Comment on Ay, chihuahua!
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 6 months ago
I’m not really a dog person, more a fan of cats and reptiles, but I remember being very attached to an old Chihuahua my family had for awhile. Never did get the hate for them, my experience with them has been that they can be very cuddly and a good size to come sit in your lap while watching tv or something. Never noticed the one I had to be particularly mean, though she was pretty old when we got her so maybe she just didn’t have the energy.
I’ve always more or less seen it as mostly just a training issue as a lot of people think their small size makes it unneeded.
Having had five of them from puppies, one having a litter that we kept two from, (Sister’s idea, I prefer cats) none of them were ever really aggressive unless antagonized. Maybe a bit yippey when the doorbell rang or a stranger was in the house, but after about a minute, they calmed down when they saw there was no threat.
I’ve definitely noticed a difference in temperament between long haired chihuahuas abd their standard breed short-haired counterparts. That difference being the short-haired are a bit more high strung from the centuries of inbreeding (just like Germans have higher blood pressure/hypertension issues).
Maybe the long hair gene mutation came from an infusion of less anxious genetics into the breed, or allowed for some benificial physiological changes to the nervous system. Who knows. But seeing your pic made me wonder if long-haired chihuahuas came from mixing the line with papillons, because they look like mini-papillons
The problem is that shitty owners encourage shitty behavior because they think it’s cute. We have 2 chi mixes and they’re perfectly fine.
Chi’s are very attached to one person for the most part. They often get jealous of other people having your attention. You were just part of their small circle
dan1101@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They are neat dogs, but they often have a bad case of Little Dog Syndrome where they lose their shit if bigger dogs or animals are around.