Beth since you do not know his background, then you just have to guess like I do. I do not allow ricky to be loose around people. I know he will bite. I do find though and read, that never have your friends or anyone approach your dog. tell them to ignore him completely. no eye contact etc. little dogs like to get to know strange people on there own time, if at all. People do not need to touch your dog anyway. Ricky is so much better if ignored.
another thing you can try, is have your friends have really good treats on them when they come over. still ignore your dog, but drop little treats around. Ricky is the type that MAYBE he will eat a treat from someone... but its rare. He and I went "a round" 2 days back. He can be agressive with plush toys... and really bad with new ones! I went to hand him a treat while he was on the couch. he had his new plush toy. instead of taking the treat, he decided to go for my hand! Well ... I tell you I reacted so quick it was not funny! (I even surprised myself). what I did was grab him around the back part of his neck to keep him from turning and biting me.. cause he was PISSED OFF! I did not have my hand around his neck... just the back and sides, holding him down.. just enough to keep hiim from coming back up to bite. he had his toy in his mouth at this time also. I grabbed hold of his toy, and he was not going to let go... growling and all... finially I got it away from him. then I started talking to him... telling him calm down, stop, calm down.. over and over.. until he did calm down and relaxed. then I let him go. I think he was very surprised by what I did to him. He has thought twice about doing it again so far.. This is what I think how ricky lived at his previous owners. I think they never walked him to socialize him, and only car rides was shots & to dump him at the shelter. I still wonder if he thinks he is going to be dumped again everytime we go in the car. if company came I think they put him away or put him outside. I think they never tried to correct his Alfa behavior.. so he thinks its ok to be like this. I also think he was alone alot and had to find what ever he could (toy, cookie, blanket) to keep him company. that was his security. so now.. he thinks he still has to do that. I never put Ricky outside without me. not even on my balcony. I open the door for him and wait there for him to finish... he comes back in and I praise him so much for doing his job outside.. anyway. wow this was alot of writing. :) Shanna & Ricky Las Vegas Nevada!! My Chi Ricky... Is A HeartBeat At My Feet Kavis Christening n Communion Store Visit my eBay Store: http://stores.ebay.com/Kavis-Christening-n-Communion-Store --- On Sat, 1/29/11, Beth x <[email protected]> wrote: From: Beth x <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] New to the group! / Ricky To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, January 29, 2011, 4:47 AM Oh gosh Shanna, I so relate to your "Killer Chi" comment. My Elmo seems to be afraid of men in general and has a particular hatred of my very nice mailman. I always answer the door now with Elmo firmly in my arms and most often it's the mailman at the door. He's such a nice guy, always rings the bell if he sees my car in the driveway and has a package for me....which is challenging now with Elmo. I edge open the door, back away and he places the package on the floor, smiling all the while. Elmo only quivers if I'm holding him but I KNOW that he goes beserk when the mailman arrives and I'm not holding him, have seen that on non-package Saturdays, when the mailman is just on the porch and there is sudden, hysterical barking at the window. I do worry about Elmo's apparent fear of men, he's snapped at a few of my guy friends and is clearly anxious in general about strangers of the male persuasion. Because I got him from a shelter, as a stray, I don't know what happened in his "before me" life but I suspect that perhaps there was an abusive male in his past. He is quite comfortable with my girl friends and with children, it's only men that seem to set him off. I am trying to introduce him to social situations with some of my guy friends, in a small doses. Some success, some really scary failures (he suddenly attacked my teenage nephew, who thankfully froze when I yelled "stand still Charlie". I was able to grab Elmo and he immediately calmed down but yikes, that's about as terrified as I've ever been in my life.). Elmo is a sweet, affectionate dog, I want to make this situation better for him - both for guests in my house and because I suspect that when I'm not home, which is rather a lot of hours in the work week, he's quite anxious. He is always on the back of the couch when I come home and almost always is trembling. It makes me so sad, every night. It stops within minutes of my arrival but I worry about how he spent his day while I was at work. Well, thanks for listening. If anyone has any advice for calming a maybe neurotic Chi, I'm listening :) -Beth "It's just a moment, this time will pass." Stuck In A Moment U2 To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:35:37 -0800 Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] New to the group! / Ricky Ricky just carries his piggie, elephant, or cow (which ever he chooses that day) around like a mommy dog. He will carry it everywhere in the house that he goes. at times he wants to take one of them on a walk with us. today he is playing guard mommy with 1/2 of a dog cookie! When the mailman knocked on the door with my package, he grabbed his cookie and started barking with it in his mouth. I have to pick him up and hold him while I answer the door... and then he turns into a Killer Chi! I am getting my taxes back in about a week. I will be taking Ricky for dog training. I talked to a dog trainer at Petsmart a few days back. She has seen Ricky before when I took him in there. anyway, she offered me 2- 30min priviate classs with him for $75, and then he can go into the 6 week group class for free! the reason behind the private classes is that Ricky is very aggressive when he sees other dogs, and people, so she wants to see how we can curb this in a private class. Joan knows how Ricky is around dogs... when she brought Dolly and Desi over and Ricky just wanted to attack poor Desi.. and Dolly too. Not much fun.. Shanna Shanna & Ricky Las Vegas Nevada!! My Chi Ricky... Is A HeartBeat At My Feet Kavis Christening n Communion Store Visit my eBay Store: http://stores.ebay.com/Kavis-Christening-n-Communion-Store
