Smile for the Day

[Curious]

This is a long haired chihuahua doing a freestyle routine at Crufts. This is the first time I've seen anyone perform with a chihuahua. Usually people have Goldens or bigger dogs. I imagine it's a bit harder with a dog this size. You don't have to worry about stepping on a Golden ;) I did notice at one point the owner missed a step and ran into her a little bit and she was a little leery for just a brief moment after that, but she did get right back into it.

5lVff6wwu80

[Palimpsest]

Thank you for posting this!

That was absolutely adorable and so well choreographed to the music. Such a great connection between dog and person too. Two big dog owners here were laughing and cheering that tiny little dog and her owner on!

Freestyle looks such fun but it needs so much training and really impeccable timing. My newest pupper just passed his Therapy Dog Test and I was thinking of trying Agility with him soon. However seeing this I'm really tempted to try Freestyle -- even though I have two left feet and he can dance rings around me already!

[jjmennonite]

Thanks, Curious. I love my little chi-chi. But we don't do tricks.

[theCR]

I told my fiance he needs to do this with our chi Wylie. He already follows him around everywhere.

Totally made me smile thanks! :)

[PennySycamore]

This is just adorable and Betty is so cute. I've never seen freestyle with a dog so tiny. This makes up for missing seeing Chaser, the smarter than a tree full of owls Border Collie, this afternoon.

[Curious]

Thank you for posting this!

That was absolutely adorable and so well choreographed to the music. Such a great connection between dog and person too. Two big dog owners here were laughing and cheering that tiny little dog and her owner on!

Freestyle looks such fun but it needs so much training and really impeccable timing. My newest pupper just passed his Therapy Dog Test and I was thinking of trying Agility with him soon. However seeing this I'm really tempted to try Freestyle -- even though I have two left feet and he can dance rings around me already!

Maybe Rally would be something you'd like. I know a lot of people have been giving that a try because it's less physical than agility and more fun/less structured than regular obedience. I wish I could do this kind of stuff. There is a woman that does (or did) work Papillons that is in a motorized wheelchair. I just have a manual chair, though.

I told my husband last night that I thought we should train one of our chis to do this. She already loves to "dance" and they do a little dance together that started when she was just a puppy. She loves learning tricks, so I think she could learn the steps needed. Not necessarily to compete. I think she'd just have fun doing it. Betty, was clearly having a great time with her owner.

Congrats to you and your new therapy dog :) When I was in the rehab hospital after my surgery the therapy dog visits were the one thing I looked forward to.

[formergothardite]

That was adorable.

[Curious]

That was adorable.

Doing my part to change the reputation of (long hair) chihuahuas around the world ;)

[Coconut Flan]

It made me want one again.

[Curious]

It made me want one again.

Then my work here is done ;)

They look like this as babies (just to give you more incentive)

This one is a little older, but I love her attitude in the pic

Edit to add: sorry if anyone was trying to view this and things went a little wonky for a couple minutes. I thought I had grabbed smaller pics the first time and when I looked at the post they were life size chihuahuas staring at me, so I went to resize them and hilarity ensued when I was trying to get the right pics up :(

[Palimpsest]

Maybe Rally would be something you'd like. I know a lot of people have been giving that a try because it's less physical than agility and more fun/less structured than regular obedience. I wish I could do this kind of stuff. There is a woman that does (or did) work Papillons that is in a motorized wheelchair. I just have a manual chair, though.

I told my husband last night that I thought we should train one of our chis to do this. She already loves to "dance" and they do a little dance together that started when she was just a puppy. She loves learning tricks, so I think she could learn the steps needed. Not necessarily to compete. I think she'd just have fun doing it. Betty, was clearly having a great time with her owner.

Congrats to you and your new therapy dog :) When I was in the rehab hospital after my surgery the therapy dog visits were the one thing I looked forward to.

Shoot! When I wrote Agility I really meant Rally-O! Total brain-fart!

I have given Rally a trial go and found it enormous fun. My anxious hound (not a potential TD hound) and I just loved Rally. Unfortunately we had to drop out of class because he started having seizures. It is a long story, and I may get him back into it if we can ever get his seizures properly under control. He has great docs and great meds. He is a "brittle" seizure hound though and we are constantly adjusting the meds.

