from them, I'd just step on em. problem
solved.

Some how I don't see you doing that, diddy.
I can't either. I can't imagine living in fear of my life from a chihuahua.
Nasty viscious animals, but deadly? No.
But if I were in fear of my life.. I would have no problems doing just
that.



My impression w/r/t Chihuahuas is that the problems lie more with
the owners than the dogs, when the owners don't train the dogs or
set boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and
tolerate snapping and snarkiness because they are "just so little."


yup

And just like any other breed, there is a range of dispositions.
IME with up close and personal knowledge of 9 Chis, 5 were
pretty stable and never snapped or snarked at anyone, as far as I
knew, 3 showed the potential in adolescence but it was controlled
by training, and one was a snappy, snarky little thing whose
owner was clueless about how to control her.

I don't have much experience with Dachshunds, but I'd bet the
same kind of thing happens with them.

probably

FurPaw

On Jun 29, 10:23*pm, "sionnach" wrote:
"Phyrie" wrote:

I don't know about this data but I do know that I've never, ever met a
dachshund who didn't bite me.

*A friend of mine is currently playing host to an old army buddy, the
buddy's wife and kids, AND their three dachshunds. (The buddy has just left
the Army & relocated to the area, and they're staying with my friend while
house-hunting.)
*My friend reports that one of the dachsies is refusing to eliminate out of
doors - I'm not clear on whether this is a new or old issue - and that
another bites him every time he attempts to play with his own two dogs;
hasn't broken skin, apparently, but has left bruises.

OTOH, I've known several quite nice dachsies at our local de facto dog
park - the one we currently see most often is very sweet, athough he doesn't
listen to his owner at all, and is a mild pest to female dogs he finds
attractive (he's intact).

I'm certain there are nice ones out there, somewhere. I've lived most
of my adult life on a tiny island, and simply don't know a lot of
dogs. But when I was younger, YIKES, those biteyface wieners scared
the crap out of me.

Phyrie (posting from GoogleGroups as my stupid NNTP server just won't
work anymore...)

On Jun 30, 8:27*am, FurPaw wrote:
diddy wrote:
I agree about chihuahua's *I've met more nasty than nice ones. But I don't
fear for my life from chihuahua attacks. If worst came to worst, and i
really feared for my life from them, I'd just step on em. problem solved..

Some how I don't see you doing that, diddy.

My impression w/r/t Chihuahuas is that the problems lie more with
the owners than the dogs, when the owners don't train the dogs or
* set boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and
tolerate snapping and snarkiness because they are "just so little."

And just like any other breed, there is a range of dispositions.
* IME with up close and personal knowledge of 9 Chis, 5 were
pretty stable and never snapped or snarked at anyone, as far as I
knew, 3 showed the potential in adolescence but it was controlled
by training, and one was a snappy, snarky little thing whose
owner was clueless about how to control her.

I don't have much experience with Dachshunds, but I'd bet the
same kind of thing happens with them.

FurPaw

--
The plural of anecdote is not proof.

To reply, unleash the dog.

When I was a kid I had one friend whose mother raised "teacup"
chihauhaus. I didn't know at the time what an awful thing it was to
breed these little things for size, with no regard for health,
temperament or anything else. And they were SMALL. They only weighed
a few ounces. They shook all the time. I thought it was from nerves,
but my friend said it was cold. They were so small they couldn't
maintain any body heat. I have no idea whether that was true or not,
but it was sad. They weren't very nice dogs either, snappy and
frightened. I guess so, when a crow could pick you up and carry you
away! Those little dogs scared me, but I don't know if was fear OF
them or FOR them. On the other hand, I had yet another friend whose
family raised Saint Bernards. Big, healthy, bred-to-improve-the breed
dogs. They were beautiful, and I had no fear of those gentle giants,
ever. You've never lived until you've rolled around a livingroom
floor with a about a ton of romping Bernards! Bliss!! A friend of my
mom's had a couple of nasty little miniature poodles that were bitey-
face dogs too. We got **** when they bit us. My mom's friend actually
said to me once that "Casey" gets upset when he has to bite us, so
stop making him do that. Hmmm, methinks I see a pattern here. Small
dogs=bad. At least when you're exposed to bad ones while young. I
wonder why I chose a toy breed at all? Well, the Cav's are the
largest of the toys....

Phyrie

A fair number of small breeds can be considered aggressive. Usually it's
a combination of being bred for toughness of temperament and being
horribly spoiled because, you know, they're little.

Most small dogs (including Chihuahuas and even dachshunds) can be
incredibly sweet, you just need to help them set parameters of what is
and is not acceptable, while not causing them to fear for their lives.
They ARE small after all.

My breeder (Min Pin) has a known biter. He's a tough little dog and he's
learned that biting gets him what he wants, so he bites. This is a dog
that I call Tony Soprano. All he needs is some chest hair and a few gold
chains.

The first time I took care of the kennel, "Tony" tried to bite me.
Instead of making a huge hairy deal out of it (which backfires big time
with tiny dogs), I just totally ignored it. I think this guy was used to
a) making a big impression on people and b) causing an uproar which c)
either resulted in getting him hurt by them or d) caused them to leave
him alone. So the bite was sort of a preemptive strike, half because he
wanted to and half because he was scared.

He was totally taken aback when I ignored him. What? No attention? No
dramatics? From that moment he decided he adored me and we're now great
friends. He's never even thought about biting me again. Go figure.