Photo by Phyllis DeGioia

Smaller bodies need less space to get adequate exercise, make smaller messes, shed less, and are easier to control. While a 60-pound dog may be able to exert 180 pounds of force by lunging against a leash, the force from an equally determined 10-pound dog would be more like 30 pounds.

It’s in everyone’s best interests to provide all dogs with good training and management. It takes less strength and skill to train and manage a toy dog—provided you are able to treat the dog gently and without anger—which means that they seldom get their owners into trouble. Even their barking creates less noise!

Perfect Dogs for Children?

Parents need to know that careful breeders of toy dogs are reluctant to place them in homes with preschool children. There is a good reason for this, not just breeders being picky or “mean.”

Children under 5 to 7 years of age lack the mental capacity to fully understand that their actions can harm the dog. The child may obey and treat the dog gently when supervised, leading parents to believe the child understands. When the parents are not directly watching, though, it’s normal for children this age to experiment. Preschoolers honestly do not understand they are hurting or scaring the dog.

Parents get complacent or just plain busy, and the dog realizes no one is going to stop the child from the harmful actions. The parents are not as concerned about the child being injured as they would be with a large dog. The dog becomes defensive, and soon you have a dog who behaves aggressively around children. This is even more likely to happen if the dog comes to the home as a puppy.

Parents often think things are going well because the dog never acts upset. This is typical of many dogs, though. Quite often, they are passive until they have had all they can take. Puppies don’t have their defensive instincts yet, and the behavior changes when those instincts mature at several months of age. The pup who has felt pain or fear from a child decides if no one else is going to put a stop to it, the now-adolescent dog will.

If you have preschool-age children, think carefully about adding any dog to the household. If the family’s time is spread as thin as in many cases these days, it can be best to wait until the children are school age. Another option with preschool children in the home is a mature dog who has learned skills with children, parents who diligently follow safety precautions, and dog-handling education for the children. It’s best if the dog is neither toy-sized nor large.

Is a Toy Dog the Right Companion for Your Large Dog?

If you keep your dogs separated much of the time, and put them together only when you are carefully supervising, size differences may not matter. Some breeders group their dogs for exercise, keeping compatible dogs together and separating those who can’t safely be allowed free play.

On the other hand, if you want your dogs to live together after they’re grown and trained, size matters. Obviously if a large dog and a toy dog fought, the toy dog could quickly be wounded or killed. What’s less obvious, though, is that with a large size difference, even play or an accidental collision running around the house or yard can have the same results.

Injuries to tiny dogs interacting with large dogs are common. If you have a large dog in the family, this may not be the right time to adopt a toy breed. If you have a toy breed and want another dog, your best bet is a dog no larger than medium-sized.

Whenever there is a significant size difference, you’ll want to make sure the temperaments of the two dogs are the best possible combination to reduce the risk of fighting. Opposite sex dogs usually have the least conflict.

The Toy Dog in Public

We like our toy dogs to be confident, but some of them are downright foolhardy. It’s not uncommon for a toy dog to start a fight with a large dog in public and get hurt or killed. So don’t allow your toy dog to behave aggressively toward another dog—or a human, either!

This is a dangerous habit, and it’s easier to change in a toy than in a large dog. But because the dog is small and any bites would be small, people may become complacent. For your dog’s welfare, train the dog just as you would a larger dog. Treat your toy dog like the real dog with the real brain that really lives in that little body.

Start training early with a well-run puppy class where dogs are not allowed to jump on each other. Teach your toy dog the same moves the big dogs learn, including the skill of walking on leash.

If at any time you choose to let your toy dog pull on the leash, attach the leash to a nonrestricting chest harness rather than to a collar. These little ones often have delicate tracheal structures that can be damaged by pulling against a collar. Don’t put a toy dog on a tie-out, either. Dogs forget to be careful when they are overexcited, and will hurt their own throats by lunging against an attached line.

There are times to pick up a toy dog. Their portability is one of their neatest features. Work with your dog to learn together how to pick the dog up safely. Have your veterinarian show you if you are not absolutely certain how to do it. Always use both hands. Dropping a toy dog can cause injury. Don’t allow anyone to pick up your dog who is not skilled at doing so—especially children.

Work with your dog and sweet, supervised children so the dog will learn that kids can be nice. Please do this before the dog ever experiences a child who is rough! First impressions are lasting impressions, and many a dog has developed a permanent bad reaction to children due to one misbehaving child. It can happen that quickly. Sometimes you can repair the damage to the dog’s temperament by many sessions with gentle kids, but sometimes you are never able to fix it.

