armosd49 replied to your post “if ppl gave cats and small dogs the same amount of bodily autonomy...”
I also think if people used the same level of discipline with small dogs they wouldn't have small dog syndrome. Barking and biting at people. Lots of people let small dogs get away with stuff they would threaten big dogs with <b>euthanasia. </b>
yep, and almost all of that behaviour stems from lack of bodily autonomy. when a big dog growls at you and bares its teeth, you leave it alone. when a little dog growls and bares its teeth, you say it’s ‘cute’ and pick it up anyway, because you know it can’t hurt you.
small dog syndrome is like 50% the dog being unable to control the amount of interacting it gets with humans, which leads to them lashing out and barking/biting because it’s the only way it’s learned to get some personal space, and even then it usually doesn’t work half the time because people treat small dogs like children.
people are less so with cats because claws hurt, but the most prone to lashing out like that are the ones that are constantly forced to interact and their body language is clearly communicating they want to leave. cats are the introverts of the popular pet world - they love you, but on their terms. treat a cat with respect and they WILL come and love on you. everyone always tell me i have the nicest cats they’ve ever met and it’s like yeah cos i let them choose when they want to interact with me so they enjoy interacting with me and want to do it more often...amazing...
btw, training a dog not to growl can also result in this - with any size dog. which is how you end up with a dog with a bite history. if you punish the dog for communicating like a dog, it won’t know what else to do but bite when it’s unhappy.
