Ok so this is not a huuuge problem, but it is annoying. So we own a 6 month old black lab named Loki who weighs about 50lbs. He's a great dog, housebroken, clicker trained, and doesn't chew. He's incredibly smart for his age and loves people. We've been taking him to dog parks since he was 4 months old to get him well socialized. At first, like most dogs, he was very timid in the park but has since opened up and will run and play with any dog there. About a month ago my roommate was dog sitting a miniature yorkie named Gatsby who weighed all of about 2 pounds. This was the first time we noticed Loki's "little dog complex" as we like to call it. Gatsby would play with Loki and jump at him and bark and it was completely friendly, but Loki would just try to sit on Gatsby or lay on him. Since then, if he's around a small dog less than about 15 pounds, he demonstrates the same behavior. He's not at all being aggressive with the little dogs, its just like he wants to dominate them since he's still so much smaller than a lot of the other dogs at the park. Usually the small dogs will play back, but sometimes their owners aren't so keen on Loki's behavior (however the should probably resign to the small dog area). My concern is that as Loki grows, which he will, more dogs will fall into the area of "small dogs" and the behavior could worsen. Loki doesn't have a mean bone in his body and I just can't figure this one out. It's also incredibly difficult to correct, since many times he's on the other side of the park when this happens. Has anyone seen or heard of similar problems? Thanks!
Meredith and Loki
Meredith and Loki
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