Has anyone got a Chihuahua and can offer me Chihushua advice?

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We rehomed one on Saturday off another mumsnetter.
Shes 9 months old and is an absolute darling. Fully toilet trained, amazing with the children and incredibly affectionate.

We also have a Beagle who is 6 but we have learnt and picked up the kind of "traits" of Beagles, for example they love to be in pairs or have a friend and they have a tendancy to run off.
I'm just wondering if Chihuahuas have their own little traits and if anyone can offer any pearls of wisdom.

TIA

AWWWW i want her

Aww MW.
I would deffo recommend getting one to anybody.
She is brilliant!

this lady had a beagle too ...

The Chihuahua is a good companion dog. Courageous, extremely lively, proud and enterprising, it gives and demands affection. Bold and saucy, it moves swiftly to avoid being stepped on. Chihuahua's are strong-willed, intensely loyal and become very attached to their owners, even to the point of jealousy. They like to lick their owner's faces. It is undeniably suspicious of people except for its owner. When strangers are present, it follows its owner's every move, keeping as close as possible. For some, they may be slightly difficult to train, but they are intelligent, learn quickly, and respond well to proper, gentle (positive reinforcement) training. This breed may snap at teasing children, after all it is too tiny to get away. The Chihuahua must resort to his sharp teeth in self defense. It is not recommended for children. He can be noisy and may require patience to housebreak. Many owners simply paper train this breed. Be sure to socialize your Chihuahua as a pup to avoid excessive aggressiveness with other dogs as well as reserve with strangers. They tend to be fairly dog-aggressive. Chihuahuas generally recognize their own breed, but sometimes disapprove of other breeds. However, a "very" well-socialized Chihuahua can be friendly with strangers and other dogs. For example, Peanut (photo below) is the friendliest Chihuahua I have ever met. She was extensively socialized as a puppy. Her owner took her everywhere, including to work, every day and exposed her to a wide variety of people. Since she was so cute and small, she was passed from person to person all day long. She lives with two older Beagles and gets along with them just fine. But again, she was raised with them since she was a puppy, and was frequently taken to a house that has seven other dogs living there (five Pekingese, one terrier mix and one American Pit Bull Terrier) and two cats. Peanut did not even seem to mind my toddler running around. This is not typical Chihuahua behavior, but I tend to think that it was the socialization that made her the way she is today.

Oh wow!

Thats all very true from what we have seen so far. Except the snapping bit.
Thank you

I have had chihuahuas for 23 years now, 2 were/are rescues. Here are the girls i have now.

[IMG]i79.photobucket.com/albums/j126/sullysmum/4chi-1.jpg[/IMG]

Sorry it seems i cant get the picture up on here.

Hi Donna, we meet virtually everywhere :-) Leena with Scruffy xxx

My only advise is not to deal with it as if it were a baby, no matter how tempted you are considering their size. If you do, they get the wrong end of the stick and deal with you as if you were their puppy becoming very protective and therefore agressive.

As someone already have said, it's all a matter of getting them used to all situations, proper socialising and by correcting bad behaviours.

We always had chihuahuas when I was growing up. They're lovely dogs, but they can be yappy and snappy. They think they're about 10 times bigger than they are and they'll try it on with any other dog - alsatians and rottweilers included. They've got really strong personalities and they're very very loveable.

Why is it that small dogs feel the need to demonstrate huge dogs they are dangerous?

Have a tiny Yorkie who in her good times couldn't see a big dog in the distance without making a point she was ready for a fight! The other dog obviously had confused her with cow dunk but no, she was getting all worked up and with an attitude that seemed to say "leave him to me! I will kill him!" Stupid little dog.

But the best example of this was seeing the German Shepherd of some friends, walking around the house pretending to be oblivious to the fact he had a yorkie hanging from his neck!

drown it and get a proper dog?

joke. JOKE!

One of our little chihuahuas used to remind me of Scrappy Doo.

Hi Leena, yes we do,lol!