A little thing you need to know about your chihuahua puppy, they are the smallest dog and often people believe they are grumpy – and that’s true until a certain extent, but owner’s training can help them become way less aggressive and turn them into an obedient dog happy.
At some point, of course, pet owners would prefer their chihuahuas calm and regulated as a disciplined dog, plus the fact that chihuahuas are considered cute for their small sizes.
To know how to train a chihuahua puppy takes a lot of patience and perseverance. A normal dog breed takes a whole lot of practice and hard work but takes a smaller time to get the accomplished results. When it comes to chihuahuas, they are difficult to train, but they can be very obedient,
especially when it comes to what rewards they will get.
A good time to train chihuahua puppy is at least 2-3 months or 8-12 weeks old. These times are perfect for training your puppy because they are developing their way of cognitive thinking.
Table of Contents:
- Getting to know your chihuahua: Socialization and Temperament.
- Establishing dog rules inside the house.
- Potty train your chihuahua.
- Basic orders to train your chihuahua.
- Self-made orders to train your chihuahua.
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHIHUAHUA: Socialization & Temperament
Before training your chihuahua, you first need to know the basic information about them. It is important to consider the chihuahua’s kind of health and temperament to know the dos and don’ts when it comes to training them and taking care of them.
TAKE NOTE: Chihuahuas are energetic, intelligent, active, and are always willing to play with their owners and other dogs of their own breed.
- First thing you need to do before train chihuahua puppy, is that you need to show them that you are their alpha (the leader of the pack). Knowing this at an early stage could help discipline them in a way that they know who is the authority.
- Never shout at your dog or command them by being aggressive, it is important to get respect from your dog, the more they feel threatened, the more they disrespect you.
- Just like a newborn baby, a chihuahua puppy shouldn’t be spoiled with his/her needs because discipline comes with respect. Your dog should know when or when not to have what he or she wants. And you should be clear of what your command is.
- Always remain positive with giving comments to your dog to encourage them, again if they disobey you or did something you did not like, do not shout at them and just speak with regulation and command. Being aggressive won’t help.
Socializing with a chihuahua is also important because these dogs are hyper and interactive. If you’ve noticed what I discussed a while ago about their socialization with people and other dog breeds. Chihuahuas aren’t much fond of who they don’t usually get to interact with. To open up your dog to socialization at a very young age would help decrease aggressiveness when it comes to other breeds and humans as they grow older.
Just like other dog breeds, it is important to encounter your puppy in an unaggressive manner. A bad approach given to dogs with their first interaction triggers their security and awareness.
Don’t take your dog’s size as a disadvantage to bigger dogs. Chihuahuas are perfectly capable of communicating with them. Taking their chance to talk to other breeds would make them aggressive when coming across with different breeds.
ESTABLISHING DOG RULES INSIDE THE HOUSE
The moment your puppy comes to his/her new home, immediately establish the house rules in which you decide where or where not the puppy should go. Try to make your dog know what he is allowed to touch and not to touch. And specifically, be clear about your house rules in which your puppy would understand throughout his/her whole training.
Setting these rules in routine would help regulate the mindset of your puppy in which it would be easier for you to train him/her. Remember also to welcome your dog with a warm and cozy place to stay in which they would declare territory and safety inside their master’s home. You set up this territory by having somewhere to sleep on, to drink and eat, and by having your puppy’s own personal space.
When it comes to bad behavior, you could discipline your dog by simply saying ‘NO’ with a firm voice in which your dog would respect you. But remember not to shout. Follow up that ‘NO’ with a correction so that good behavior would come off from a learning experience.
POTTY TRAIN YOUR CHIHUAHUA
It’s very hard to clean up after your puppy’s mess, especially when you’ve just come home from work. To potty train chihuahua puppy, you first have to select a place where your dog should do its business. If not yet vaccinated, give your dog some pads or newspaper inside the house. You start training your dog to potty outside after the vaccination.
Steps on how to potty training your chihuahua:
Step 1: Select a place for your dog to do its business. This place would be its usual and regular place to potty.
Step 2: Put a newspaper or pads there if you don’t want the floor to get messy.
Step 3: When to take your dog on potty breaks?
- A few minutes after drinking/eating, you would know when your dog needs to pee when you see them going around and sniffing particular places in your home.
- Every 30 minutes. Puppies have regulated pee because they release toxins at a very young age knowing that they are still vulnerable to diseases.
- Every time your dog wakes up from a long nap.
- In the morning, when you wake up.
- Before you sleep and leave your dog completely alone for the night.
Step 4: You take your dog to the area where you placed your newspaper or pads. Remember that every time your dog needs to pee, you put him/her back the same place every time so your dog could familiarize where to do business and so that sooner or later they’d be the ones to do it themselves.
It is better to start training your dog at a young age, especially if you’ve figured that they’re obedient.
BASIC ORDERS TO TRAIN YOUR CHIHUAHUA
Before training your chihuahua core tricks and orders, you first need to teach them the basics: sit, stay, up, lay down, come here, calling their name, do’s and don’ts.
Train chihuahua puppy comes with patience and hard work, but remember not to give up on them and always have a positive attitude towards them so that it would encourage them to do better.
Teaching your dog with tricks first comes with respect from both trainer and pet so that a great relationship would be established.
Having to Name Your Dog
In choosing a name for your dog, a tip is that it should have a high tone at the end. Something like “ee,” “aa,” “oo,” etc.… It’s best to call them with a high-pitched voice and longer ending to make their ears feel the tingle of the need to call them.
After having to name your dog, teach them how to come to you whenever you call them. You can try stomping your legs at a fast pace, clapping your hands, tap both of your laps or other things that you feel like would excite them to come to you when calling them. Remember to do these actions after saying words such as “come here,” “here boy/girl.” When they get to follow and achieve that goal, you give them cheers and praises, or treats would do if you like. It’s always good to give them encouragement to make them feel competitive with treats and rewards.
Basic Commands
It’s best to teach sit, stay, up, and lay down when you’re trying to feed them.
SIT
First, set up their empty bowl in front of them. While saying your command, you must show and let the puppy smell that you have food in your hand. After your dog recognizes food, make sure that your dog is focused on what you’re holding that of anything else. You slightly lower your dog’s butt to the ground after saying a firm “SIT,” and afterward you praise them and give them their meal. Also remember, don’t expect your dog to get it at the first try.
STAY, UP, LAY DOWN
It’s also the same as the command sit, but in these commands, it only happens whenever you don’t expect it to happen. And whenever it does happen, immediately follow it up with a command corresponding to what your dog has performed. Then again, give them praises and rewards. This will give them knowledge about what they do and what corresponds to what you say.
Self-Made Orders to Train Chihuahua Puppy
After having to settle basic orders, it would be easier to teach your pet other tricks in a way that safety is still in order. Never lose patience when it comes to your dog because once you give up on your dog, they will have less connection and relationship with you as an alpha. Always show love and rewards to your dogs whenever they achieve good deeds so that protection, respect, and enough discipline would be given to you knowing that you are a great master.
