Why little dogs yap more than big dogs

Why do little dogs yap more often and louder than the bigger dogs? Alexandra Horowitz, the author of "Being a Dog" explains why. Following is a transcript of the video.

The reason that small dogs bark more than large dogs, I mean, I don't think it's been scientifically investigated as a lot of the questions that we have about dogs haven't.

But I would say that I think the suggestive evidence that because of their diminutive size, they need some other thing which makes them appear bigger, or formidable, or strong.

And making a lot of noise is one of the ways that animals always try to make themselves seem stronger or more formidable so that might be what little dogs are trying to do.

But I love when people get a little dog thinking that it's just like - I mean, I dont' love it, I hate when people get a little dog thinking it's just a toy, it's just easy to deal with and often they have more energy, are more rambunctious and are louder than a large dog.

We have this weird notion that little dogs are going to be toys and big dogs are hard to deal with. Large dogs are sometimes more mellower and they don't spend all day yapping and little dogs sometimes spend all day yapping and running around like mad so you know, know dogs before you take one into your house for the next 15 years.