Dear Joan: I’ve a three-year-old Apple Head Chihuahua who has a nasty behavior of screaming loudly each time I open the entrance door and she or he sees our next-door neighbour.
She will get so excited that she scratches the display screen and begins screaming. I’ve tried squirt bottles, closing the door and protecting the door closed so long as she screams. Nothing appears to work. Have any recommendations?
Eugenia Garcia, Campbell, California
Dear Eugenia: Welcome to my world.
My Chihuahua, Bailey, has gotten extra vocal as he’s gotten older, and he’s began what may very well be thought-about screaming once we go away our room in the early morning. Apparently, I’m not strolling quick sufficient to the kitchen to feed him, and he must encourage me.
It’s a startling sound, for certain, and it may be trigger for concern in some circumstances, however to your dog and mine, it’s nothing to fret about.
The screaming, or high-pitched barking and howling, could be a sign the dog is in ache, and with Chihuahuas and different small canine, that ache could be due to neck and backbone points. Dogs in ache must be seen by a veterinarian.
Because you realize what triggers your dog – seeing the neighbour – then it’s unlikely the dog is screeching in ache. She is, as a substitute, simply actually excited, and to cease the screaming, that you must work on calming her down, which is far simpler stated than accomplished.
Spraying with the water bottle received’t do it. She would possibly see it as punishment, however she probably received’t perceive what it’s she’s being punished for.
She’s simply displaying how a lot she loves the neighbour or perhaps how a lot she needs to gnaw on his ankles.
Instead of squirting her with water, work on educating her some instructions that you should use to get her consideration and reward her for obeying them. For occasion, train her to sit down or to heel.
Giving her a command that she is going to comply with will get her consideration targeted on you and never the neighbour, and may cease the vocalisations and screen-scratching. – Tribune News Service/The Mercury News/Joan Morris
