Hi Jimmy, I have had what some may consider a lot of experience with dogs. I grew up around dogs. Some members of my family are dog breeders with many ribbons and medals etc from shows such as Crufts and obviously all the Aussie shows. I will not say what breeds as anyone who knows dogs would know who I am talking about right away.
I have handled dogs since I was a little boy including walking packs of dogs that would weigh up to 45kg each when I weighed only 60 kg or so myself. I have worked as an obedience trainer helping well meaning but utterly inept dog owners since I was 16 up until I finished Uni as I have always had a small aptitude for putting dogs in their place so to speak, which is by my side with me leading them and not the other way around.
Dogs even small breeds that so many think are suitable for apartment living need a lot of exercise. 3 times a day is what a responsible owner should be aiming for. If you are at work, a dog walker who is properly trained should do a midday walk for you and you should do a minimum of 45 mins preferably an hour or more morning and night. If you are not prepared to do that, get a cat. Nothing wrong with cats. Dogs love to walk and to work. They live to serve man, not be pampered, that is the reason mankind had them around. Not because they look cute or jump up on you when you arrive home, which by the way is a clearly dominant behaviour and is a major no no in training an obedient animal.
In reply to your specific remark to get 2 dogs, all that will do is put you even further down the pecking order in the pack and now you will have battles between the 2 dogs until one becomes dominant over the other, with all your mixed signals making you the inferior in the pack. If you were truly dominant over all your dogs you could have 10 dogs and it would not matter to them. They will do what they are instructed to do.
Lets say you have a little yapper that lashes out to defend his mommy when visitors to the house approach. A common enough scenario with many small dogs, right? Mom of course hugs little poochie close and says there there boy, mommy is safe, its all ok.
What just happened is that that irresponsible owner just reinforced that behaviour (snapping, biting and barking) with a reward (affection). The dog, small though it appears to you, actually thinks he is the pack leader and is defending his position in the pack against a newcomer (your visitor). It has nothing to do with defending you at all.
If that Chihuahua or w/e was replaced with lets say a Dobermann Pinscher it would not look so cute would it. Imagine a Dobe lashing out at a visitor to your home whereupon you hug the dog close and tell it that mummy is fine. Doesn't look like such wise behaviour now, does it.
That is exactly what happens with small dogs in apartments. They are treated like little cute animals when in fact they are a pack animal that needs to know its place in the order of things. It is cruel to have even a small dog in an apartment as it will more than likely be treated like a little cutey than what it is, a dog.
Small dogs are exactly like big dogs in how they behave but what we see as cute in a small dog like jumping up and “defending” his owner with growling and snapping is seen as frightening in a large dog and therein lies the biggest mistake that people make with dogs in an apartment or indeed just in general. All those “cute” behaviours are just the dog thinking he is leader of his pack and that means you and the other humans are now his inferior. Small dogs behave so appallingly because they are treated as the dominant animal by owners who have no idea what they should be doing.
A well trained dog should accept his master leaving for work without a murmur as he should be the follower and not the leader. The dogs that go crazy or howl when their owners leave them alone are going crazy because in their minds they are the leader of the pack and one of the lower ranked dogs in his pack i.e you, is leaving without permission. Humans though interpret that as sadness, when it is just frustration and anxiety about their role as leader creating stress and often anger.
I stand by what I have written. If you insist on owning a dog in an urban environment get obedience training for the dog and all members of your family. Training that teaches inane and humiliating tricks is nearly worthless. Dogs like to work and contribute to the pack they belong to i.e your family, and most importantly they like to have a structure where they are not the pack leader as it creates stress for them having to constantly defend their alpha position against humans who do not even understand pack behaviour.
One moment you let them take food right of your hand at the table which to a dog is tantamount to saying to them they are they pack leader as in a pack the leader eats first and disturbing the leader while he eats is a direct challenge to his position and then the next you are yelling at your dog to control it in some way. Is he the leader or are you? He doesn't know as he is getting constant mixed signals. In most households the dog is the alpha and right there is the problem.
I am not a dog hater, very far from it. I would have 2 or 3 dogs in a heartbeat if I lived in a suitable property and had the time to properly exercise and manage them.
I liked training dogs and I enjoy seeing well trained and obedient dogs that behave in the correct and natural way that is better for both master and dog which is submissive not dominant. Dogs are servants of man and just because they look “cute” we forget that these are animals whose original ancestor was the domesticated wolf, with all that that entails.