[quote]imhungry wrote:
Chrysalis wrote:
Not to buck the trend here, but we have a little chihuahua cross and he is a great little guy. His name is Cujo, and he bosses my Great Dane around. I have not been a little dog person for the most part, but I did have a sweet pomeranian for fifteen years, a rescue dog, and now we have this little chihuahua cross.
The problem with small dogs is not the dogs. It’s the people. A small dog is still a dog, and has all the same instincts and behaviors as big dogs. People, however, seem to think that small dogs are not really dogs, and treat them like toys and don’t train them to behave. They coddle them and don’t teach them their order in the pack…
JMHO.
Chihuahua’s have Napoleon complex’s more than any other small dog, IMO. I’m not a fan.
My parents have 3 Pomeranians and Two are rescued. They’re cute, but insane.
I need a drink…oh, and a steak.[/quote]
My little pom was a sweet guy, and was not allowed to bark excessively. He was very well trained and had exquisite manners. He was extremely smart and attentive. His vocabulary was around 50 words. His favorite word was “cheese” and even if he heard the word on TV he would dance around with joy, expecting his favorite treat. If you said, “Bang Bang, it’s a driveby” he would drop and play dead (I had a 13 yr old obsessed with rap music at the time.)
By way of contrast, my mom had a dog from the exact same parents, and she was a nightmare. Bossy and demanding and yappy. But my mom thought she was adorable and thought the barking was sooo cute. My dog often stayed there, but knew the difference between my mom’s rules and mine. At her house, he was allowed on the furniture. At my house, he was not. At her house, he could bark and run up and down the fence; at mine he was allowed to bark only if someone came to the door, or came into the yard, but only until he was told to hush.
Small dogs are simply big dogs that have been bred down. They think and behave exactly like big dogs and you have to treat them as such. Chihuahuas are very brave and strong willed because they were bred to kill rats that were about as big as they are. The original chihuahuas were tough, hardy little dogs. It is one of the oldest documented breeds. They tend to be very bonded with their owners and wary of strangers. They are fiercely protective of their owners and their territory. The ones today have been bred to be tinier and tinier and many have health problems because of it.
Our little guy, Cujo, walks two miles or more a day, along with the Great Dane. He is a solid piece of muscle, and weighs more than most chihuahuas, 11.2 lbs when weighed at the vet today. He does tend to be a little noisy, but I am working on it, and have taught him the “quiet” command. I’ve only lived here with him six months but he is catching on pretty well.
Anyway, I have never met a dog I did not like, just crappy owners who have not taught dogs the basics, like housetraining!! I feel for ya, Candy. My mom is getting a little senile and her dogs are a bit of a problem. One is very high strung and she does not make him feel like she is his pack leader, which makes him even more nervous and prone to yap. The other dog is a very sweet but untrained shitzu/bichon cross who was never appropriately house broken. It is “cruel” in my mom’s opinion to crate her…yikes.
99.99% of dog problems are really owner problems. People get the cute little puppy, then get pissed with the puppy craps in the house, barks, and chews things up. I used to work at the humane society here in town, and was amazed at the number of people who dumped their dogs because they were not housetrained. One woman actually told me that she assumed that the dog’s natural instinct would be to go outside to eliminate!
Ok, off my soap box!
