How to Discipline Your Chihuahua Dog Properly

Every chihuahua parent has to deal with a time when his or her tiny dog does something wrong, harmful, or aggressive that he or she needs to fix. But how to discipline a chihuahua dog is very crucial because if you don’t do it right, it could cause more problems than it solves.

This article aims to help you figure out what to do if your chihuahua isn’t the best.

How To Communicate With Your Misbehaved Chihuahua The Right Way

First, we need to talk about how to tell your chihuahua what you want him or her to do. This will help you move on after having to discipline your dog and prevent you from having to do it again in the future. Here are the basics of telling your chihuahua how to act right:

Exercise valid ownership

There are two parts to being a good chihuahua owner:

1. Adequate care

Most of the time, a good chihuahua is a tired dog who is busy.  Every day, you should train your chihuahua for at least 15 minutes. Make sure they get exercise every day by taking them for walks and letting them play. The length of the walks and the types of games they play will depend on how old they are.

Chihuahuas behave better when their minds are busy. When a dog doesn’t receive any training, exercise, or play, he feels boredom. To pass the time, the dog usually does things that aren’t good for people, like chewing up items such as shoes and toys.

2. Know your Chihuahua

It helps a lot to know your chihuahua’s personality and weird behaviors. For instance, if your chihuahua has received housetraining perfectly but starts having accidents out of the blue, you should make an appointment with the vet to make sure the dog is not sick.

Reward Your chihuahua’s good attitude.

When your chihuahua behaves the right way, appreciate it like he or she just cured a bad disease like cancer.

If your chihuahua’s “love language” is attention or a treat, give him or her that. Talk in a happy, cheerful tone, smile, and heap praise on him.

Do not reward bad behavior

Chihuahuas love it when people pay them attention. When your dog does something bad and you yell at him or her, many dogs don’t connect the yelling with the bad behavior. They might not like it when you yell at them, but in the end, all it will show them is that you are paying attention to them.

Say “No, Bad” solidly once when your chihuahua misbehaves, get rid of the mess, and move on. After a while, give your chihuahua dog something else to do, to stay busy such as training, playing with a toy, or going for a walk. Do not do something right after they do something bad, or your chihuahua will see it as a reward.

Make it easy for your chihuahua to do well.

Give your chihuahua chances to succeed by training him or her daily. this is the best way to connect with your tiny dog. As your dog understands commands and pays attention to listening to you, you give him or her the chance to act well and get a treat for it. For instance:

• If your chihuahua is following you out of a room, say “Help!” and pet and praise your dog when you get to your destination.
• If you’re going to sit down in a room, point to where your chihuahua usually sits or lays down and say “Place!” Praise your dog for going to his or her spot.
• Ask your chihuahua to “sit” and “wait” for his or her meal. Don’t let your dog attack their bowl of food like a ferocious lion as you put it down. When your dog stays calm and looks to you for permission, say “okay!” and praise them for listening and having good “table manners.”

How To Discipline Your Chihuahua When He Doesn’t Listen

If your chihuahua won’t listen to you, the best thing to do is to seek the help of a professional trainer. To reset the pack hierarchy, it may be necessary to go back to the basics and build a strong base.

I recommend this article When a Chihuahua Won’t listen

Even though it might sound strange, the vet’s office is also a good place to start. If your chihuahua doesn’t respond to you very often, you might want to have his or her hearing checked.

Not all dogs that don’t listen are deaf or hard of hearing. If your chihuahua doesn’t listen well, you might not be using the right “language of love” to reward good behavior.

Some things make some dogs react, such as:

• When food is a part of training, chihuahuas who are food-motivated pay the most attention. So, if food is what gets your dog’s attention, food is the best way to talk to him.
• Toy-driven dogs are all about toys. You can get their attention with their favorite toy, whether it’s a ball, a stuffed animal, or a bone.
• Chihuahuas that crave love can’t get enough love and praise from their owners. This is how to talk to a dog that wants attention all the time and would rather be petted or cuddled than have a toy or treat.

Once you know your chihuahua’s “love language,” it’s easy to reward good behavior because you know what makes him or her happy. As you praise the good things your dog does, he or she will get a better idea of what is not okay.

When your chihuahua acts badly after that. Say “No” firmly, and remove him or her from the situation as calmly as possible. Then ignore it until it calms down. Don’t give your chihuahua anything they might think of as a reward to get them out of the situation. Instead, just stop the bad behavior and tell them to stop.

How to Discipline a Chihuahua That’s Been Mistreated

When you adopt a chihuahua who has been abused or neglected, it’s important to remember that some of the bad things they do are because of what they’ve experienced.
Still, you have to be very careful when a chihuahua who has been mistreated does something wrong. If you punish him or her in the wrong way, your dog may act even worse out of fear.

When you bring an abused chihuahua dog into your home, the best thing you can do is to start rewarding good behavior in the future by:

• Setting up a schedule or routine. Chihuahuas do best with a routine. It gives them a sense of safety.
• When the chihuahua is feeling overwhelmed, give him or her a private safe place to hide, like a crate.
• offering exercise and play every day.
• At least 15 minutes should be spent training once or twice a day.

