體格越小的狗狗攻擊性越強
Whenever you go for a walk in the park, you see dog walkers being dragged in all directions by their charges.
無論何時你在公園散步，你都能看到遛狗的人被狗拖着到處跑。Sometimes you come across something huge like a Great Dane leading the charge, but as often as not it is a diminutive terrier barking the orders.
有時，你會遇到像大丹狗那般巨大的犬類安靜地走在前方，但是通常體格較小的小臘狗會狂吠不止。Perhaps you have also seen funny videos of giant, docile mutts running in fear from pernicious pups.
也許你也看過一些有趣的視頻：巨大、溫順的雜種狗在驚恐中躲避那些兇惡的小狗。
We asked our readers if they thought smaller breeds of dog were more aggressive than their larger cousins.
我們詢問讀者，他們有沒有覺得狗的品種越小，越比大狗具有攻擊性。Priyanka Habib got straight to the point. "The tinier they are, the louder and crazier they are!"
普里揚卡·哈比卜斬釘截鐵地說：“狗越小，他們越吵、越瘋狂。”Alan Clark offered an explanation: "I think a lot of small dogs suffer from small dog syndrome. My teacup Yorkie is terrible for confronting big dogs."
阿蘭·克拉克給出了一種解釋：“我覺得很多小狗受到小狗綜合症的困擾。我的茶杯狗Yorkie在面對大狗時很可怕。"It is easy to imagine why "small dog syndrome" might arise. As Travis Souders put it: "They're not necessarily mean, but they're certainly more commonly defensive. How would you feel if you were so tiny?"
不難想象爲何會產生小狗綜合症。正如特拉維斯·桑德斯所說：“他們並不是有意而爲之，但是它們肯定更加具有防禦性。如果你的體格很小，你會感覺如何呢？”
David Sandberg of The University of Buffalo in New York and Linda Voss of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, UK reviewed the evidence for a Napoleon complex in a study published in 2002.
紐約州立水牛城大學的戴維·桑德伯格和英國普利茅斯半島醫學院的琳達·沃斯回顧了2002年發表的一份關於拿破崙情節的研究的證據。They concluded that "the psychological adaptation of individuals who are shorter than average is largely indistinguishable from others, whether in childhood, adolescence or adulthood."
他們的結論是：“低於平均身高水平的個體，心理適應性和他人並無二異，無論是童年期，青少年期還是成人期。"Still, what holds true for humans may not necessarily be the case for animals.
當然，對人而言的真理可能不適用於動物。In a study published in 2012, researchers lead by Andreas Svensson of Linnaeus University in Sweden tracked the behaviour of fish called desert gobies.
在2012年發佈的一項研究中，瑞士林奈大學安德烈亞斯·斯文森帶領的研究人員追蹤了沙漠蝦虎魚的行爲。Male desert gobies defend nests, so the researchers introduced "intruder" males that the "resident" males had to see off.
雄性沙漠蝦虎魚保衛家園，於是研究人員引入了雄性的“侵略者”，最終原住雄性魚羣被趕走。The team found that the smaller males "attacked sooner and with greater intensity" than the larger ones.
研究團隊發現，相比體格較大的雄性，體格較小的雄性攻擊頻率更高，情感更強烈。So if small desert gobies can behave more aggressively than larger ones, could the same be true of dogs?
因此，如果小的沙漠蝦虎魚比大的表現的更具有侵略性，狗也具有同樣的習性嗎？There is a bit of a leap from a fish to a dog, but as Paul Durnion says: "We see this in nature all the time. Finches and sparrows harassing crows and eagles. Cougars fending off bears. It's not uncommon."
魚和狗之間存在一點差距，但是就如保羅·杜昂所說：“我們在自然界總是看到這樣的現象。雀和麻雀騷擾烏鴉和鷹。美洲獅抵禦熊。這很常見。”Chunyang Li suggests: "Smaller dogs maybe feel scared about bigger ones, so they always try to protect themselves first of all, showing meaner behaviour."
李春陽暗示：“體格較小的狗可能害怕大狗，所以總是試圖保護自己。他們會率先展示出更加殘忍的行爲。”In a 2013 paper, Paul McGreevy of the University of Sydney in Australia and his team set out to explore whether dogs' outward characteristics are related to their behaviour.
在2013年的一份研究中，來自澳大利亞悉尼大學的保羅·麥格里維和他的研究團隊準備探索是否狗的外部特徵和行爲息息相關。Dogs were a good species in which to study this, McGreevy wrote, "because skull shapes and body shape are so diverse among breeds". His team tried to find out if dogs that had similar physical traits also behaved similarly.
狗是一個很好的研究種類，麥格里維寫道：“因爲種族間的頭骨形狀和體型多種多樣。”他的團隊嘗試着尋找是否擁有相似體格特徵的狗的行爲也大致相同。They found that shorter dogs had higher levels of "owner-directed aggression, begging for food, urine marking and attachment/attention-seeking".
他們發現，體格較小的狗有更高程度的“自我驅動攻擊性、乞求食物、尿標記及尋求關注。”In other words, based on this one study smaller dogs really are more aggressive, at least in certain circumstances.
換句話說，基於這項研究，體格較小的狗確實更具有攻擊性，至少在一些特定的場合是這樣的。
