i'm writing my future

Anežka (Agnes) Kašpárková

@lindsayetumbls @elisaintime @nellachronism

This speech-language pathologist taught her dog 29 words, and he can even form full sentences.

They do understand our words. This is not true of all domesticated animals (horses, for example, can only manage to distinguish a relatively small number of spoken commands…but boy do they know what you’re really saying).

They don’t understand “just your tone of voice” as a lot of people think.

As of 2016 the record vocabulary for a dog demonstrating understanding of words is over 1,000.

So if you give them a way to talk back, they’re going to use it.

The development of language skills is probably a side effect of domestication and of being kept in close contact with humans. A dog that was a better hunting partner would be kept and bred and over time they developed a better understanding of language.

In other words, dogs are pretty dang smart because we need them to understand us.

Graphite on paper

You see, if you have a mastiff, that’s upwards of 60kg of dog right there and a hell of a lot of bite force. You need to get a handle on that puppy while she’s still little, get her trained up before she’s too big to handle. So most people do!

Whereas a chihuahua is going to be under 3kg for its entire life. Most people aren’t bothering to train them because ha ha what’s the risk of a dog you can punt if you have to?

Unless you’re a poor vet trying to give it an injection or check it’s teeth.

People don’t bother to train chihuahuas because they don’t think they need to.

Plus! You can’t pick up and haul around a 60kg+ mastiff, so his body autonomy is relatively well guarded. When he growls, people listen.

People pick up and tote around the 3kg chihuahua all the time as they please. When he growls it’s cute and people take pictures. They ignore his need for space, pick him up like a baby, swing him around.

So you’ve got these little dogs whose body language is not respected, who are taught that if they don’t want something to happen to them, they have to fight for their space. And they haven’t been trained, so they do as they please.

People also don’t see small dogs as a threat, no matter how much they’re snarling or snapping, with the only exception being sometimes when small kids are around.

When someone gets a dog too big and/or energetic for them to handle, they know there’s a problem. Some people get weird about admitting they chose the wrong dog for their health/lifestyle, but for the most part they’re receptive to training. People with a small dog with severe aggression issues will deny there’s even a problem and continue to say they know best while putting themselves, their partner, any kids, and the dog in danger.

In addition, small dogs aren’t typically taught to respect anyone’s personal space. A 70lb dog jumping on someone is seen as the problem it is, but a 5lb dog jumping up repeatedly is seen as “cute”. They can also climb all over you if you’re sitting because, again, a 70lb dog jumping onto your chest is rude and can hurt but a 5lb dog doing that is “sweet” and if you don’t like it you can just toss them off, figuratively or literally.

So you get dogs with a who-knows-what mix of learning to be hyper aggressive to be listened to, who have zero bodily autonomy, who get hauled around in painful ways, and who have zero idea of boundaries both because they aren’t trained to ask and because no one ever asks them.

Small dog owners are also way less likely to seek out training help, let alone read up on behaviour issues. Other dog owners also are less likely to let their own dog put the small one in its place because the small dog could get hurt, the small dog is already showing high aggression and who knows if it knows bite inhibition, and the owner will freak the fuck out and call the big dog dangerous and the big dog is more likely to get in trouble or put down.

So in addition to the above, these dogs never face consequences.

It’s absolutely all this. I worked as a teenager to train my little dog - to sit, to heel, not to bite, to be well-behaved when he had food. And he was a goddamn treasure.