Whether a Chihuahua is obedient depends to a large extent on the training and guidance it receives every day. If owners pay attention to training, guidance, and discipline, a Chihuahua can become a well-behaved and cooperative companion. If owners neglect training, disobedience is almost inevitable.
How to Stop a Chihuahua's Wrong Behavior
There are five key points in using correction: timing, intensity, body position, tone of voice, and result.
Timing: Correction must be used while the dog is motivated to perform the behavior or while it is in the act. Once the behavior is over, it becomes much harder to achieve the desired effect.
Intensity: Correction must be appropriate, neither too strong nor too weak. The upper limit is that it should never cause mechanical injury to the dog's body, and the lower limit is that it must be strong enough to stop the behavior.
Body position: If the dog bites with its mouth, hitting the rear makes little sense. Correction should be applied in a way that helps the dog quickly understand what action was wrong.
Tone of voice: When using a firm correction, the owner's tone should be calm, objective, or stern, but not hateful, explosive, or emotionally hostile. Otherwise, the dog may develop psychological fear of people and the consequences can become even worse.
Result: Once correction has begun, the owner must force the dog to change the behavior. If one attempt does not work, the second must be stronger and repeated until the dog stops repeating the same mistake. If correction fails, the dog may misread it as part of the interaction and feel encouraged to keep doing the wrong thing.
Common correction methods described by some trainers include a quick leash snap, blocking the dog with the knee, a tap to the face with the back of the hand, an electronic collar, crating, applying pressure to the dog's body, or even throwing small pebbles. Whatever method is chosen, it must be handled with care and understanding.
How to Reward Correct Behavior
The key elements of rewarding are method, timing, intensity, and the resulting behavior.
Reward methods include voice praise, physical contact, food or toy rewards, emotional approval, and free release after training.
Voice rewards: A pleasant command or clicker sound, or any sound the dog associates with something positive, can work.
Physical rewards: Hugging, petting, scratching the cheeks or belly, brushing the coat, or other pleasant physical contact can all be rewarding if they make the dog feel happy and comfortable.
Object rewards: Food, balls, toys, sticks, or anything the dog enjoys eating, carrying, or playing with may serve as a reward.
Emotional rewards: A genuinely happy facial expression, voice, and mood from the owner can make the dog feel excited and successful.
Free-release rewards: Letting the dog roam freely after training is one of the best ways to release stress. Releasing stress makes the dog happy, and that itself is a reward.
Reward timing: The best moment is immediately after the dog has just completed the correct behavior and is still holding that behavior without losing focus. Before receiving a food reward, the dog should not change the action it just performed.
Reward intensity: Different rewards have different value to the dog, so the owner should adjust the strength of the reward according to the quality of performance. Voice praise usually has less effect than physical contact, physical contact may have less effect than food, emotional reinforcement should run through the entire training process, and free release is usually used after multiple repetitions.
Result: When rewarding, the dog may relax emotionally, but it must not switch into a new bad behavior. For example, if you reward a sitting dog with petting and it immediately jumps onto you, that jumping is an unwanted behavior. To prevent it, the owner should be ready to block the jump while giving the reward.
Basic Chihuahua training methods become much more effective once these principles of correction and reward are truly understood. That is why owners should not skip this foundation. Good dog training still requires patience above all.