Chihuahua Facts and Fictions

Chihuahua Facts and Fictions
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Author and Trainer


One dog expert jokingly said the Chihuahua would be a dangerous breed if large. There is some truth to this. These extremely popular toy dogs can have marvelous temperaments or they can be not nice.

Genetic influence is a major cause of dogs with not-nice temperaments in the breed. Tiny dogs have small litters and the high demand makes it easy for people to sell even carelessly bred Chihuahuas. To find a carefully bred Chihuahua, you need a careful breeder.

The other major influences on your Chihuahua’s personality will be what the dog experiences in life. That makes how you allow people to treat your dog important. Chihuahuas need to be rather courageous to cope confidently with a world so much bigger than them. It’s our job to keep that confidence a positive force rather than a self-defense attitude because the dog has learned to doubt humans will provide the protection such a little one requires.

Fearful dogs are not happy dogs and can be hard to handle. Chihuahuas are unlikely to cause terrible injuries, but disease transmission, infected dog bites and restrictions on your lifestyle certainly happen with aggressive Chihuahuas. Tiny dogs are highly susceptible to developing defensive aggression from fear if mishandled by children. With large dogs we have to worry most about what the dog might do to a person, while with the tiny dogs we must be extremely vigilant about what people do to the dogs. The person doesn’t have to mean harm by an action for harm to result from it.

Falls

Dropping a tiny dog can cause injury or death. You can greatly reduce the risks with certain precautions:

1. Support a dog with both hands whenever you lift or hold. Don’t let a young child lift or hold the dog in the air. Have the child sit down on the floor and allow the dog to get in and out of the child’s lap without restraint, or set the dog on the child’s lap after the child is seated on a sofa or other seat from which the dog cannot easily fall to the floor. A veterinarian can show you how to lift the dog without causing pain.

2. Condition the dog that support will be there for all lifting, and gently condition the dog not to struggle while being held. You do this by not releasing a dog who is struggling. Wait until the dog is calm and still before releasing. This conditioning is an opportunity to build your dog’s trust in you.

3. Do not permit your Chihuahua to threaten people or animals while being held. To cope until your dog is trained, you can gently shield eyes so your dog cannot look at the target, and restrain the mouth—but be sure the dog can breathe and pant.

4. Protect your Chihuahua from being lifted unsafely by anyone. Just don’t let other people lift your dog unless you know them well and know you can trust their skill.

5. Do not allow your Chihuahua to jump off furniture. Have a ramp or steps in place for any piece of furniture you are going to let the dog get down from without you doing the lifting. Ramp training is great for all dogs, and absolutely necessary for the tiny ones. Steps take up less space than a ramp, but they do require the tiny dog to make a jump. At times in the dog’s life, steps can cause too much joint stress.

Safety

Be sure to teach your Chihuahua to walk safely on leash, but use good judgment about when to leave the dog on the ground. Let the dog see that you can be trusted for protection. Use a chest harness to attach the leash to the dog, not a collar that would put pressure on the tiny throat. If you can’t find a small enough dog harness, a cat harness will work.
While training is important in large dogs so that we can control them, training is necessary for small dogs so that we can protect them. Don’t neglect training your Chihuahua just because you can exert control by picking up the dog. There are many situations for which that won’t work, such as when the dog is 20 feet away and barking at a big dog. And when a dog can understand your directions, the world feels a great deal less scary and more orderly to your canine friend.
Do not allow your Chihuahua to antagonize bigger dogs! Many tiny dogs have been killed this way. Check for safety as to the other dogs in the area before putting your Chihuahua into any situation. When there is a big size difference, even play can injure or kill a tiny dog. Pick playmates for your dog who are not radically larger.

People (especially children) tend to charge right up to small dogs and to put hands on them without hesitation. Don’t permit people to do this to your Chihuahua. Protect the dog’s space and get people to slow down—you can pick up your dog to achieve this. You can also set the dog up on a surface to be safe from people’s feet and feel less vulnerable, but make sure the dog can’t fall from there.

Medical Matters

Chihuahuas are prone to their share of physical problems that you need to know about in order to take the best care of your dog:

1. Luxating patellas—otherwise known as slipping kneecaps—are a problem in many toy breeds. Sometimes they require surgical correction.

2. The tiny trachea is vulnerable, which is why it’s best not to attach a leash to the Chihuahua’s identification collar and use a harness instead.

3. The Chihuahua’s skull has a unique shape that can create complications. Have your puppy checked by a veterinarian to make sure this is not so extreme as to cause your dog problems.

4. Tiny dogs can dehydrate and die quickly from vomiting and/or diarrhea. Do not delay taking a sick Chihuahua to a veterinarian. Be sure you have finances available at all times so that you will never be tempted to postpone medical care.

5. Tiny dogs have a poor ability to keep their bodies adequately warmed. You will need to protect your Chihuahua from the cold, and for the short-coated ones you will need to provide coats or sweaters. In some conditions a long-coated Chihuahua will need clothing, too.

6. Tiny dogs are easily overdosed on medications. Never give your dog any medication without specific instructions from your veterinarian. What is safe for humans is often deadly to dogs, especially tiny ones.

7. Feeding is more critical with tiny dogs. They need to eat frequently enough to avoid blood sugar problems, and they need more consistent diets. Junk food can do serious harm. There is little wiggle room in feeding when the dog is so small.

