[LittleBean]

Haru is great at coming to me when called when we're in the same room and not much is going on. So I'm sure she knows what it means! But when we're outside, she would get distracted by everything. Like water sprinklers, people talking, any sort of noise. She is deathly scared of law mowers, cars, and anything that sounds very loud and passing by. Is there a way to fix it? She's been going outside 2-3 times a day for very short walks for the past 2 weeks and when ever a car and such goes by she would sit her little bum down and absolutely not budge and definitely don't even twitch her ear when we call her or talk to her.

Is she just being a stubborn little girl?? What are some of the ways you guys trained your chi to be more responsive when you want them to, even when they're too excited in play or too distracted? I would love to let her play, but she has poor recall so when she doesn't come back we have to go get her (we have to watch her because she thinks any sort of carpet, blanket, or any such is a pee pad )

 

[ErinL]

I taught Stella "look". Now anytime she gets distracted, I just say look, and she automatically makes eye contact with me. Really helpful.

 

[pupluv168]

She is at the age where both the short attention span and the fearfulness are common. Puppies her age, especially Chis, tend to go through these phases and they pass with careful training and patience.

As far as her recall, keep working with her! Lots of positive reinforcement, no negative reinforcement aka punishment. At her age, she should be playing in a 100% supervised manner. Toby came home at almost 15 weeks and wasn't trusted to be out of my sight until he was well over 6 months old. I kept his harness and lead on so that we could work on "come" during play. Toby is 8 months old now and still is not 100% trained when it comes to his recall- I work with him 1-2 hours a day; all his other commands are 100%. So, for her age, Haru seems to be doing well. How is she doing with sit, stay, etc?

The fearfulness is probably a stage. Puppies often go through this at 3-5 months of age. They get scared of everything! Toby would plop down on the sidewalk behind my feet when a car drove by! The best thing to do is to NOT comfort her. Ignore the nervousness and continue walking. She should be wearing a harness during walks so that if she sits down and won't budge you can coax her along. Do not give up, do not pick her up. It will be frustrating and she will test your patience- stay calm and positive.

The key is consistency and patience no matter what. She is very young and, as time passes, she will get better. Is Haru your first puppy? What training do you do with her? What food is she on? Just curious as background!

 

[LittleBean]

Haru is not my first pup! But definitely my first small breed.
She's on Acana puppy food for small breed I haven't registered in any puppy training, I've just been using at home methods and going on forums a lot to ask for advice. I'm such a loser I bought "puppies for dummies" and "chihuahua for dummies" *facepalm*

 

[pupluv168]

Haru is not my first pup! But definitely my first small breed.
She's on Acana puppy food for small breed I haven't registered in any puppy training, I've just been using at home methods and going on forums a lot to ask for advice. I'm such a loser I bought "puppies for dummies" and "chihuahua for dummies" *facepalm*

Acana grain-free varieties are great foods, I do not know much about the grain inclusive varieties. I was just curious on that front, LOL.

Small breed dogs can seem skittish and more high maintenance than other breeds for those people used to bigger dogs. They aren't. The key to Chihuahuas is to treat them the EXACT SAME as you would any other dog. Do not over-spoil her, make her walk on lead and not get carried, train her, and socialize her with TONS of people and dogs of all sizes (once she's had all of her vaccines, of course).

I didn't talk Toby to an organized obedience class either. We trained at home. I trained my family's Beagle when I was 10 with my dad, and I've trained 5 since then, so I am pretty secure in my training methods. If you need any advice, feel free to PM me. There are lots of great people on here that know SO much about Chis. Every time I come on here (2848978493x a day, LOL) I learn something new!

Chihuahuas for Dummies is actually the best guide on Chihuahuas I have found! It is highly recommended on this site, too.

Haru is a cutie, by the way!!!

 

[LittleBean]

I try to socialize with her but she shys away from even medium sized dogs haha. But she is the biggest bully! The other day we walked to 711 for slush since it was such a nice day and we ran into a family who had a blue heeler cross shepherd puppy who was only 11 weeks old. Haru would get curious and sniff and eventually let the pup sniff her too but if the pup gets too close to her face she would be bossy and snarl, and by now I can tell when she's being bossy because the other pup would just back away and sit down lol! But that's her general reaction to other dogs. A block away from us is a nice old man who has a little white chi boy, maybe I can take her there to meet them (They go for walks the same time every day) But she hasn't met any other small dogs so far Only ones that tower over her little 4lb body.

That'd be great! I'll try not to PM too often ^^" I've resorted to forums for a lot of things, so when I found this site, I settled right in. We haven't really done much in terms of dealing with the separation anxiety though. We kind of just put her in a pen and lights out when we're sleeping, and now when we go upstairs or another room, she only cries for a couple of minutes and would either play by herself or chew up the pee pads. Are we making progress? As opposed to before she would not sleep for the full 4-5 hours and would just cry all night!

 

[Huly]

BG was scared of any noise including basketballs her first spring out so I put her in a purse where her head was out and took her to home depot. Next trip she was on a lead but in my arms and 3rd time she walked in like she owned the place and now noise doesn't bother her

 

[pupluv168]

We haven't really done much in terms of dealing with the separation anxiety though. We kind of just put her in a pen and lights out when we're sleeping, and now when we go upstairs or another room, she only cries for a couple of minutes and would either play by herself or chew up the pee pads. Are we making progress? As opposed to before she would not sleep for the full 4-5 hours and would just cry all night!

She sounds like she's doing great!!!!

Eventually she will forget all about you when you leave, LOL. I give Toby a special toy or a kong before I leave and he gets so excited about it that he doesn't even care.