Whenever you go for a walk in the park, you see dog walkers being dragged in all directions by their charges.

无论何时你在公园散步，你都能看到遛狗的人被狗拖着到处跑。

Sometimes you come across something huge like a Great Dane leading the charge, but as often as not it is a diminutive¹ terrier barking the orders.

有时，你会遇到像大丹狗那般巨大的犬类安静地走在前方，但是通常体格较小的小腊狗会狂吠不止。

Perhaps you have also seen funny videos of giant, docile² mutts running in fear from pernicious pups.

也许你也看过一些有趣的视频：巨大、温顺的杂种狗在惊恐中躲避那些凶恶的小狗。

We asked our readers if they thought smaller breeds of dog were more aggressive than their larger cousins.

我们询问读者，他们有没有觉得狗的品种越小，越比大狗具有攻击性。

Priyanka Habib got straight to the point. "The tinier they are, the louder and crazier they are!"

普里扬卡·哈比卜斩钉截铁地说：“狗越小，他们越吵、越疯狂。”

Alan Clark offered an explanation: "I think a lot of small dogs suffer from small dog syndrome³. My teacup Yorkie is terrible for confronting big dogs."

阿兰·克拉克给出了一种解释：“我觉得很多小狗受到小狗综合症的困扰。我的茶杯狗Yorkie在面对大狗时很可怕。"

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 defensive⁴. How would you feel if you were so tiny?"

不难想象为何会产生小狗综合症。正如特拉维斯·桑德斯所说：“他们并不是有意而为之，但是它们肯定更加具有防御性。如果你的体格很小，你会感觉如何呢？”

David Sandberg of The University of Buffalo⁵ 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.

纽约州立水牛城大学的戴维·桑德伯格和英国普利茅斯半岛医学院的琳达·沃斯回顾了2002年发表的一份关于拿破仑情节的研究的证据。

They concluded that "the psychological adaptation of individuals who are shorter than average is largely indistinguishable from others, whether in childhood, adolescence⁶ or adulthood⁷."

他们的结论是：“低于平均身高水平的个体，心理适应性和他人并无二异，无论是童年期，青少年期还是成人期。"

Still, what holds true for humans may not necessarily be the case for animals.

当然，对人而言的真理可能不适用于动物。

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年发布的一项研究中，瑞士林奈大学安德烈亚斯·斯文森带领的研究人员追踪了沙漠虾虎鱼的行为。

Male desert gobies defend nests, so the researchers introduced "intruder" males that the "resident" males had to see off.

雄性沙漠虾虎鱼保卫家园，于是研究人员引入了雄性的“侵略者”，最终原住雄性鱼群被赶走。

The team found that the smaller males "attacked sooner and with greater intensity⁸" than the larger ones.

研究团队发现，相比体格较大的雄性，体格较小的雄性攻击频率更高，情感更强烈。

So if small desert gobies can behave more aggressively than larger ones, could the same be true of dogs?

因此，如果小的沙漠虾虎鱼比大的表现的更具有侵略性，狗也具有同样的习性吗？

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 harassing⁹ crows and eagles. Cougars¹⁰ fending¹¹ off bears. It's not uncommon¹²."

鱼和狗之间存在一点差距，但是就如保罗·杜昂所说：“我们在自然界总是看到这样的现象。雀和麻雀骚扰乌鸦和鹰。美洲狮抵御熊。这很常见。”

Chunyang Li suggests: "Smaller dogs maybe feel scared about bigger ones, so they always try to protect themselves first of all, showing meaner behaviour."

李春阳暗示：“体格较小的狗可能害怕大狗，所以总是试图保护自己。他们会率先展示出更加残忍的行为。”

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，来自澳大利亚悉尼大学的保罗·麦格里维和他的研究团队准备探索是否狗的外部特征和行为息息相关。

Dogs were a good species in which to study this, McGreevy wrote, "because skull¹³ 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.

狗是一个很好的研究种类，麦格里维写道：“因为种族间的头骨形状和体型多种多样。”他的团队尝试着寻找是否拥有相似体格特征的狗的行为也大致相同。

They found that shorter dogs had higher levels of "owner-directed aggression¹⁴, begging for food, urine marking and attachment/attention-seeking".

他们发现，体格较小的狗有更高程度的“自我驱动攻击性、乞求食物、尿标记及寻求关注。”

In other words, based on this one study smaller dogs really are more aggressive, at least in certain circumstances.

换句话说，基于这项研究，体格较小的狗确实更具有攻击性，至少在一些特定的场合是这样的。