8. Don’t go for the lowest cost when it comes to spay/neuter or other care of a tiny dog. They need the closer monitoring provided by better clinics. When your dog is ill, you need a relationship with a well-equipped veterinarian who sees the dog for routine things as well. The quick help you need when a tiny dog falls ill is easier for the clinic to provide to regular clients whose records are up to date.

9. Groom your little dog daily. It’s great training for a dog who needs to be handled so much, and of course doesn’t take much time. The long-coated Chihuahua coat is easy to comb, and the short-coated dogs respond well to gentle massage/rubdown with your hands. This helps you detect medical problems early, too.

Training

Like all dogs, Chihuahuas need to learn to come when called. This is easiest if you are always a good place to come, with nice surprises such as tiny treats and fun games. Until your dog is reliable to come, use a leash—attached to a chest harness—anytime you call the dog, so you can help the dog learn consistency.

For many exercises, it helps to get on the dog’s level. That can be hard on your back for exercises such as heeling where you want to give the treat while the dog is in correct position. It is possible to work around this somewhat with creativity in tools and techniques. Target training, straight extensions for the leash, and elevating the dog for some exercises are some of the options. Trainers are creative.

Behavior and training are both affected by a dog being so small. The mechanics of how you work with the dog and how the dog works are different from those with a big dog. Be sure to greatly moderate your movements to avoid injuring the dog. Small dogs become “foot shy” because they have to work hard to keep from being kicked and stepped on. If you want a tiny dog to work in a particular position, make absolutely sure that position is safe and comfortable for the dog.

Housetraining is the biggest behavior problem with Chihuahuas, largely because people do not expect it to be a problem at all. People get a little dog so housetraining won’t be a problem. They expect the dog to use papers, pads or a litter box.

Actually, these dogs are hard to housetrain and some cannot be housetrained, particularly some intact males. People often adopt this breed specifically because they want clean houses, and inadvertently wind up with the dogs most likely to house-soil! It’s a terrible irony that forms the major reason for Chihuahuas losing their homes.

Female Chihuahuas have less urge to mark territory, which makes them somewhat easier to housetrain than males. For both sexes, the size of a house or even an apartment is such that using an out-of-the-way spot seems reasonable to the dog. Bigger dogs prefer bigger territories and would rather relieve themselves outdoors. For the little dog, your seldom-used guest room or living room seems far enough from the center of activity for a bathroom.

A solution that can work is to keep some rooms closed off. Your Chihuahua may never be able to handle the run of the whole house, but may be able to gradually work up from a portable exercise pen to one room, two rooms, and eventually a few rooms. This small breed doesn’t need a large exercise area. They’re “busy” dogs who get their exercise in any area!

Taking the dog outside for relief is the clearest route to a clean house, because it avoids confusing the dog about WHERE in the house is okay. It does, however, expose you to the risks of walking outdoors at all hours with only a tiny dog—no protection—if you live in an apartment. If you live in a house with a fenced yard, remember that this breed cannot defend against predators such as coyotes and hawks. So keep security in mind when deciding if a Chihuahua will fit your lifestyle.

Tiny dogs have difficulty using the outdoors in inclement weather. Think about the ground surface: nothing yucky for the dog to walk in or push through with a tiny tummy. In some seasons a Chihuahua will need a coat for every outing. The ability to cover an area for a potty yard would be great, too.

When you get your Chihuahua, housetraining needs to start immediately. The first place those tiny tootsies touch the ground at your home needs to be an acceptable potty location. If you must use the indoors because per your veterinarian the puppy is not yet immunized sufficiently, do that for only as long as necessary before moving housetraining to the outdoors—if you want a fully housetrained dog.

If you must use an indoor method permanently, realize this means giving the dog less house freedom indefinitely, and that more accidents, lifelong, are inevitable. Outdoors doesn’t have to mean a big back yard or long walks through the city. You can fix up a small potty yard just outside your back door, or a potty station on an apartment patio. Dogs need outings for other reasons, but they need chances to potty a lot more often than they need walks or playtimes. Small dogs in particular have less holding capacity and need frequent relief.

Do not postpone full housetraining. If you let the wrong habits get started, you will make things much more difficult for your dog. Wait to adopt your Chihuahua until you have the time and energy to devote to housetraining.

Little Dogs, Big Benefits

Chihuahuas are popular for some major, fantastic reasons. A Chihuahua body may be small, but the heart and mind are as big as that of any dog. They can be terrific friends.

Chihuahuas bark like other dogs, but the volume is less in tiny dogs than in larger ones. You are less likely to get sued over a dog bite, though that doesn’t mean you should be careless. Tiny dogs do much less damage to human possessions by chewing, though of course the dog could still get hurt from chewing the wrong things.

Tiny dogs are allowed in a lot of places if you carry the dog in your arms or a carrier. This does not extend to places where health codes prohibit animals, such as grocery stores and restaurants, and it’s up to a proprietor of any building to grant you permission or not—bringing your tiny dog in is not a right. Still, you get a whole lot more access with a teeny dog, which is why so many people are able to travel with their Chihuahuas.

Chihuahuas do not require professional grooming, and that includes the long-coated ones. A good comb and a few minutes a day will take great care of that coat, and the long-coated dog will have less difficulty staying warm.
For older people, people with health problems, and people who work or travel a lot; the Chihuahua is a breed others are likely to be willing to tend for you. This breed has been selectively bred for companionship, a job of great importance to humankind that the Chihuahua does wonderfully.