My chihuahua

[nancybotwinbloom]

My dog Is a good boy for 90% of the time.

Good with my daughter, good with my 18 month old granddaughter. No aggression in him at all and they play fine together and even when she was a baby and grabbed at him he just accepted it and ran away. Then came back for more.

He's very loving. Timid with other dogs and doesn't like to be petted by strangers but isn't aggressive if they suddenly stroke him without asking. More timid than anything.

But if I take him for a walk and we walk past men he growls at them like he is defending me! We were sat in the car park the other day and I was talking to another chihuahua owner out of the open window and he growled at him when he got a bit near. He never does it to women. He doesn't do it with my DH if he's out with him.

How can I get him to stop this. It's like he is protecting me lol but obviously I don't want it to continue.

Hopeful bump I know it's boring

I’m sure someone come along to answer your question but annoying though it is, I have to urge you not to allow your DGD and your dog to play fight. It isn’t fair to either of them, to are risking the child getting bitten and the tiny dog being inadvertently hurt.
Do the child’s parents know this is happening? I would regard it as gross negligence.

“play”, not “play fight” ffs. At 18 months your DGD has poor motor control, there is no way she can play with a dog and her face is low to the ground.

He's likely to be growling because he's frightened of them. He's warning them not to come closer. It's a fear based reaction.

He doesn't play fight with her.

When she arrives he jumps up at her to be stroked. Shes excited. He's excited. He sits by her and she plays with him and we give her treats for him. He's gentle with her.

Shes grabbed him a couple of times the way small toddlers do. We don't leave them alone together. Of course we wouldn't. Sometimes toddlers are quick to grab.

To be clear if I wasn't in my original post, the only time he growls is with me when I'm on my own if men approach me! Not the kids, not my DH, not when playing and playing is with toys not play fighting.

He's perfect except when I am on my own If men approach me.

Yes her dad is there the whole time.

@missmouse101 this is what I don't understand with him, he's never been mistreated or smacked when told off etc, we've just told him bad and ignored him but he's just protective of me if we are on our own.

Read about guarding behaviour, OP. I know little about dogs but I gather Chis are partial to this. Probably is some kind of way to reduce it.

@lljkk

Read about guarding behaviour, OP. I know little about dogs but I gather Chis are partial to this. Probably is some kind of way to reduce it.

Thank you I was looking for advice like this. I will read up now

Chihuahuas are often like this! I think it's very much in their nature so I'm not sure you'll have much luck training it out of them 🙈 but it's definitely worth having a read up on it anyway!

Maybe try a chihuahua specific Facebook group and see if any other owners have similar issues?

It’s definitely a mixture of both fear at what he feels is a threat along with him trying to protect you from that threat as well. I’ll growl at this big scary man who I don’t know to keep him away from us.
I’ve never owned a chihuahua but I do have Yorkies & one of mine sometimes does this. She never does it if my DH is holding the lead but she’s very much my dog not his.
She doesn’t do it to everyone so not sure what it is she dislikes about some men but I’ve never been able to train it out of her in thirteen years despite trying everything. None of my other dogs do it though one of my Skyes tends to curse & swear at anyone who stops to speak to her, barking, which unfortunately many people do as she’s a big blonde bombshell of a dog & people are curious at a breed most don’t recognise but think are glamorous .....little do they know !

Here he is. The little killer.

You say you would like to stop him from growling OP, but he's growling because he's afraid of men, for whatever reason, so whatever you try in an effort to stop him never tell a dog off for growling.

It's a warning, he's saying back off, which is fine. A dog that has been discouraged from growling has lost a vital part of his (warning) vocabulary. As pp said this sort of growling is fear based.

Learn to watch his body language, especially when your granddaughter is around him.

You need to be very careful about your granddaughter grabbing at him.

He might seem passive but if he's showing any signs of stress: yawning, lip licking, crouching, ears back or 'whale eyes', which is when the whites of the eyes show, then he isn't happy.

I’ve been told to distract. So always have treats ready and get them to do a command such as sit or down to focus their mind elsewhere from protecting you