Hi and welcome to the group. I am Marsha in KY and I am owned by 8 chis and a bunch of other pets.
First, on leash walking, make sure you have a harness and not a collar for the leash. A small breed can do a lot of damage to their throat if they pull on a collar. Otherwise, training a chi for stuff like this is really no different than training any other breed. I could go through steps, but sound like you already know what to do...just not how to apply it to a small breed. Do the same things you have found successful with your bigger breeds, just make adjustments for size, such as distance of walks, size of treat rewards, ect. Naturally all breeds have traits that are common to a breed. For instance some breeds may be mischievous while others thrive on making their owners happy. Some like to be rowdy, while others are calm and laid back...ect. A chi is normally pretty active and hyper as a young pup. They can go either way as an adult depending on how they are raised. Their environment greatly impacts their personality. As a general rule though, they tend to be one person dogs...attaching closely to only one or a small handful of people and shying away from others. They act like BIG dogs in that they have little fear of things ten times their size. They can be noisy and if not taught from a young age, can be hard to teach to be quiet. They can often times be very difficult to housebreak. Some of that stems from owners not realizing their little bladders can't go as long as a bigger dog. Some of it stems from the stubborn nature of the chi. Healthwise, they are prone to bad hearts, bad knees, and hypoglycemia. Not a lot you can do preventively for heart and knees, but for hypoglycemia, make sure to either free feed or offer several small meals spread throughout the day. Welcome to the group and I am sure if you have any questions, there will be a ton of replies if you just ask! :-) Marsha Do not tell God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is. ----- Original Message ----- From: Toshia To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 11:33 AM Subject: [Chihuahuas] Just Joined Group Hi, my name is Toshia and I've just acquired a Chihuahua. I've never owned a small dog my entire life. I currently have 6 dogs, a husky mix, a lab mix, 2 dobermans, a GSD pup and a ch. All ae rescues of some sort. I've named the Chi Tater Tot and it seems to fit him. He seems to be housebroken and is crate trained. How do I go about training him for other stuff. Like I said before I'm used to big dogs. I'm afraid I'll hurt him because he's so little. I want to have him walk better on a leash but I don't know how with him being so little and low to the ground. Help?
