From a Small Dog to a Bigger Dog

From a small dog to a bigger dog.

By Christpina Vue

If you have had only small dogs, and you are thinking of getting a much larger pup, what should you consider first? Will they have different behavior or require different training?

I currently have a 5 year old Husky Eskimo Mix name Luna. Weighing around 43 pounds and given the fact that I’m a small person of only 4 “8” and she’s about 17-19 inches tall, I had to learn so many different ways to handle her. She’s such a handful, but I love her anyways. She’s officially my first medium size dog.

What is the difference?

All the other pups I’ve ever had before Luna were Chihuahua mixes. You can imagine they’re on the smaller size. Going from a 10-15 pound dog to a 43 pound dog was a big jump. I had to shift my whole mindset of having a small dog to a bigger dog and I automatically noticed the difference.

I didn’t expect Luna to be such a handful at first, because I kept hearing everyone say “bigger dogs are better than smaller dogs.” YES AND NO.

Here are some things I had to change or watch out for:

The attitude of thinking that my pup can get away from their naughty behavior.

• I’ve always allowed my smaller pups to get away from their naughty behavior because they were small and cute. However, Luna being a bigger pup she gets into things, she completely knocks them over or doesn’t realize her size. This caused me to accept the fact that I will have to train her on boundaries.

Watch out for behaviors around kids.

• The smaller pups were good with kids. They didn’t have much trouble with bumping into them, getting in their way, or scaring new kids. Luckily, with Luna she’s great with kids. However, she is bigger and sometimes would randomly knock kids over or play too rough with them. I had to teach her how to be gentle and play differently with the kids than how my smaller pups did.

LASTLY, HER FOOD EXPENSES!

• The smaller pups took 2 to 3 months to finish a 25 pound bag. However, Luna takes about 1 month and half OR LESS with a 25 pound. I had to learn how to budget and buy the appropriate size for Luna that can last longer than 1 month.

There you have it! Changing my attitude for the behaviors and learning the how to budget my expenses for different size dogs, were some of the things I learned after having Luna. If I had to do it again, I would stick to medium size pups.

But, I won’t lie to you and say it’s easier or better with a medium to bigger size pup. That is up to you to decide responsibly. Small mixed breed dogs are an option to consider as well. Do your research and ask owners who have had big and small pups on their perspectives.

DON’T GET THE DOG ON IMPULSE!

Christpina Vue is an obsessed dog lover who currently works at a Pet Emergency and Specialty. After working in the Pet Industry for almost 5 years, she is inspired to share her skills and knowledge with everyone she meets.