Any chihuahua owners here?

[leavingtime]

I'd be interested to hear of your experiences of owning a chihuahua pup/dog as I am interested in having one.

No children here now and a quiet household. Most I've known of have had another one as company. Would one be ok on their own?
Are they as wilful as I've read about? Easy to house train?

I'm hoping to get a pup from a calm, quiet chihuahua mum [locally] to hopefully have a good start.

@villainousbroodmare

images.app.goo.gl/CdqVwP1QT3Gz69T49 Above is true of 90% unfortunately.

I wonder why is it ok to spread this kind of shite of one particular breed?

I've met many small breed dogs, some are very yappy and keep jumping up on you constantly. Their owners never correct their behaviour. But I never see these breeds being slagged off.

RedHotChilliChips It does seem unfair to talk about them like that but the truth of the matter is that a hell of a lot of small dogs, and big dogs come to that, not just chis, are not trained properly.

Unfortunately, the way a lot of small dogs, particularly chis, are treated by their owners means that they are frustrated and unhappy, leading to yapping and aggression.

As I said in one of my pps my dog is a small breed, 6.3kilo at her last weigh in, and I've had so many nasty remarks from complete strangers along the lines of 'that's not a real dog' and remarks about keeping away from her because small dogs are aggressive.

Like you, I also believed that my dog should be trained like a Rottweiler, well almost, and as a consequence she is a pleasure to live with and be around.

You know you're training your dog well and that's all that counts. And when he's out and about he'll show people that little dogs are 'real' dogs, and well behaved ones at that.

@RedHotChiliChips

The devil dog comments really saddens me We have a 6 month old chi and he's just so lovely and great addition to our family. Before we got him the best advice was to train him like he was a Rottweiler and it's paid off superbly. Still, I have people laughing at me when I've told them I'm taking him to puppy classes, teaching him recall etc. People seem to think it's ridiculous. I guess it goes to show why they have a poor reputation as training them isn't seen a necessity.

We never used potty pads, just took him out several times a day and soon enough you'll start to notice a pattern in their potty needs. There were accidents but as he's so small, they were easy to clean. He's six months on Saturday and looks like he's now turning a corner as we haven't had an accident for a while. He never had an accident at nighttime though and I only had to spend 3 nights in the beginning to take him out for a 3am pee, other than that he has slept through.

He's also not chewy or destructive at all. He's never been biting the kids or the adults either. He sometimes mouths a bit but it is very gentle. He's very playful but not hyper at all . He also enjoys long naps in his crate, especially if he has his heat pad with him.

He absolutely loves meeting people and is everyone's best friend. He can be bit weary towards unknown dogs but not for long. His best buddies are a cockapoo and another lab puppy. I've gone out of my way to socialise him with other dogs, especially with big ones.

In the evenings, he sits on the sofa with us. In the beginning he had zoomies right after the dinner time but this is fairly standard behaviour for all the puppies. Now he flops on the sofa like the rest of us and doesn't move until the bed time . He might alternate between our laps and his snuggle sack but he's very content on just chilling the evenings with us.

He's also such a funny personality, very clever and loves to learn new tricks. Being an easy portable size too is a huge bonus.

This turned out to be a bit of an essay but it is frustrating to read people slacking of this breed and even more so being frustrated at those who have a chi but won't bother training them at all.

This is my experience too. Never any destructive behavior, not yappy, toilet trained easily and not hyper. Mine love people and adventure but also their long naps and snuggles. They readily learned tricks and the tiny, most outgoing one held his own in beginning agility training, flying over hurdles same as the big dogs ( to gasps of astonishment, lol).

Sad to hear the stereotypes being perpetuated. Couldn't ask for better. I just took the larger one out for an evening romp in the snow.