By David Futrelle
Red Pill dudes agree that to be a true alpha male, you need to dominate the women in your life. Apparently the same rule applies to man’s best friend as well: Alpha males need to be the alpha dog to their own dogs — even if (especially if) these dogs are teenie-weenie cutie-wooties.
You sinply cannot allow your dog to walk all over you (perhaps literally), no matter if it’s a hulking rottweiler or an itsy-bitsty baby-wabie, the Red Pill Redditor calling himself Whisper warned his fellow would-be alphas in a classic post on the Red Pill subreddit.
“Just like any other canine,” he wrote,
small breed dogs need training, discipline and exercise. The dog must be taught to walk at a heel, sit, down and stay on command. Yet the major problem owners have is to recognize that all dogs need to work to earn food, praise and treats.
The trouble comes when owners break frame and give their tiny dogs unearned affection.
It has been my experience that small breed dogs are often lavished with affection, food and treats for no other reason except that they are small and cute.
Well, technically, dogs are “lavished” with food because they need it to live and starving your pets is animal abuse, but anyhoo, Whisper wants us to know that too much of this sort of coddling makes your tiny dog think you’re a big pussy.
Dogs do not understand this. In fact it makes them mentally ill. They interpret this cascade of affection without reason as submissive puppy-like behavior from their owners.
Uh oh.
In turn, they attempt to dominate and control their puppy/owners which can lead to aggression, separation anxiety and a host of neurotic behaviors.
Whisper then laid down the rules for TOTALLY DOMINATING your tiny dog.
1) If your dog sleeps in the bed with you, stop it. Now.
2) Teach your dog to walk at proper heel. Do not carry your dog. His paws are for walking.
3) Nothing in life is free. Have your dog work for food, rewards and especially affection.
4) Do not tolerate bad dog behavior because your dog is small. Consistently enforce all your commands.
Huh. What if you like having your dog sleep in bed with you?
I mean, yes, it’s good for dogs to have at least some rudimentary training and discipline and yes, this will make the dog feel more secure. But, damn, dude, spending your whole life worrying about breaking frame with your toy poodle? And being a jerk to a tiny creature who depends on you for everything? Just saying.
And now is the time in the post where I put up pictures of giant men with tiny dogs.
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I am not a small dog person, outside of Jack Russell terriers (BECAUSE EDDIE!!!!), but those pictures are hilarious and adorable.
IME lots of people share beds with big dogs too.
Is that a kitten with the dude in the red plaid and cargo shorts? Because from where I sit, it looks like a kit!
And he’s playing with it…getting it to chase a crumpled paper on a string. Awwwww!
Yeah, I think that’s a kitten in that picture.
Glad you found a picture of Hafþór Björnsson and his cute itty bitty doggy.
This is a Public Service Announcement: tiny dogs are not dogs. They are territorial, hyper-aggressive, yipping, ankle-biting demons. This has been a public service announcement.
I mean, on one hand, definitely teach your dog to heel, sit, and stay. On the other hand, do that so you can keep your dog safe, not for the sake of someone else’s insecurities.
Once again, red pillers don’t seem to know much about dogs. I certainly hope none of these idiots ever have dogs, as they would be terrible and likely abusive owners.
I love the pictures of big men with little dogs. I have a friend who is a big man, very tall and muscular, and he has a small cat. The contrast is sort of like the men in the photos.
Now I want to see the opposite: very small men with large dogs. Anyone have pictures of very short men with Great Danes or other large breeds? A quick Google search revealed dozens of results about big men with little dogs, and none that I could find about small men with big dogs.
I hope this asshole never gets near a dog of any sort in his miserable, misbegotten life.
(I’d add a picture of my current dog, cutest of all cute things, but I don’t know how.)