The same goes for your toy dog and strange adults. Supervise all interactions your dog has with children, strange adults, and larger dogs, or make sure someone who knows what they are doing provides supervision. The dog is forming beliefs about the world with every experience. Make them good experiences, and also consistently show your dog that if something starts to go badly, you will intervene. This is how you prevent a dog from becoming aggressive out of fear. You protect the dog so the dog doesn’t have to do it.

Routine Care

One of your most powerful tools in conditioning your toy dog to accept handling happily is to handle the dog all over every day yourself, in a grooming session. With small dogs it doesn’t take long, and it has powerful benefits whether the coat is long or short. Include tooth-brushing as directed by your veterinarian in this routine. Expect that your toy dog will need routine dental cleanings under anesthesia. You can decrease the frequency of these procedures with regular home care.

If your toy dog is a breed that requires professional coat grooming, use a groomer you can completely trust to treat your dog safely and considerately. Start grooming visits at a young age so the pup can get used to the process as the coat grows. If you use a grooming table with your dog at home, be extremely careful not to let your toy dog fall or jump off the table.

Don’t allow your toy dog to jump off furniture, either, no matter how easily the dog seems to do it. This is harmful to joints, both in the risk of acute injuries and in long-term damage. Place ramps next to any pieces of furniture you decide to allow your dog to use, and teach the pup to use them right from the start. Teach the dog to use the ramp to go up, too, since age will take away the ability to make that upward jump. But down is the most critical to teach first.

Whenever there is any change in behavior, even a subtle one, be on the lookout for an orthopedic (bone or joint) problem. Dogs instinctively hide their pain, and you might see aggression or some other behavior change without realizing the reason. Be alert for this so you can get your dog properly checked and cared for by your veterinarian. Some conditions will respond far better if treated quickly; prompt action protects your dog.

If you do see an orthopedic problem—limping or other signs of pain—do not let the dog run or jump until your veterinarian has examined the dog and given the okay on full activity. Use a crate or a leash to protect your dog from getting overexcited and making the damage worse. You can sometimes save your dog a surgery or permanent disability with this precaution. Do not trust a dog to “be careful.” The dog doesn’t understand the need to be careful, and will not notice pain when excited.

Housetraining

Sometimes people choose toy dogs because they think toy dogs are easier to housetrain. The opposite is the case. While you may be able to make indoor potty arrangements for a tiny dog that are impractical with a large dog, the price for this is often lifelong accidents indoors.

If you housetrain the toy dog to use the outdoors, the dog may conclude it makes no sense to go all the way outside when a corner of the living room isn’t being used for anything else. Dogs also seem to have trouble understanding to go to the designated indoor potty area at the other end of the house, when there’s an out-of-the-way spot much closer. It’s all inside the house anyway, right?

We don’t know exactly what the dog thinks, of course, but the outcome is that toy dogs tend to take longer to housetrain, even though they mature at a younger age. The males can be more difficult to housetrain than the females.

It’s metabolically hard work for little canine bodies to maintain an adequate body temperature, so they need more food for the size of their bodies. Not as much as many people feed them, though! An overfed dog has more trouble with housetraining.

The toy dogs also have an increased sensitivity to unwise food choices, with results anywhere from diarrhea to life-threatening illness. This not only endangers the dog’s health, but makes housetraining more difficult.

If your toy dog does become ill, dehydration can happen much faster than with a larger dog, so you’ll need to consult the veterinarian quickly. Some people try limiting the dog’s water in an attempt to improve housetraining, but this is not a risk to take with a puppy or toy dog.

Short-coated toy breeds as well as some long-coated ones need to wear sweaters or coats outdoors in cold weather because they can’t keep their bodies warm enough without this help. You’ll need to teach the dog through gentle handling, possibly treats, and of course making sure the protective gear fits properly and doesn’t overheat the dog. Protective clothing can be essential for housetraining toy breeds.

Be patient, and increase the dog’s area of indoor freedom gradually, room by room. Make sure the dog is completely successful at housetraining in an area before expanding it. Respond to any relapses in housetraining by returning to a smaller confinement area. [see Housetraining Small Dogs.]

Irresistible!

Give your little dog the benefit of the right housetraining help, belief that humans can be trusted, training to behave safely in public, and the conditioning to calmly accept handling necessary for care. You’ll have a great companion who will be welcome in situations not open to larger dogs. 

The toy breeds are extremely popular, and rightly so. They suit more homes than any other size. When a well-trained toy dog needs a new home, there are waiting arms, often among friends or family members. Being irresistible pays off for the toy dogs!