Chihuahua aggression

[wanda]

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?

[Canis-Lupess]

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.

[Sevaede]

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.

[freckledimple]

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.

[LilacDragon]

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.

Using this method will only encourage the dog to continue doing what it is doing. Think about it and break it down a bit.

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.

[Sevaede]

Using this method will only encourage the dog to continue doing what it is doing. Think about it and break it down a bit.

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.

I have not had to deal with serious overprotection issues with any of my dogs .