Most chihuahuas I've known before have been exceptionally nervous and snippy around people. Thankfully that's not the case here, as both are extremely loving around humans.
However, the eldest goes absolutely apeshit upon so much as hearing something that might jingle like another dog's tags. The strange thing is that he'll sometimes wag rapidly while going full-on berserkergang, which doesn't make any sense to me. Again, supposedly this is something new, since GF asserts that he was socialized properly and fine around other dogs before.
Since they've always been together, the youngest really never got a chance to socialize properly and as such has very low self-confidence, so even though he's generally a bit calmer around other dogs he can get frightened and intimidated rather easily, which leads to growling and a snap if the other dog doesn't back off.
Honestly, the eldest is just a massively neurotic potato. Can't trim his nails because he falls into a complete panic whenever the trimmer comes out (he's gotten
much better than he was before. First time I helped out trim his nails, he worked himself into a full frenzy, hyperventilation, flop sweating out of paws and ears, eyes about ready to pop out of his head, ears turning almost crimson from all the blood pumping to his head etc.), terrified of plastic bags, eats dust and hair, constantly tries to steal the youngest's food, horrified at the prospect of getting wet (if there's water on the ground, he'll start limping with one leg held up so that he can at least save
one paw from the dreadful tragedy that is moisture), barks at dogs, barks at cats, barks at cars parked in places cars are not normally parked, barks at boxes or bags that are standing places where those boxes or bags do not normally stand, barks at the dark, barks at dark people, barks at the door on the off chance there might be some darkness or plastic bags on the other side of the door, barks at himself barking... It's tiring.
Absolutely adores people though. Kids especially.
Seems like the problems is less the dogs themselves and more their owner who refuses to actually look after them.
And since I clearly don't have the resources to remedy the situation after repeated attempts, that kinda reflects poorly on my own dog-caring abilities, which is what I'm mainly upset about. 9 times out of 10 it's just the owner screwing up their dog in some way, I just thought I was better than those 9 times.
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9780996 times)