I really miss my dog. We had seventeen years together; and a lot of adventures. 🙁
Hello David,
I just wanted to let you know about a crazy group of MRA’s called the Pro Male Collective:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Egalitarianism/comments/dfvaak/i_have_decided_to_be_rude_to_feminists_and_fake/
Here is their “official” blog:
https://promalecollective.wordpress.com
It might be a good laugh to write an article about these crazy guys…
Semi-OT:
Since it was revealed in the last open thread that a fair chunk of posters like pits, here’s a 9-minute cartoon that stars one. And a kitten, too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZS5cgybKcI
It’s been out since January of this year, and it’s been getting good reviews.
My eldest worked as a vet tech for quite a few years (these days he’s a chef). He said he saw it over and over again. Middle aged men and tiny dogs.
We tend to think of women being the tiny dog fans, but the truth is that many men like the little guys as much as women supposedly do. In my experience, it isn’t a matter of women or men, but whether you like big or little dogs. There is a woman who comes to the dog park we go to. She has two huskies, an Irish setter and a golden retriever. She has complete voice control over all of them, (except the the retriever, who is still quite young) even in the excitement of going to the park. I had big dogs most of my life, but I am getting pretty old these days, so I have three dogs and the largest weighs 15 pounds. He is 20 years old this month. He still enjoys life a great deal, though he is nearly blind and his heart is in the process of failing. I am going to miss him a great deal when the time come.
To be fair that dude isn’t wrong. Dogs, no matter their size, need to be trained and exercised daily. Yes, idealy, they should “earn” their food by training, doing tricks or through games. It’s both healthy for dogs, allow for portion control and makes them more obediant and respectful. Having a little dog should not mean you can be more tolerant toward agressive, fearful or territorial behaviors. A dog owner should provide his or her animal with what it needs and in the case of dogs, it’s proper socialisation, intellectual challenges and regular exercise.
@eprovonost
I do find that dogs who are spoiled tend to be territorial, possessive and aggressive. It just so happens that tiny dogs are cuter and so they get a lot more slack than their bigger counterparts. Since they are almost harmless, a lot of their aggressive behavior isn’t properly dealt with and is instead normalized because they look “cute” even when they are angry.
@Redsilkphoenix
Aww. *heart melts* That was the origin of my pittie, sans cute kit. She was too gentle for fighting rings and was left to die. I wouldn’t expect Disney cartoons to address that tbh. Huh.
Remember when that Christian right-winger and professed child psychologist James Dobson described how he had to give his dachshund a prolonged beating with a belt, and advised people to do the same with their child, to ensure they followed godly ways?
This, though personally I’ve always preferred larger dogs (boxers and rottweilers especially). The biggest biters are usually of the small/cute variety, wereas the ones who will really hurt you if they bite are generally (not always) trained better.
Redpilldouche is close to sensible, though. Dogs do need a hierarchy and strict rules and boundaries. A lot of problem behaviour comes from a dog testing unclear boundaries. They consider their owners their pack as opposed to their masters, and in most cases giving them treats is a bad idea (it teaches them to beg, and then you get problems with drooling with dogs like boxers and St. Bernards).
Dog still needs affection, though. Don’t do it when they just did something bad, but don’t withhold it as a reward either.
Final rule: All dogs are puppies. No exception. There are few things more adorable than an old dog in an enthousiastic playful mood.
@galanx
This seems to be a relatively common thing, that fake psychologists observe an animal (dogs, lobsters, etc) and asume that you can apply something they think they see in it to humans. Of course, I disapprove of beating dogs for the same reason I disapprove of beating children.
Reminds me of Jordan and his lobsters (while meanwhile actual lobster experts say he’s wrong about lobsters as well).
My stepfather worked as a dog trainer for several years. He taught me a lot of things about them, including that you really do need to show them that you’re the one in charge, given that they’re pack animals and respect hierarchies. But this chucklefuck gets literally everything else wrong about them, including just how you go about being the one in charge.
STEPPING UP ON MY DOGGIE SOAPBOX:
Dogs don’t become aggressive because they’re spoilt, that’s bullshit.
