Tired of your chihuahua dog ignoring you when you give him an order? If your little companion still doesn't understand "NO", there is no way for him to learn to relieve himself outside the house, he doesn't sit or stay still when you put the collar on him or you want to cut his nails, you have come to the right place! !
On our site.com we give you the keys to learn how to train your chihuahua correctly. Despite being one of the most possessive and dominant breeds, training him to teach him the basic commands is not so complicated if we know the guidelines that we must follow.
Characteristics of the chihuahua
In order to delve into training techniques for Chihuahuas, it is essential to know the character characteristics of this breed of dog. Thus, the Chihuahua is characterized by having a dominant and possessive character, so it is not in his nature to be submissive, he is a born leader. Likewise, he is capricious, energetic, intelligent and very active, always ready to play with his owner and other dogs of the same breed.
Knowing this, what attitude should we have to properly educate our chihuahua?
- We must show an authoritarian attitude without being aggressive and always stand firm. If we decide that we do not want our little companion to climb on the sofa, we must stick to that decision and not let him do it even once. Remember: the leader of the pack has to be you.
- Authority must always be accompanied by security. Even if you remain firm in your decision, if your Chihuahua perceives insecurity in you, he will continue to believe that he is the leader.
- We should not pamper our chihuahua or provide him with all the whims he wants. Don't let his sweet and tender face lower your guard, if you want your dog to be well behaved you must teach him to earn those whims.
Being authoritarian is not synonymous with being aggressive. This means that we should never yell at our dog, hit him or educate him through negative conditioning. With this, the only thing we will achieve is a fearful Chihuahua, always on the defensive and even aggressive. Especially small and toy breed dogs are highly sensitive to this type of behavior and quickly become distrustful, giving people a negative association.
The importance of socializing
Now that we know how we should deal with the education of our chihuahua, where do we start? Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of training any dog is socialization. Although all breeds require a correct relationship with other dogs, people and the environment, it is true that there are dogs with more predisposition than others and, therefore, that require more attention at this point.
As we commented in the previous section, Chihuahuas are dogs that prefer to interact with dogs of the same breed and, therefore, if we do not socialize them correctly, they can take aggressive or surly attitudes towards other dogs. To prevent this from happening, we must start the socialization process as soon as possible.
During the puppy stage is when dogs are most receptive, create their personality and adopt a series of behaviors that we must guide if we want to obtain a happy, he althy and, above all, balanced dog. To socialize our chihuahua correctly we must take into account the following factors:
- To begin to associate our dog with other dogs or animals of other species, we will have to select calm, well-mannered and balanced dogs. A bad choice can trigger a negative encounter, with serious consequences that can mark our chihuahua for life.
- Don't let its small size influence you. Although it is one of the smallest dog breeds in the world, the Chihuahua is perfectly prepared to interact with larger dogs. Denying him that relationship will only cause him to become aggressive when he comes across those races.
- Prepare the meeting in a pleasant environment, where you feel comfortable and safe.
- Although small, the chihuahua is not a toy. Why do we say this? When it comes to socializing it with children, it is essential that we make them understand that they should not treat it like their toys, they have to respect it and take care of it. Not making the little ones aware can cause our chihuahua to have a bad experience with them and, therefore, be afraid of them, even biting them to defend themselves.
For more details, consult the following article on our site where we explain the techniques to socialize your puppy with other dogs, people and animals around him.
Set the rules
Before continuing with the training of our chihuahua we must be very clear what we want to teach him and what rules we want to set for him. In this sense, it is crucial that you meet with your family or the rest of the members who live in the household and together you decide on these points.
To train a dog correctly it is essential that all members who are going to participate in its training agree and act in the same way. This means that you must all use the same words to teach him the commands and be equally firm. If one person uses the word "sit" and the other "sit" to teach the Chihuahua to sit, she will never internalize the command. Also, you must decide which spaces in the home you have access to, whether or not you can get on the sofa, meal times and walks, etc.
Remember that dogs are routine animals that require fixed schedules to achieve inner stability. On the other hand, being such a possessive and territorial breed, it is essential that you provide a space just for him, where he has his food and water bowls, bed and toys. If you don't mark his territory, he will believe that he has free access to the whole house and, again, will assume that he is the leader of the pack.
Correct misbehavior
Whenever your chihuahua breaks the rules or engages in bad behavior, don't yell or scold him, just say a resounding "NO" and correct the behavior. We will establish a sanction according to the fact, such as the removal of a toy, stopping the game, leaving the park, etc. Of course, this sanction cannot last forever, nor can we establish it without having corrected the conduct as soon as it was produced.
Show him where to relieve himself
Teaching your chihuahua grooming habits is very important both to keep your home very clean and to have a polite dog. If your Chihuahua puppy is not yet vaccinated, you will need to teach him to poop on newspaper or dog sanitary pads. To do this, you must follow these steps:
- Select the corner you want in your house so that he can relieve himself there. Then lay out several sheets of newspaper or large sheets of sanitary pads.
