Hi Linda,
Caesar is my first Chihuahua, although I've had dogs all my life. We
adopted him from the rescue that we volunteer with after he came in our home as
a foster last June. He was supposedly about 3 yrs. old, according to the
family of his owner that died.
The best thing we did was take him to obedience classes. He is one of
those Chihuahuas that thinks he weighs 80 lbs instead of 8. (He has a few
issues.) When my hubby and daughter wanted to keep him so badly, I was the one
saying, "All these nice dogs we've fostered, and you want to keep the crazy
one?" I told them that they didn't want a dog, they wanted a project.
We took Caesar and my other dog, Spike to class every week and then
practiced usually twice a day for the run of the 6 week course. It was a lot
of work, but it really made a difference. The first couple of classes, my
daughter had to wear gloves because Caesar would snap at her if he didn't want
to sit. After that, he seemed to realize that HE wasn't in charge and he had a
real attitude change. When we got to "down," I was afraid he would really
fight her on that one, but he went right along with it. When the weather's a
little warmer, I want to get out and pratice a little more with them. I can
especially see a change in Caesar when we do practice regularly. I think he
would try to be the tryant in charge if we didn't remind him who's boss.
One thing that was kind of funny was that after our first class, Caesar ignored
us for 2 days. He was SOOOO mad at us. He wouldn't even look at us. We just
laughed and he got over it.
Another thing that might help with your kids is if they can learn to put the
dog in the "dominant down" or submissive position. You might need a trainer to
show you how. We've found that with our foster dogs, they pretty much look at
me as the pack leader and they're not sure about my daughter and they might try
to challenge her. (My hubby is in and out so much, but I think with men, being
louder, deeper voices, etc., we haven't had many problems there.) We've had a
couple of the nicest dogs that growled at her, trying to assert dominance, and
she quickly grabbed them, before they knew what hit them, and put them into a
dominant, submissive position of lying on their side, calmly talking to them,
petting them, and not letting them up until she's ready to. Each time she's
done it, she only had to do it one time and we had no more problems with the
dog.
Jerri
www.beadbimbo.com
