But the truth is, little dogs really do need to go on walks every day, just like their bigger cousins.

Daily walks have an important psychological effect on dogs. Small dogs need:

1. To get tired each day with a period of strenuous, continuous exercise.

2. To learn new things about the world through all their senses.

3. To know they belong to a healthy, safe social unit and to understand their place in it.

In other words, they need to experience acting like a dog. And dogs love going for a walk.

It's even more important if your pooch is overweight, as many smaller dogs are. Taking a tiny dog for a walk will give her all the stress-reducing benefits that it gives you. Her serotonin levels will increase and the levels of the stress hormone cortisol will go down, allowing her to naturally calm herself. She'll be happily tired after doing a proper dog's job of going on a nice long trek, so she'll be able to come home from her walk relaxed, happy, and content.

By walking with a trusted, calm owner (that's you), she can take her proper place in the family, and relax. Someone else (again, that's you) will decide when and where to walk and when to come home. You will be there to guide and protect her in any unusual situations. She'll get to act, and be treated, like the adult dog she really is.

So don't let her size fool you ? little dogs need their walk just as much as the giant dogs do. She may not be able to walk as far or as long as you can, but she does need her walks.

As a matter of fact, the tiniest dogs, teacup poodles and toy Yorkshire terriers, for instance, are the perfect pet for someone with debilitating arthritis. Your tiny pooch will love to walk to the end of the block and back, she'll get you out of the house and talking to your neighbors, and she'll give you hours of enjoyable, loving companionship.

Plus, these tiny dogs are also far too small to exert a dangerous tug on the leash, as even a well-trained larger dog might do when he hears the chirping of the neighborhood squirrel.

With all these benefits for both the tiny dog and it's loving human owner, who can resist taking their little dog for a daily walk?