On the Therapy Dog thing, thanks for sharing your experience. I have 9+ years of TD volunteering under my belt with various pups. I just love it and always make sure that my dogs (the ones who have the potential and can pass the test) love it too. My new trainee (who just passed his test) is having to step into some pretty big paw prints.

We always feel appreciated by the people we visit, but it is so nice to hear that TD volunteering is appreciated by so many others.

I also personally know of 2 Service Dog Phalenes (Papillons with droopy ears) who fetch and carry objects and two Service Dog Chihuahuas. Of the Chis, one is a hearing dog and the other a diabetic alert dog.

Small dogs are great!

[Curious]

Shoot! When I wrote Agility I really meant Rally-O! Total brain-fart!

I have given Rally a trial go and found it enormous fun. My anxious hound (not a potential TD hound) and I just loved Rally. Unfortunately we had to drop out of class because he started having seizures. It is a long story, and I may get him back into it if we can ever get his seizures properly under control. He has great docs and great meds. He is a "brittle" seizure hound though and we are constantly adjusting the meds.

On the Therapy Dog thing, thanks for sharing your experience. I have 9+ years of TD volunteering under my belt with various pups. I just love it and always make sure that my dogs (the ones who have the potential and can pass the test) love it too. My new trainee (who just passed his test) is having to step into some pretty big paw prints.

We always feel appreciated by the people we visit, but it is so nice to hear that TD volunteering is appreciated by so many others.

I also personally know of 2 Service Dog Phalenes (Papillons with droopy ears) who fetch and carry objects and two Service Dog Chihuahuas. Of the Chis, one is a hearing dog and the other a diabetic alert dog.

Small dogs are great!

Aww that's rough about your seizure guy :( Those are so hard to get a bead on, often times. We've been "lucky" in the seizure dept. We've had 2 seizure dogs, one has passed now, but fortunately neither one ever went over the threshold for further testing/medication. Our girl that passed seemed to be triggered by being outside when yard work (of any kind) was being done so we were able to control her's somewhat just by keeping her inside during those times, much to her displeasure.

I've read there are some newer treatments that are much less hard on the dogs, so I hope you find something that works and gives your guy a good quality of life.

The therapy dog folks really went above and beyond for me when I was at the rehab hospital. I'd already been in the hospital over a week when I was transferred there, so missed my dogs quite badly. They originally told me I'd be in the rehab hospital for a month, so I was not very happy about being dogless for that much time. They quickly found that my mood was vastly improved after a TD visit and if I wasn't in my room when the TD came to the floor I was on, they always came and found me so I got my visit. I really appreciated it. It made being dogless and computerless so. much. better.

I know several people that have Papillon service dogs. That was one of the reasons I started researching the breed originally, I saw a woman online with one. I got to know her (online) a couple years later. We started training my first Pap as a service dog. He was really good about the public stuff and quite a lot of things, but he has a bit of a soft mouth and I could never get him to pick stuff up very well and I wasn't going to use ear pinches or any kind of pain based punishment on him. So we washed him out and called it a day. If I got a dog with the right temperament, I might give it a go again. That hasn't happened for me yet, but I haven't been looking with that in mind either. It's been probably 12 years since he went anywhere with me "on duty" and if I go somewhere with him, he still is "on" as along as I am along. He's just a slack ass almost 15 year old with my husband. It's fun to see the difference in him ;)

[theCR]

Aww that's rough about your seizure guy :( Those are so hard to get a bead on, often times. We've been "lucky" in the seizure dept. We've had 2 seizure dogs, one has passed now, but fortunately neither one ever went over the threshold for further testing/medication. Our girl that passed seemed to be triggered by being outside when yard work (of any kind) was being done so we were able to control her's somewhat just by keeping her inside during those times, much to her displeasure.

I've read there are some newer treatments that are much less hard on the dogs, so I hope you find something that works and gives your guy a good quality of life.

The therapy dog folks really went above and beyond for me when I was at the rehab hospital. I'd already been in the hospital over a week when I was transferred there, so missed my dogs quite badly. They originally told me I'd be in the rehab hospital for a month, so I was not very happy about being dogless for that much time. They quickly found that my mood was vastly improved after a TD visit and if I wasn't in my room when the TD came to the floor I was on, they always came and found me so I got my visit. I really appreciated it. It made being dogless and computerless so. much. better.