Aggressive behaviour is for protecting your resources against competition, or scaring off threats against your own person (obvs the competition or threats might not be actual, but merely perceived, in an insecure animal). That’s the function of aggressiveness in animals. The function of aggressiveness is NOT to mess with humans for shits and giggles.
Sure, this isn’t a completely training-independent thing, because nervous dogs can be made to feel more secure through training, and when more secure less prone to aggressive behaviours (even though research in etology shows that fearfulness in dogs has a large genetic component, so one shouldn’t expect miracles). But the problem isn’t too little DISCIPLINE.
Now, with little dogs, it’s more common that they’re loud and quick to bark and make noise (which can be explained in part by the historical function of many small dog breeds as living burglar alarms), but it’s also more common (and this should not come as a surprise) for tiny dogs to feel threatened a lot. When a big dog meets a small dog, the situation is naturally more threatening for the little dog. Small dogs are also more often harrassed by people, like petted and cuddled and carried around against their will, which can be scary (imagine yourself having way, way bigger beings doing that to you all the time, not respecing your boundaries…. oh).
Big dogs not bred for any particular kind of work (i.e., the vast majority of dogs in our modern times) can also have pretty crappy temperaments, but when they’re scared, many big dogs are more prone to “freezing” and going passive than actually acting out (and a lot of the time, people don’t even notice that a dog is scared if they react with “freeze” and passivity). A big dog who really acts out is more likely to be put down and not pass on his genes.
But it’s really bullshit that spoilt dogs with no training would become aggressive just because; just because they like messing with people or something. People who actually deal with dogs that need to be rehomed because their previous human died and stuff like that (I have one such dog at home) meet many dogs who just didn’t get any particular training, but still had tons of love and companionship. The normal end result of no training but lots of love is simply a dog who doesn’t know any commands, but is still nice and friendly.
A friend of mine who used to be an army dog trainer (but has later distanced herself from the harsh methods used by army trainers) and has rehomed a whole bunch of “hopeless problem dogs” said that really, the dogs who are most difficult to rehabilitate are dogs that have been trained to obey with harsh methods, ending up scared of people because of the punishments they’ve had to endure; either just plain scared, or aggressive because they think they must defend themselves all the time. Untrained dogs who are still used to love and kindness are WAY easier: you just have to teach them various useful commands like you’d do with a puppy.
Lots of dogs are treated badly, though. Going to the US, it seems completely accepted to lock up a dog alone in a crate for most of the day. This is TERRIBLE for a dog, since dogs are pack/family animals, and even if they’re trained to tolerate some alone time, they shouldn’t be left alone for more than 4-6 hours a day at the most. And NO ONE likes being locked up for most of the day!
If a dog lives like that, she isn’t spoilt, but has a pretty terrible dog-life, even if the humans always speak to her in a silly baby voice when they get back home in the evening, buy her cute costumes for Halloween and what-not.
Just as humans, different individuals “tolerate” harsh circumstances more or less well, but it’s not WEIRD if the dog starts acting out in various ways once let out of the cage and allowed some human companionship in the evening, if they live like that.
It’s also really common for families with children to allow their kids to harrass their dog all day long, and to have zero respect for the dog’s boundaries. Once again, if the dog eventually acts out, the explanation isn’t “not enough discipline”.
All that stuff you hear about how dogs need so much discipline because they consider humans their pack leaders and they’re just like wolves and yada yada is either based on outdated and later debunked wolf science, or it’s just pseudo-science from start to finish. People adhering to these theories can still be very good at getting dogs to obey, but that doesn’t mean their explanations are correct.
DOWN FROM THE SOAPBOX!
Dogs, large and small, need training, exercise, and affection. My big guys, (see avatar) sleep on the bed with me in cold weather. Hasn’t made them agressive, or dominant to me, and does keep my feet warm.
I’ve had one dog who wasn’t trustworthy with strangers, and that was because something had made her incredibly distrustful of men. Let’s hear it for dogs who have been loved rather than dominated.
