hi,
As I have said before I and my boyfriend have recently inherritted 3 chihuahuas. One of them is lovely in temperament... docile and willing to be stroked and handled by anyone that will love him! The second is a little shy in nature but not nearly aggressive.
It is the third I am worried about and she comes with quite a story...
Lilly is a long coat chi.. my boyfriend's mum either bought or adopted her roughly five years ago. We believed her to be about 6 years old but as it turns out, her pedigree puts her at 10 yrs old... (definite shock to me as she has had puppies twice in the last 2 years!)
Anyway this puts her at full blown adult when my OH's mum took her in. (reasons for her being given up are unknown but my OH's mum had been a top class breeder for many many years before and I don't believe she would have bought a dog with temperament problems knowingly to breed her).
Another factor in this is that she kept these chis in the garden. (She lived with my OH and so the chis are still in the same address.) The chis had kennels set up for them.. but were not let in the house (this is also making house training extremely difficult!). and i believe their socialisation has been minimal.
It is only in the last 2-3 months that all chis have been let in the house but the aggression problems with Lilly have been ongoing for as long as I have known her.. (approx 4yrs)...
I can't remember my first meetings with Lilly and I can only ever remember her being fine with me, but it may be that she displayed some of this aggression when she first met me and I have forgotten it.
The aggression begins with strangers ( i don't think she has actually left the back garden in all her 5 yrs here, other than vet visits). She was wary of my boyfriend for a long time but is now fine with him.
From what i can tell (but i am not very knowledgable in these matters) she appears very fearful and nervous... If me or my OH approaches her from the wrong angle (from above) she will immediately assume a submissive possision (cower down and roll over).
If a stranger goes near her when she is in her pen, the response is innitially a high pitch park... often panting and restlessness, and jumping up at side of pen. When the stranger approaches she quietens down and only barks up again when they are retreating.
If the person puts a hand towards her the result is biting. As far as i know she has broken skin twice... Once when a guy put his hand in to her pen. A second when she was running free in the garden when people were visiting.
The second time brings me on to the next problem...ankle biting. again she only does this when the individual's back is turned. but she will go for these people the second she is allowed in their reach.
She has met my mother twice and displayed the same aggressive behaviour. First time my mum was sitting down. We let Lilly in the lounge and she jumped up at my mum... Mum went to pet her and Lilly immediately went to bite.
Second time mum went into the garden and this time Lilly went for the ankles... trying as hard as she could to get her mouth around them.
Lilly has recently had a litter of puppies and, at the moment, it could be easy to put this all down to protectiveness but she has displayed these behaviours for as long as i have known her with and without puppies and I have known many other dogs who are not so 'protecting' of their pups.
It worries me greatly and i almost feel ashamed of having such aggressive dog... Obviously I wouldn't giver her up, and she's gone through that experience before. I am current looking up behaviourists/trainers in my area but I am really interested in anything they you guys can comment on and help me understand what is going on with my chi a little better. her pups are only a couple of weeks old so I am not sure how much work a behaviourist could do with her at the moment due to stress and such.
Also if you could possibly give me any tips on techniques that may have worked in past cases that i could try, please let me know..
Sorry for such a long post, I have really gone on a bit here. i just wanted to get down as many of the details as poss.
Thank you
GW
xx