My border collie's depressed - he has an underactive thyroid. With meds he's normal, doing crosswords, barking at the postman, decorating the spare room, all typical collie activities. Without meds he just sits and mopes.

As far as I can tell, the majority of humans need something to compensate for some bodily malfunction, whether its contact lenses or statins or a walking stick. I don't see why dogs, who have been with us for thousands of years, should be any different!

"Violent Maltese" sounds about as fearsome as a "viscious nip" (as in bite, not the originator of the wrestling!).
Clearly, Chirac needs a pug to learn how much a doggie can adore a human.

ANyone who keeps a dog who is becoming increasingly violent and unpredictable deserves whatever they get.

Little animals can give some nasty bites. I had to make en ER run from a feral kitten. Mostly for the rabies vac, but it still tore my arm up pretty good and hurt like a motherfucker.

Let me get this straight...the former president of France was taken to the hospital after being mauled by a depressed poodle?

See, this is why we make fun of the French.

Conan: now now lets not be harsh, according to Wikipedia those monsters can weigh in at up to 7 pounds!

And they have sharp teeth. They can really damage your ankles!

I don't wanna hear about it. I've got a 12 year old Doberman with anxiety disorder. Anything that even looks or sounds like a thunderstorm sets her off on a three-hour running around whining and panting freak-out.

I live in New England on a busy street. What do you think a plow sounds like at 2 AM to a dog?

There are a number of psychological disorders in dogs that seem to be straight up biological problems- the rage syndrome that has been cropping up in spaniels especially is one such. It seems to be more of a form of temporal-lobe epilepsy than anything else.

That said, behavioral problems due to not knowing a damn thing about dogs (likely if it was a gift) are a better bet here. And while a small animal can indeed deliver a big mauling if it feels like it, I can't say my first reaction wasn't laughter.

Some dogs get like that when they get old, or I've heard of it when people move, the dogs just lose their minds, attack their owners, hurt themselves like breaking teeth chewing up the house. Drugs can help keep them calm sometimes, usually in the end they just get put down rather than let them go on harming themselves.

Okay, I laughed. To be fair, though, Maltese can be good fighters. My Maltese from childhood, huge for a Maltese at 10 pounds, was attacked by a friend's senile Saint Bernard/Wolfhound mix. When we got them apart, my little guy was covered in blood, none of it his. They're fast little suckers.

Momof3 is right, though. Maltese are gentle dogs, and if it's so sick it's committing 'vicious, unprovoked attacks', why do you still have it?

"Only in France would a dog be described as clinically depressed."
I don't think it's only in France. There's plenty of pet shrinks in the US. Not to mention special pet bakeries. So "only in France", I don't think so.