Chihuahua temperament

[SaturdayGiraffe]

Have you ever met a friendly chihuahua? I’m asking because over the years I’ve met 9 of them, both in a pack and 1:1 and they, without exception have always hated me.
And I mean friendly to new people in the house, at the park etc, not their owners.

Our neigbour has one. Unfortunately we have shared access so have to walk through her garden to get to ours, and she leaves her door open. It always comes running out and goes for our dog. It's bitten him as well as me and my husband. She just laughs it off and refuses to secure him. If we let our larger dog do that to her I imagine her reaction would be very different

I hate seeing off lead chihuahuas (and jack Russells) when I'm out for a run. 9 times out of 10 the little shits will come hurtling at me, snarling and snapping. I guess their owners are blase because they can't do that much damage. My mum got bitten by one recently, she was just walking past it and it bit her ankle.

A few actually, I find that people who treat their Chi as a proper dog gets a proper dog. Same with most small breeds.

chihuahua's are dogs that have many misconceptions about them. for one, they are not delicate in the sense that they will not walk; in fact, they go for miles! my friend has four, and they walk for hours around places like Derbyshire or the Lake District.
People who dress them up or shove them in handbags spoil the dog; they need good training, and they are fine.
I rescued mine from a puppy farm, and he had such a bad life, including the 'owner' of the puppy farm trying to unalive him with a blunt instrument. As a result, he has brain damage, and we have problems with his toileting, but nothing that we cannot cope with. used to it now should have shares in puppy pads!
That aside, rarely barks, neither do our friends chis. I do not grab or try to pick him up he does not come to us often his trust was badly broken but he will have cuddles when he wants. i think most dogs hate being grabbed better let them come to you.
finally i do not really like young children with little dogs like this. often they grab them roughly or even drop them without meaning too obviously but playtimes can be a bit much for them. often rescues wont rehome to homes with under 10s for this reason

Poor little chap, glad he’s found a safe place with you.
I suspect all the chis I have met could have done with loads more exercise.

I have one he is such a placid beautiful boy, who just follows my Yorkie round wagging his tail. He loves new people and is also deaf. He is such a good boy on his walks too, meet Ronnie the 2 year old teacup x

I have a chihuahua friend, his name is Burrito amd he's lovely. Proper dude.

Known lots of cranky ones in passing.

And should add that little dogs are made cranky by being treated as if they're toys. Drives them mad , literally.

Chi x jrt. Very friendly.

They are snappy bastards. Give me a bigger dog any day.

We have a rescue Chihuahua cross miniature dachshund so two stubborn yappy breeds!

He's just over a year old and we all really enjoy having him however I do have a rule that he's a dog not a toy, he is crated at night and sometimes during dinner.

I've really worked on his training and got the bronze kennel club, he's never shown signs of aggression.

Loves all people and is good with other dogs, although we are careful with which ones he interacts with as he got chased into a river ( he hates water). He was off lead and a pair of springers came from no where. We are now very mindful of what dogs are around.

He loves chasing a small ball and playing tug of war, so is a very typical dog.

But I agree with others you need to treat them like a dog.

I do need to work on his reaction to the doorbell he clearly thinks it means go crazy and did jump up and nip a just delivered parcel that was in my hand the other day so the doorbell has become a trigger.

So we have just started some training on the door and will keep going until he gets it. I can see how I'd we didn't train him or would worsen but that's the same with any breed we had a gaint breed as a child and he was equally gentle but asks a nightmare with the doorbell.

One thing I have noticed is you have to keep practicing the training with them, including keep rewarding, he's not like a collie cross we had as kids who was trained then stayed trained and didn't need treats, although that could be his young age.

My dog Lulu cannot believe all the prejudice against Chis!

Granted she's only half Chi (and half JRT), but she's very friendly, and not remotely aggressive. Admittedly, that took training and socialisation, which we worked hard at from the momentwe got her at 8 weeks old.

We treat her like a dog. She's not treated like an accessory. She's well trained, well behaved, really affectionate and a joy to own.

The brown one is mine.

The white one was a sweet little girl we met the other day called Penny. She just came bounding along and loved every bit of fuss you could give her