(And, the smallest dogs are the worst. They're usually off-leash and spoilt rotten.)

There’s a reason toy (and the very term is telling) dogs get to be like that: they’re not taken seriously as animals, meaning that they’re (A) treated as adorable little plushies or purse accessories without any boundaries a human need respect, and (B) regarded as completely ineffectual and harmless, and never mind that the passions and instincts of a wolf are still compressed into that wheezy three-pound frame.

When a dog develops the attitude that nobody else is going to defend them and isn’t taught discipline…that’s how you get little Chiquita biting the baby’s nose off or picking a fight with some rabid raccoon.