My parents had Dobson’s books on the shelves, and encouraged me to read them.
In totally unconnected news, I don’t talk to my parents.
It really is the same attitude as this guy towards the dogs. You, straight white male patriarch, are the authority over your household. Defiance of you is defiance of God and Nature, and any behaviour you don’t like is defiance. Children – and dogs – don’t act from distress or need or boredom. They do not have legitimate desires of their own, except for the desire to defy you, which is the root of sin and must be beaten out of them.
For their own good, you understand. It would be cruel to let a Pomeranian think it existed outside of your gracious permission. That would make for a dirty, sinful Pomeranian. Don’t you want your dog to go to Heaven?
Fair points, especially this last bit. But I feel discipline on part of the dog owner should not be understated though. With discipline, I mean being consistent in your behaviour, not punishment (in my native language discipline isn’t used as often in the ‘to discipline’-sense). If you don’t want a dog to sit on the couch when it’s got muddy paws, you should never have it sit on the couch (or always clean it’s paws when it comes back inside). It’s not a little human that you can explain why sometimes it is allowed and sometimes not.
Also, punishing a dog for something it did a while back is just really stupid. Poor thing doesn’t have a clue why it’s punished. It will just be confused and afraid because of the anger directed at it.
But yeah, the fear responses make sense. I did mean pack in the family sense, btw.
Unrelated but I also find it interesting that dogs do seem to realise something is up when words used to express anger with it are expressed in a soothing friendly way. People often think you can say whatever because the dog interprets the tone, but they do express hesitation and pick up the disconnect there. So you know, don’t do that. Gaslighting your dog isn’t cool.
Okay, even though I stepped down from the soapbox, I’m gonna give a little more elaboration and personal experience…
I’ve had a number of dogs, most (though not all, I have an English Setter now and had a German Shepherd dog from army/police bloodlines earlier) of the small variety.
One of my previous small dogs had some psychological issues, he was easily-scared and nervous, tended to go aggressive when he was scared, and could often act in “irrational” ways when he got himself worked up (like, irrational given what seemed to be his preferences and goals at the moment, if you get what I mean).
A decade ago, I was totally on the whole discipline-train, and used to train my dogs with a very experienced trainer of army and guard dogs. Funnily enough, I was a vegan already, but I had bought into the whole shtick that a shitload of “discipline” is for the dog’s own good. And I DID get results! Even Neurotic Dog had a much better outward behaviour when subjected to this obedience training, and I got so much praise from other people for my well-behaved little dogs.
In the end, though, I don’t think it’s a great accomplishment to make a nervous individual superficially “behave” out of fear of punishment. (I’m not talking physical abuse here, unless you count hard quick yanks at the leash when wearing an iron chain collar, which maybe we SHOULD count. But even if something isn’t that physically harmful in itself, it can be tough receiving it as punishment. Like, it would make one hell of a difference to a child if she hit her face on a bush while running around playing with her friends, or if she was slapped in the face by her mum for breaking some rule.)
We completely changed our ways with the dogs later on. With Neurotic Dog, we tried not to demand too much from him in the first place, and work AROUND tricky issues. Shower him with love. (AND exercise and FUN training of course!)
But yeah, I think dogs overall need a shitload more EMPATHY. Which they might very well not get, even if mum/dad always goes on about how cute they are in a baby voice, and even if they’re considered “spoiled” by other people.
That’s not really true, though. Sure, if you suddenly get ANGRY at your dog for going up in the couch when his paws are muddy, even though he can usually be there, that’s gonna freak him out. But you can totally tell a dog to wait by the door until his paws are clean, that one time his paws were muddy, or if he starts running in before you had time to say “wait” you can call for him to come back instead… that’s how we do it, all the time. We have almost no consistent rules, everything is just case by case, and it works fine.
Furthermore, research on how dogs learn words (although lots of people knew this already) shows that they can learn a lot, body language of course but actual spoken words too, just by being around their humans a lot and being talked to.