I have a Chihuahua who just turned 5 that my husband and I love very much perhaps too much.........
Her name is Maddie. Our daughter adopted our first Grandson who is the light of our lives but Maddie can't stand him. Actually Maddie doesn't like many people at all except for my husband and I and our daughter and a few select others. To make a long story short; we took Maddie to puppy class at one of the pet stores in the area and she did great. The only thing she did not conquer was "come". When we first brought her home at 9 weeks she didn't back for about a month and we were beginning to wonder if she ever would. That didn't last long, she barks at everything and everbody.......... she will bite too. She even bites the people that she loves.
She has gotten worse since she was attacked by our daughters cat which was an awful experience for the whole family.
My husband and I are at our wits end and need some help with stopping her aggression. We go to see our daughter alot and have to bring the dog with us. She's so tiny we don't want to board her (weighs 2 and 1/2 lbs.). We want to look into getting her trained by a professional.
Help - Maddies Mom!

Thank you for your question! You are correct to be concerned about Maddie’s behavior.

One of my best dog friends is a 2-pound Yorkie named Isabella. Isabella has done our 3-week boot camp program. She does not consider her size to be a deterrent to success! She may be small, but her heart and brain work just fine.

She boards with us on a regular basis. Please do not discount Maddie’s ability to learn to be a good dog based on her size!

The good news is that Maddie began life as a ‘normal’ puppy. She navigated puppy class with apparent ease. It is easier to restore ‘normal’ then to try to create it.

I have a few questions for you to answer to help me give you advice:

What are you currently doing to address Maddie’s antisocial behavior?

What treat or toy will Maddie sell her soul for?

Is Maddie leash trained?

Which of our podcasts have you listened to?

What do you think causes her to bite the people that she loves?

I want to encourage you to seek professional help. I will be glad to help in any way that I can. I look forward to your reply. Margaret Davis

Thank you for the reply. The answer to your questions: What are we currently doing to address the antisocial behavior; well we don't take her many places anymore simply because we are afraid she will bite someone. She's so tiny and cute that everyone especially kids immediately come up to her to pet her. We tell them she will bite but that doesn't stop them sometimes. Luckily she has not bitten anyone but us - yet. Maddie loves the small dingo bones with meat in them. She knows that she gets one every night after she eats and she has several fav toys her most fav would be a stuffed crab, a small bat, and a stuffed bone.
Maddie will walk on a leach - yes. I don't use it very much unless we go to the park by our house to walk her. Why does she bite us?? I'm not really sure, all I know is that she doesn't like a bath, getting her toenails clipped and getting her behind cleaned. She will eat me up when I try to do any of those things. If she is in my husbands lap or in his arms and I go to pick her up she goes on the attack. When she gets like this it's like she looses all of her senses and just reacts. I don't want to hit her my husband thinks we should get a tiny paper bag and swat her with it (don't like that at all. I watch the dog whisperer and have tried some of his techniqes to no avail. I watched the podcast about aggression and according to that Maddie is a level 3 biter.