HELLO! I had the same problem with collars and leashes. Both my girls hated to use them, but Chihuahuas are very close to their owners and they love to please, once you put the collar, harness, leash, costume, whatever...PRAISE HER! They even behave differently when wearing a coat or a t shirt after that, they know they are special, I tend to hug them a lot more or give them treats. Trust me, after a few times of acting like they did something exceptional by walking with this accesories, Chihuahuas tend to get all happy to see a dress, coat or a leash. It took me a couple of weeks to convince my chihuahuas to walk and follow using a leash, now they love it. About food, tiny Cocoa gave us a bit of a bad experience when she was young, she had hypoglycemia, after that the vet recomended Small size Eukanuba Puppy. Has a lot more nutrients in smaller bites so , if she eats just a little, at least is good enough. We also had the choice of feeding her with schedule or give her access to a full plate of food while a puppy, so she never had problems with that again. I chose to allways keep her plate full for the day, now that she is an adult, eats about 1/4 of a cup split between lunch and dinner. But... she still has a full plate even now that she is an adult. Cocoa is 3.3 pounds and only eats Eukanuba, I boost her diet with dry fish as a treat. Now and then she can eat a bit of tuna too. The result is, she is skinny but very muscular, likes to run and chase a bigger chihuaha who is her best friend ( and cocoa kicks her butt running). And the last issue, Yes some chihuahuas are very protective and if not socialized as puppies might be aggresive adults. My cocoa and Mimosa are the best watch dogs! And I have had big dogs who just fall asleep while someone passes by. A chi will bark at something moving if is considered as a threat. Try to make her see that is ok to bark at odd things * may help u notice a thief*, but when she barks at your family grab her and put her close to the person, let her know is ok, that you know the intruder and this particular person is OK, is a friend. You need to do this as a Puppy, later will be a bit more difficult. So far Iam very happy with the behaviour of my girls, but they are a constant work of training and care, there is always something new for you and your Chi to learn.
Regards, Julia Mexico == --- In [email protected], "Melissa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > First, we're trying to use a harness for our dog, Peanut. We > originally tried a collar but couldn't find one small enough that > she couldn't take off. So then we got the smallest harness > available. Only now she hates it. She's been chewing at the piece > below her neck and if she keeps at it she'll eventually chew through > it. The only reason we're using it is to take her out to the > bathroom. When we first got her we tried taking her without a leash > and she'd run from us. Our yard isn't fenced in and she ended up in > the neighbors yard. So I could use suggestions on finding a > collar/harness that won't bother her or ideas on how to get her to > stay in our yard without running away. Right now we're using puppy > pads for the bathroom but I'd like to stop using them. > > Next, our dog shakes like crazy. There's nothing wrong with her so I > assume it's because she's cold. I have a shirt for her but somehow > she takes it off her and the sweater she has already chewed a hole > through. I'm not sure what else to do to keep her warm? > > How often do you feed your chihuahuas? We give ours Ol' Roy dog > food. That's what she was eating when we got her and it's > inexpensive so we kept with it. According to the bag she's not > eating nearly what she should. But she seems to just pick at her > food. She'll get a couple bites and leave for a bit, then go back > for more later. I wasn't worried until a couple weekends ago when we > went back to where we got her. It's a family member and we were > spending the weekend with them. They couldn't get over how small she > is. At 7 months she weighed about 3 1/2 lbs. Is that small? Do I > need to get her to eat more? > > And are all chihuahuas so.........agressive, protective or whatever > you want that word to be? Ours is a barker. Every morning the same > person comes to drop off their son and this dog barks nonstop for a > few minutes. And then she does it again when they pick him up in the > afternoon. If she is laying on my lap and my daughter (who is 3) > wants to sit with me, she'll snip at my daughter. 99% of the time > those two get along great, but there is that 1% when the dog is just > mean. I've heard some say that a chihuahua picks a favorite person > in the house and then "protects" them from everyone. Is that what is > going on? > " Lets talk about our wonderful little friends! Join today! " Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chihuahuas/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chihuahuas/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
