Chihuahua – the Cute Little “Lap Dog”

Chihuahua – the Cute Little “Lap Dog”

Our family has always been dog friendly, but we were always very partial to larger breeds. We had Dobermans growing up, a Shepherd - Beagle “mut” mix for 12 years, a Great Dane. But, never did our family ever consider a Chihuahua breed. We saw a small Chihuahua as a dog without real purpose to our family. The dogs always went with the kids. What good was a 5 pound Chihuahua ? I remember laughing at these small dogs and saying – that is not a real dog…. It’s more like a pet squirrel?

Let me correct myself – I was WRONG. In July 2007, my disabled son met a Chihuahua. I had no intention of bringing this dog home with us. But, here I was watching my child’s face beam – which as the parent of a severely disabled child did not happen often.

I knew NOTHING about a Chihuahua – so after bringing this little dog home with my son, I looked it up on the Internet. I found comments like:

• A Chihuahua can be strong-willed without the proper human leadership.
• Slightly difficult to train, but they are intelligent, learn quickly.
• A Chihuahua may be difficult to housebreak.
• May develop behavior issues, such as jealousy, aggression with other dogs or humans.
• A Chihuahua who is pack leader of their humans may snap at children.
• This breed is generally not recommended for children.
• Small breeds such as the Chihuahua tend to become snappish, yippy, protective, and untrustworthy Chihuahua's who are their human's pack leader tend to be fairly dog-aggressive.

I was shocked. This seemly sweet Chihuahua sitting on my son’s lap could grow up to be a snappy little monster who just might not let me near my own disabled son?

This is what I did:

I trained our Chihuahua similar to how I would train a large dog. Except for the fact I used my son’s lap and a backpack for every movement. I did not look at the dog for 6 months. I looked at my son, but not at the Chihuahua. The dog learned she was not to move unless she needed something or was spoken to. I was very picky about how people were allowed to address the dog. They could not get all excited and do any high pitched talking to the Chihuahua. Calm and social was the goal. Anyone who could not follow my rules, was not allowed to touch or speak to the Chihuahua. This was a wonderful benefit in potty training. Dogs clearly do not like to potty where they sleep. So, when the dog acted jittery or whined. I knew she needed potty, food or water.

I showed her the backpack, she would crawl into the backpack – I lowered the backpack to the grass and she would piddle. I praised her and life went on. Today, my son’s Chihuahua is 5-years old. She has clearly made some of her own rules now regarding who she likes best and gets all excited about. But, mainly, she has changed my son’s life. People did not speak to my non-verbal disabled son. They didn’t know what to say. Now, they greet his dog and ask him if he likes dogs and people tell him about their dogs. My son is happier because people notice him. And this all happened because of his little Chihuahua “lap dog” companion.

Because of their size, this breed tends to be babied and things we humans clearly see as bad behavior for a large dog is looked over as cute with a small dog. An owner who realizes this and treats the Chihuahua no differently than they would a large breed, becoming a clear pack leader, will get a different, more appealing temperament out of this wonderful little dog, finding them to be good little child companions.

I have also had many comments from our veterinarian about the good health of our Chihuahua. This breed is prone to rheumatism, slipped stifle, colds, and gum problems. Also corneal dryness and secondary glaucoma, do to their protruding eyes. Gains weight easily. This is a very small breed and it will not take much to poison them. Susceptible to fractures and other accidents in puppyhood. Some Chihuahuas have a molera, an unclosed section of the skull which can remain open throughout life. This makes the dog prone to injury. Has a tenancy to wheeze and snore, because of their small, short muzzles. Prone to stress, caused by the owners tendency to treat them like little babies.

All these facts are practically non-existent in my son’s Chihuahua. She does have some teeth and gum problems. By the age of two, I think we already had 4-6 rotten adult teeth. But all other common Chihuahua health problems are not a problem for us. We can only account this to one thing – fresh raw vegetables and her organic dog food. My son’s Chihuahua loves raw vegetables!

Avocado
Tomato
Yellow, red or orange bell pepper
Cucumber PEELS – not the actual cucumber?

Its strange, we have never fed our dogs any people food. And it was very importance my son’s Chihuahua did not have bad manors when I was feeding my son. My son also likes lots of fresh raw vegetables. Even though he is 10 years old, I must use a food processor to grind his food into a stage two organic baby food. The rule is, if the food falls onto my son’s lap, its belongs to his Chihuahua. If it is on his bib – she knows not to touch it.

Maybe this is why my son’s dog started clearly getting excited when we touched peppers, tomato or avocado! Is this why her health is better than average? Who knows, but it can’t hurt to try it out if your planning on bringing a Chihuahua into your family.