Ok, ok, not all big dog people have serious insecurities, in fact it is probably a relative few. Big dogs have their merits as do all dogs of all sizes.

...but...

I am an obedience instructor who mainly teaches basic and puppy obedience. I have seen so many men show up with their chests puffed out and sheepish women show up to class orientation with their big dogs. One man even asked at what point would he be shown how to teach his dog to attack. It is almost as if these people have "I need protection" written across their foreheads. A few of these people succeed and go on to competition level, but most of these people are never seen by us again after advanced beginner. A great many of these people don't want to take the direction necessary to properly train their dogs either. They seem to think that they know better which is just another sign of insecurity.

On the other hand, parents of small and medium sized dogs we teach usually come in happy and contented. They are usually much closer to their dogs and are more likely to treat their dogs like a member of their family. They seem to know ahead of time what obedience entails and usually listen to us more intently. They often practice more and their dogs perform better as a result. As a result, most of our dogs that continue to competition level are medium to small dogs (less than 60lb.)

Those people who have big dogs in our competition level training don't seem to pick their dogs for what they represent, but for the love of a particular breed. After seeing how much easier a small dog is to manage, however, "My next dog is going to be a small dog" is becoming a mantra among our competition people. These are just my observations over several years of training dogs.

Because I believe that a dog should be treated like a member of the family, I am turned off my anyone who keeps a dog merely for protection, a status symbol, or, God forbid, an outdoor dog. Unfortunately for big dog people, most of these neglected or abused dogs seem to be big dogs owned by big dog people (not including the much maligned, however unwarranted, pit bull terrier which is a medium sized dog). Those of you who welcome your big dogs into your family and treat them with the respect and love that they deserve, I applaud you and apologize for any insinuations I presented.