Small dogs frequently get disparaged as "ankle-biters." Couldn't be more unfair!!! Obviously small dogs need to be able to assert their rights and protect themselves.
Just look at the size difference between me and my big sister, Leny:
I'm barely as big as her head!!!!!! But I need my space and my turn, hence, ham-hocking. I don't bite ankles. If I did that to my Dad or Mom they'd launch me across the room. And dogs don't exactly have well-defined ankles. Neither do cats. So it's ham-hocking!!!! That's the top of the leg, like where I'm going after Weetzie in this picture:
It works and it gets the attention of whomsoever gets ham-hocked. How else can a chihuahua get the attention of a huge sharprador??? Or a perverse siamese??? So that's ham-hocking in a nutshell, or should that be a pecan shell since that's the orchard here.............