Teaching your Chihuahua to respond to basic commands is the obvious benefit of training. Including these training skills into your daily life will make your interaction with your dog a success!! For example, perhaps your Chihuahua regularly launches into a barking frenzy when the doorbell rings. Chihuahuas are naturally territorial, and this may have begun as an instinctive response that blossomed into a full-fledged bad habit during his adolescence. Unless you dealt with it consistently at that early stage, he probably cultivated it like a prize orchid while you cultivated selective deafness.
You may initially react by asking him nicely to be quiet as you try to maintain a semblance of control, sign for your package, and prevent him from slipping out the door and attacking the delivery man. If that fails, you may repeat the command a few times, which will reinforce the idea that ignoring you is perfectly acceptable as he continues his merry chaos. By the time you close the door, your misguided efforts to control him probably had the opposite effect and he is even more keyed up.
You may not realize it, but at this point, he is in a world of his own and you have lost control of the situation. You might respond by loudly telling him to shut up and understandably losing your temper as he becomes more focused on his desire to
annihilate the delivery man who left five minutes ago.
Your growing frustration and agitation will further reinforce his feeling that something requires immediate Chihuahua intervention. The end result may be a barking and yelling match that leaves him overexcited, you frustrated, and both of you planning even stronger tactics the next time this happens.
Congratulations: You have successfully imparted a clear message to your Chihuahua. It’s safe to predict his behavior the next time a delivery arrives, because you have done everything in your power to reinforce that response. You may have also successfully trained him to ignore your commands and go wild in response to doorbells, uniforms, and visitors in general. There are more effective ways to address situations like this.
A better approach may be to distract him with a treat or toy if he ignores your request to be quiet. If that fails, don’t keep repeating the command. Instead, give him your full attention and ask him to lie down. Picking him up to stop him from barking is a natural reaction that often reinforces a small dog’s aggression. The down position also encourages calmness and focusing rather than ramping up his excitement level. It’s also nearly impossible for a dog to bark while lying down.
Of course, these will not be workable options unless you have taught your Chihuahua to respond to your commands and gotten in the habit of using them to solve everyday behavior dilemmas. You should begin teaching him house manners as soon as he arrives in order to prevent bad habits like this in the first place.
Quiet is just one of the important concepts that a well-mannered Chihuahua should understand. Some important house rules are standard, such as learning not to step out of a door without permission. Others will be tailored to your lifestyle. If you have birds, your Chihuahua should understand that it is not OK to bark and harass them. If you work at home, he should learn that playtime is not an all-day activity.
He is capable of learning any rule needed to adapt to your household routine. However, this is not going to happen unless you consistently respond to his behavior as it occurs, both good and bad. If you walk into a room to find him happily playing with a toy rather than barking at the bird, tell him that he is a very good dog.
If you discover him in the act of something not so good, interrupt the behavior and redirect him toward an alternative. For instance, if you catch him peeing on the rug, it will be useless to tell him that he is a bad dog unless you follow up by reinforcing more desirable potty habits.
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