Still, there will be obstacles to overcome while the pack is being rehabilitated and getting used to the new pack order. Remember the following:

• Teaching a chihuahua who has been assaulted to “leave it” is the best way to turn him or her away from something without punishing the dog in a way that could hurt him or her. Start working on this command right away. Training is another good way to build a dog’s trust and confidence.
• Working with a chihuahua that has been mistreated takes a lot of time and patience. Good behavior that lasts won’t happen overnight.
• It’s very important to stay calm. If you get angry, he or she may pull back into their shell, which often means doing bad things.
• Many abused or neglected chihuahuas need to receive housetraining like puppies. Be patient with them, because this is often something new for them. For example, if a dog lives outside or is badly mistreated, accidents will happen as it learns to live in a house or when something scares it.

How To Punish Your Chihuahua If He Keeps Peeing And Pooping Inside

Even though marking and peeing in the house is awful, you can usually fix it if you are patient and put in the work. The perfect way to prevent your chihuahua from doing this is to catch him or her during the act and send him outside as soon as possible. Praise your chihuahua when he is done going to the bathroom outside.
Clean up the mess in a calm way and then ignore your chihuahua for a few minutes, usually 10 to 15 minutes. Even negative attention can reinforce this behavior, so it’s usually best to stay calm and ignore your dog.

What to do

Use a strong cleaning solution made for your chihuahua’s urine to clean the area well. By getting rid of as much scent as you can. Your dog will be less likely to want to mark that spot again.

“To prevent frequent urination in the same household spot, remove the scent of previous urine marks with a good enzymatic cleaner,” recommends Vetstreet.

What to avoid

Don’t rub your chihuahua’s nose in the mark or accident. To do this, you will have to wrestle with your dog. Wrestling can be stressful and make your dog scared, which will only make the situation worse. Some dogs pee when they are scared. Doing this to your chihuahua may hurt them badly because of their small size.

Thoughts About A New Chihuahua

If you bring a new chihuahua or puppy into your home, especially a rescue dog, start from the beginning, even if it already knows how to use the bathroom.

Take your chihuahua to the assigned potty area in your house every hour for the first few days, or right after he or she eats his meal when he or she wakes up, and before he goes to bed. This will show your chihuahua what you want him to do and keep accidents from happening.

Thoughts About A Trained Chihuahua

If your house-trained chihuahua starts to pee or poop in the wrong place long after he was trained, Seek your vet’s advice to rule out any health issues that could be the cause. Sometimes the cause is an infection in the urinary tract, but there are other medical reasons as well.

If you don’t neuter or spay your chihuahua, his or her hormones may make the dog mark, so you might want to do that.

For your chihuahua to behave well, there may be times when you need to teach him how to behave. Without discipline, your chihuahua may act in ways that aren’t good because they don’t have any limits or rules.

Physically punishing a dog is surely unacceptable, especially for a tiny chihuahua, but a “no” can send the same message.

Be effective

You must adjust your chihuahua as soon as you see him doing something you don’t like. This means that you should step in during or within one second, if possible. If you try to make a change one second before or after, it probably won’t work.

For instance, if your chihuahua has recently pooped in the house, it doesn’t make sense to punish the dog when you get home and find the spot.

Dogs including chihuahuas live in the moment, so they won’t understand why their owners punish them. They’ll probably just think that their owner is a crazy person who hits them for no reason. The dog will be confused and think you punished him for what he was doing a few seconds ago, which may have been nothing more than wagging his tail happily. This can hurt the bond between the owner and the dog.

Wrong Associations

In an ideal world, your chihuahua shouldn’t be able to connect the correction to you. Doing so could ruin the important bond between you and your cute chihuahua. Also, if the dog associates the correction with you, he will soon learn that he can act badly when you are not around.

For instance, the dog that likes to pee on your outdoor carpet might learn to stay away from it when you are not around. If you are busy in another part of the house and not actively watching your chihuahua, the habit will continue.

All Family Members Must Be Aware

The punishment must happen every time bad behavior happens. To keep the dog’s mind from being confused. Everyone in the family should agree on what to do.

If you don’t allow your chihuahua to sleep in your bed, all your family members should do the same.

chihuahuas quickly figure out that they can break the rules if you don’t set up them right.

Avoid Emotional Approach

You should correct the chihuahua without getting angry or upset with him or her. When giving a verbal correction, the owner shouldn’t be angry. I know that’s hard to do, especially if your dog just destroys an expensive toy.

It doesn’t help to act like you’re going to hurt the chihuahua, because that might make him scared.

Interestingly, sometimes a correction doesn’t involve doing something, but rather taking away something the dog likes. For example, if a dog jumps up on its owners, the owners could turn around and stop giving the dog what he wants most.

Last word

Finally, Disciplining a chihuahua can be hard, but remember that you’re helping him learn how to be the best version of himself. If you classify your chihuahua puppy like a child, you will start to see that you are teaching him how to be an adult. Spending time training him right will not only make him a better dog, but it will also strengthen your relationship with him. Be patient and spend time training your tiny pooch so you can spend less time worrying about how to discipline a chihuahua and more time enjoying his company.

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