Courtney
04-23-2007, 01:26 PM
Hi,
I stumbled across this forum because I'm looking for some good advice from some good chihuahua owners. Let me give you a little background about my little monster, Pearl.
I rescued Pearl a year ago from a woman that had 3 other dogs... BIG dogs... pitbulls. Pearl was a tiny puppy and her owner couldn't take care of her anymore. So that's how I aquired my first chihuahua. She is now a year and a half old.
Pearl is the best dog I've ever had! She's so eager to please and she's never been nervous or yippy or anything like that. Just loves life. Incredibly easy to train; she will even jump into a lake to fetch a tennis ball. Well, about one foot of lake but still! That's like an ocean to her! I love her to death. She's been well socialized too, she's always loved people, even strangers, and loves to be held. Here's my dilemma:
In the past couple of months she's been changing quite drastically. She's NIPPY. She growls at people when they hold her. She nips at the cat. She's nervous and downright mean. She used to love babies and the other day she almost bite my neighbors baby's nose off. She even bit me the other day when I was trimming her nails. Nothing has changed in her environment since we've had her, she lives with me and my boyfriend and a cat.
Also she seems more wary of women. I don't know if this had something to do with the woman that had her before me. As far as MY relationship with her, it's also been getting weird. Pearl is obviously bonded to me. I'm the food lady. She follows me everywhere. But recently she seems scared of me, like if I find that she's eaten a pair of my underwear (gross) and I call her name out like she's in trouble... you know the call... "Peaaaaaarlll...?" She will hide for about an hour and refuse to come out. If I coax her out with treats and praise she seems terrified, and pees all over the floor.
I don't know what to do, it's breaking my heart. I've never raised even the tiniest hand to this dog, I've always trained her with positive reinforcements. She's the self-punishing dog, she knows when she's done wrong and she feels awful about it.
Now here's my main question before this post gets ridiculously long... is this normal? Do chihuahuas tend to get this way as they get older? What do I do about her trying to bite people? Is this going to get worse? Am I doing something wrong?
I appreciate any feedback. I miss my Pearl.
Courtney
I stumbled across this forum because I'm looking for some good advice from some good chihuahua owners. Let me give you a little background about my little monster, Pearl.
I rescued Pearl a year ago from a woman that had 3 other dogs... BIG dogs... pitbulls. Pearl was a tiny puppy and her owner couldn't take care of her anymore. So that's how I aquired my first chihuahua. She is now a year and a half old.
Pearl is the best dog I've ever had! She's so eager to please and she's never been nervous or yippy or anything like that. Just loves life. Incredibly easy to train; she will even jump into a lake to fetch a tennis ball. Well, about one foot of lake but still! That's like an ocean to her! I love her to death. She's been well socialized too, she's always loved people, even strangers, and loves to be held. Here's my dilemma:
In the past couple of months she's been changing quite drastically. She's NIPPY. She growls at people when they hold her. She nips at the cat. She's nervous and downright mean. She used to love babies and the other day she almost bite my neighbors baby's nose off. She even bit me the other day when I was trimming her nails. Nothing has changed in her environment since we've had her, she lives with me and my boyfriend and a cat.
Also she seems more wary of women. I don't know if this had something to do with the woman that had her before me. As far as MY relationship with her, it's also been getting weird. Pearl is obviously bonded to me. I'm the food lady. She follows me everywhere. But recently she seems scared of me, like if I find that she's eaten a pair of my underwear (gross) and I call her name out like she's in trouble... you know the call... "Peaaaaaarlll...?" She will hide for about an hour and refuse to come out. If I coax her out with treats and praise she seems terrified, and pees all over the floor.
I don't know what to do, it's breaking my heart. I've never raised even the tiniest hand to this dog, I've always trained her with positive reinforcements. She's the self-punishing dog, she knows when she's done wrong and she feels awful about it.
Now here's my main question before this post gets ridiculously long... is this normal? Do chihuahuas tend to get this way as they get older? What do I do about her trying to bite people? Is this going to get worse? Am I doing something wrong?
I appreciate any feedback. I miss my Pearl.
Courtney