- Within a few minutes of eating or drinking water, take your puppy to that corner and place him on the paper.
- Wait the necessary time until he urinates or defecates and Praise him enthusiastically. If your vet allows it, offer a treat as a reward for good behavior.
- After a long sleep, you should also take your puppy to the newspaper to relieve himself.
- Remove the dirty newspapers and put in new ones. When you change the leaves, you should rub the dirty ones over the new ones so that they are impregnated with the smell of their urine and remember that this is where you should go. Another trick is to leave one of the dirty sheets on top of the clean ones.
Chihuahuas have much smaller bladders and excretory systems than larger breeds, so the waiting time between eating or drinking and urinating or defecating is much shorter. During his first months of life you must have constant surveillance to be able to teach him to relieve himself and correct him every time he does not do it in the selected corner.
In this sense, if we catch our chihuahua urinating outside the newspaper, we should pick it up gently and immediately take it to the toilet corner so that it continues there. Remember to disinfect the area to eliminate the odor and prevent it from relieving itself in that space.
Once the puppy has been vaccinated, we can start teaching him to to relieve himself outside the home:
- As with the newspaper, ten or fifteen minutes after eating or drinking water, we will take our chihuahua for a walk to relieve himself.
- Every time he urinates or defecates during the walk, praise him and reward him for his good behavior.
- If your puppy doesn't want to urinate during the first few walks, there is a very effective trick that won't fail. Since Chihuahuas are very territorial dogs, try to take them to areas where other dogs have urinated. His instinct will lead him to mark the territory on the previous mark.
- Remember that you should also take it outside after sleeping.
During the first few months you should take your Chihuahua for a walk four to five times a day and, little by little, reduce the walks until the animal learns to control itself and waits to go out to do your needs. As you can see, the outings are closely associated with the times you should eat per day. If you still don't know the optimal amount of daily food that your chihuahua needs, don't miss this article.
How to train a chihuahua: basic commands
Once the rules have been established and the learning of cleanliness habits has begun, we can begin the education process. We will start with the basic commands: "come", "together" and "stay". To better educate the Chihuahua, professionals recommend the use of the clicker. If you still don't know what it is or how to use it, find out in this article about getting started with the clicker.
Teaching my chihuahua to come here
Without a doubt, this is one of the first commands that we must teach our dog, regardless of the breed. If we do not have a clicker, we can use treats. To begin with, we will consider the following points:
- It is better to practice this command outside, in a large, fenced-in area; the home is full of distractions like toys and food.
- We will place our dog at a point in space and move away from it. We will put a treat on our feet and firmly say the word "come" (or the one we have selected). The animal will automatically go to pick up the food.
- When he has gone, congratulate him enthusiastically and give him his reward.
- Repeat the process but without the treat, just walk away from him and say "come". If he comes, remember to give him an award for good behavior. If he doesn't come, put the treat back until he associates the word "come" with the act of going.
- Little by little, increase the distance and reduce the treats.
Teaching my chihuahua to walk beside me
This order consists of two parts that we must carry out to get it to internalize it. Before teaching him to walk with us, we must make him understand that we do not want him to pull on the leash or walk away. To do so, we will follow these steps:
- Every time you walk away or pull the leash, we'll stop. Without saying "NO", or scolding him, we will simply stop walking.
- When the chihuahua stops, we will congratulate him and resume walking. It's that simple.
Once the dog has understood that we don't want him to pull on the leash, we can start the second part of the training. We will take with us the clicker or the treats (or both), we will walk very slowly to be able to carefully observe our dog and react immediately. Every time the dog approaches us, we will say the word "together", we will click with the clicker and we will give him a treat. We will repeat this process reducing the treats more and more until the order is completely internalized.
Teaching my chihuahua to stay put
To teach this command we must follow practically the same steps as for the previous command:
- To make it easier for us, we'll start during the walk.
- From time to time, we will stop walking. When we see that our chihuahua stops, we will say "stay", we will click, we will congratulate him and we will give him a treat as a reward.
- Repeat this process until your dog associates the word "stay" with standing, reducing the treats.
- Try to give him the order in different contexts so that he internalizes it and reward him each time he does it properly.
To teach your chihuahua any of these commands you must arm yourself with patience, as it is not a task that can be accomplished in two days.
Other commands
Once the above commands have been learned, we can start teaching our chihuahua to sit, shake hands, play dead, fetch the ball, etc. We encourage you to continue browsing the web to discover the steps to follow and the keys to keep in mind to educate our dog in the best possible way. Remember that positive conditioning is essential to obtain a happy and balanced dog. On the other hand, be sure to consult our article on the basic care of the chihuahua and make sure you comply with all of them.
