My husband and I have a 5 year old chihuahua who is very aggressive when one of us is near her and the other approaches. Is this jealousy? We would like some advice on stopping this behavior. Can anyone help? :confused:
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My husband and I have a 5 year old chihuahua who is very aggressive when one of us is near her and the other approaches. Is this jealousy? We would like some advice on stopping this behavior. Can anyone help? :confused:
Dogs can appear jealous but they aren't jealous. This is an emotion that is perculiar to humans despite how it may seem.
With dogs, it is purely down to conflict over resources and she is probably too used to getting sole attention when she wants it and, if she is with one person getting it and the other person approaches, she probably thinks it is threatened and so tries to defend it. You might think that this is jealousy but it is not. She doesn't care what the other person is getting, she only cares about what she is losing out on and she only acts like this when she has become too used to getting something and then it is taken away from her. A human can get jealous over something they never even had...this doesn't happen with dogs, they only get defensive over things they are used to getting.
I've done a bit of research with this as well
It seems to go along with the usual pack order. Dogs like to appeal to the alpha. So, whomever they view as the alpha they try to appeal towards. They also like to be the alphas favourite and view whomever gets the most attention, etc, as the alphas favourite. This is what I've read and also, for a tiny part, experienced. Spanky (little Chi girl) does get irritated if my husband pays attention to one of her kitty siblings. However, it's probably the mildest case I've seen of this behaviour and she's stopping it, slowly.
A solution I read about would basically go like this: Puppy is in your lap, another person approaches. Puppy becomes agitated. Discourage behaviour from approacher, discourage agitation from pup while reassuring her.
I haven't tried that solution so I don't know if it will work.
My Oscar eventually outgrew the behavior. He would fiercely protect anyone that was holding or petting him, even if it was someone he liked. Apparently, it is a common Chihuahua behavior.
Using this method will only encourage the dog to continue doing what it is doing. Think about it and break it down a bit.Quote:
A solution I read about would basically go like this: Puppy is in your lap, another person approaches. Puppy becomes agitated. Discourage behaviour from approacher, discourage agitation from pup while reassuring her.
If the puppy is in your lap and another person approaches and the puppy becomes agitated. The puppy is hoping that by his/her bad behaviour, the approaching person will leave. If you discourage the approach of this other person then the pup has won! Then you are discouraging agitation while reassuring? I am not sure how YOU are doing this, but I see someone petting and telling the dog that everything is ok. That is rewarding the dog for it's aggressive behaviour!
This is how it works in my house.
The puppy is in my lap, another person approaches and the puppy becomes agitated/aggressive. I immediately stand up, greet approaching person, ignore aggressive puppy and approaching person and I walk away. Nothing - I repeat NOTHING is said to the offending puppy during this interaction.
This way, he looses what he is "protecting" and he is punished for behaving badly. Nothing is done to encourage his bad behaviour and nothing is done that might hurt him.
If you had read what I typed you would know that was a solution that I had READ about not TRIED.Quote:
Originally Posted by LilacDragon
I have not had to deal with serious overprotection issues with any of my dogs .
I understand that and was simply explaining to you and anyone else who might read this why that advice might not be the best advice to follow.
As I type this at 6:46 in the morning there are 490 unregistered guests on this board. If one of them is looking for advice on how to deal with their chi, reads this thread and solves a problem then I have done what I posted to do.
Many, many chi's are aggressive. Mostly because what started out as a cute thing turns ugly as the little one is allowed to get away with more and more. Many of these end up in shelters and no few of them are deemed unadoptable and euthanized.
Yeah, the little dogs do tend to be spoilt more so they have more to start trying to defend from being taken from them. Being picked up also raises their status because it is lifting them to a higher level. They belong on the dog shelf with all the other dogs.
You often find that little dogs who spend most of their time being carried are snappy and nasty with anyone who tries to touch them or come too close.
In my opinion, dogs have legs for a reason.
Thanks for your suggestions. It is very easy to spoil a cute little dog to the point where they think they rule! I have been being the alpha dog with my little one and am ignoring her bad behavior - I put her down and walk away. It seems to be getting her attention and she has been a little better about being such a pill. She seems perfectly happy lounging on the floor with the other dog.