If I never hear the phrase "big dog in a small body" again it will still be too soon.

[sugar_for_sugar]

There are few things in dogdom I hate quite the way I hate the assumption of inherent inferiority of small dogs. Not only does it sell small dogs short (pun intended), it sells ALL dogs short. Dogs are dogs, and they're awesome, and one of the awesome things about them is that we've bred them in different sizes and styles to suit our myriad needs

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[sugar_for_sugar]

Yep yep! Dogs are all dogs, there are certain genetic tendencies among breeds but regardless of size or even breed, they're all still dogs.

If you want to think about some really scary connections, you can look at the war on pit bull type dogs (and other "vicious" breeds) and see a class/race war just below the surface. Think about how people tend to talk about pits/ POC, look at the framing of the Michael Vick case, look at the different kinds of breeds that have been scapegoated in this way back in history (this isn't at all new, there have been many... in the 20's, collies were highly suspect) and what was said about them (primitive, genetically evil, not like other dogs because X).

Or for a much more direct and knock-you-over-the-head comparison, you can look at the discourse surrounding obesity in dogs-- it exactly mirrors the Obesity Epidemic fat hatred we direct at fellow humans, especially human children.

It's terrifying. In our pets, we have not only creatures on whom we can lavish the surplus loving emotions that can't always find a human target, but also on whom we can redirect our hatred and bigotry in almost perfect safety.