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feist noun A small, fearless dog, especially one of mixed breed prone to bark vigorously but considered of little value. [DARE labels this term “chiefly South, South Midland”]

1858 (in 1974 Harris High Times 147) [He] spread his fore laigs wide like ontu a bench laiged fice. 1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 94 A feist is one o’ them little bitty dogs that ginerally runs on three legs and pretends a whole lot. 1949 Hall Coll (Del Rio TN) = a little dog that stays around the house and keeps the varmints—foxes, coons, and so on—run off. [It] barks more than anything else, just a “scare dog” you might call him, a shade bigger’n a terrier ... He’s not got no hound in him ... him. He’s a mixture with a cur. 1983 Dark Corner OHP-11A He said when he would turn in at that road, there was a little white feist dog that would appear and follow him till he got to a branch, and when he got there, the little dog would disappear.