Communicating with Your Chihuahua

Communicating with your Chihuahua is extremely important when it comes to training your  puppy. To understand how a dog communicates can be crucial in our training efforts.

Voice. Dogs are extremely sensitive to human vocal tones. Although your Chihuahua doesn’t have the capacity to understand English, his ability to understand you can easily give this impression. Therefore it’s important to remain conscious of the messages you send when talking to your dog. Dogs learn to make associations with particular sounds and actions by using other contextual clues.

For instance, your Chihuahua may understand that bedtime happens at 11.00 PM. However, he learns this by watching your typical routine that leads up to this each night. Chances are this nightly ritual also includes telling him that it’s bedtime.

The average dog understands about 20 words and phrases, but they have the ability to learn about 200. The key is to be consistent. Always use the same word or phrase to designate a specific idea, and make sure each one is unique so your dog can differentiate between them. Your facial expressions or gestures should also be consistent, because dogs use all of these contextual clues to understand us.

The tone and pitch of your voice is equally important. A dog’s ability to analyze vocal sounds is rooted in survival instinct. His ancestors needed to know whether an animal howling or growling in the forest was friend or foe.

Dogs instinctively respond in a positive manner to soft high tones, because they instinctively associate these with a nonthreatening source such as a young puppy or smaller animal. Likewise, low or loud tones are associated with larger, possibly dangerous animals. Your Chihuahua is so attuned to the subtleties of your voice that you really don’t even need to use words.

He will probably have no trouble interpreting a sound such as ah-ah in an authoritative tone, as a warning to stop what he’s doing. On the other hand, scolding your dog in a soft, high voice probably won’t have much impact at all.

Hands. Dogs are instinctively motivated to observe our body language for clues to our intentions, and we unconsciously communicate a great deal of information to them this way. Because your hands play such an important role in your Chihuahua’s care, he is naturally attuned to the messages they send. However, communication works much better if both parties are on the same page.

Dogs tend to use the same gestures to denote specific intentions and signals such as a play bow or a wagging tail. Try not to use arbitrary hand gestures when communicating with your dog. Remember that they are more likely to be understood if they relate to some preexisting sensory or behavioral preference. For instance, if your Chihuahua loves to have his ears scratched, he is going to recognized that hand gesture even if you are not actually scratching his ear at that moment. This also explains why shaking or smacking a dog can have such a detrimental effect on communication.

Facial Expressions. It’s often said that Chihuahuas are mind readers. It’s almost impossible to conceal your feelings from them. Dogs read our messages in context. Your voice may be saying one thing, but your dog is not going to believe it if the rest of you is sending a completely different message. This is why it’s never a good idea to train your dog if you are feeling tired or impatient. Despite your best efforts to conceal a bad temper, your Chihuahua will know better.

Body Movements. Just like your facial expressions, your body language is a walking billboard to your Chihuahua. Because of their size, Chihuahuas are keenly aware of subtle details of your posture, stance, and attitude. Never underestimate his ability to understand when you are feeling upbeat, tired, or distracted. This is a powerful and often overlooked tool to reinforce training.

Puppies instinctively look to their pack leader for cues when they don’t know what to do. If your Chihuahua puppy is somewhat timid, your confident demeanor can provide a lot of encouragement in social situations. If your dog tends to overdo the barking whenever he hears a strange noise, your body language can tell him that everything is OK – or send the message that something is wrong.

Scents. The average dog has 200 million scent receptors in contrast to humans, who are equipped with just 5 million. It’s almost impossible for humans to imagine the way that dogs use scent to communicate and understand their environment.

However, being aware of this incredible sensory ability will help you understand your Chihuahua’s motivations and behaviors. For example, he can and will notice minute traces of a house training accident that you are unable to detect. If you don’t do a thorough cleanup it will be a constant temptation for him to use that spot again.

It’s easy to see how something like this could lead to a house training nightmare if you have more than one dog. It’s also scientifically proven that a dog’s nose is connected to his bladder. The scent of urine stimulates nerve receptors in his bladder, triggering the urge to urinate.

He can also detect changes in your body chemistry that are triggered by strong emotions such as fear or anger. This is another of the contextual clues that your Chihuahua uses to read your moods.