I know several people that have Papillon service dogs. That was one of the reasons I started researching the breed originally, I saw a woman online with one. I got to know her (online) a couple years later. We started training my first Pap as a service dog. He was really good about the public stuff and quite a lot of things, but he has a bit of a soft mouth and I could never get him to pick stuff up very well and I wasn't going to use ear pinches or any kind of pain based punishment on him. So we washed him out and called it a day. If I got a dog with the right temperament, I might give it a go again. That hasn't happened for me yet, but I haven't been looking with that in mind either. It's been probably 12 years since he went anywhere with me "on duty" and if I go somewhere with him, he still is "on" as along as I am along. He's just a slack ass almost 15 year old with my husband. It's fun to see the difference in him ;)

We are working on getting our chi service dog certified(seizure alert) themanCR has epilepsy and wylie(our chi) has come and woke me up every time. He has seizures only in the mornings and they come when he doesn't get enough sleep or when he forgets to take his pills. I'm normally still sleeping when he is up and getting ready for work. If he starts having a seizure Wylie barks, runs into the bedroom, jumps on the bed and barks at me till I jump up. Wylie has done this natually since we got him. He is in training now and once he completes this we can get him registered as a service dog.

Chihuahuas are so much smarter than I had thought, I am not a small dog person but this little shit is so stinkin cute and pretty dang smart I can't help but love him.

[Curious]

We are working on getting our chi service dog certified(seizure alert) themanCR has epilepsy and wylie(our chi) has come and woke me up every time. He has seizures only in the mornings and they come when he doesn't get enough sleep or when he forgets to take his pills. I'm normally still sleeping when he is up and getting ready for work. If he starts having a seizure Wylie barks, runs into the bedroom, jumps on the bed and barks at me till I jump up. Wylie has done this natually since we got him. He is in training now and once he completes this we can get him registered as a service dog.

Chihuahuas are so much smarter than I had thought, I am not a small dog person but this little shit is so stinkin cute and pretty dang smart I can't help but love him.

Service dogs do not have to be "registered" anywhere. If you have a disability/disease/impairment (I'm not exactly sure what you consider epilepsy so please forgive my hamhanded wording) and your dog alerts/"services"/helps/insert word of your choice here, as long as the dog is not disruptive, is clean and has his rabies vaccination you are good to go.

If you need more info shoot me a PM and I will be happy to give you some links to information, vests, info cards to hand out if you are stopped etc.

[laura oz]

Darn you, you darn bunny!!! (We need a curse you aqua-scum smiley like in Nemo BTW) My husband and I went birthday shopping for my daughter's 3rd today, and he brought this up while we were at Outback. Thought a steak and some hard whiskey would sway me :lol: With both of you overloading me on the cuteness factor, I'm getting so very weak. His reasoning was that her birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and it would make it so much more special to give ger a cute "wawa" as she calls them, or a daggum teacup Yorkie. The Yorkie is out because they don't do well with small terrorists children. We had a great dane/lab mix, but had to give her to a family member because she was just too big and didn't know her own strength. I cried buckets over that sweet pup & don't want to fall in puppy-love again. But they are SO cute. They really are just precious.

[Curious]

Darn you, you darn bunny!!! (We need a curse you aqua-scum smiley like in Nemo BTW) My husband and I went birthday shopping for my daughter's 3rd today, and he brought this up while we were at Outback. Thought a steak and some hard whiskey would sway me :lol: With both of you overloading me on the cuteness factor, I'm getting so very weak. His reasoning was that her birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and it would make it so much more special to give ger a cute "wawa" as she calls them, or a daggum teacup Yorkie. The Yorkie is out because they don't do well with small terrorists children. We had a great dane/lab mix, but had to give her to a family member because she was just too big and didn't know her own strength. I cried buckets over that sweet pup & don't want to fall in puppy-love again. But they are SO cute. They really are just precious.

Just a note for anyone looking for a puppy or dog. There is no such thing as a "teacup" anything. That is just a term that (IMO) less than reputable breeders use to charge more money for puppies that happen to be smaller than average. Many times these puppies are perfectly fine, if very fragile due to their very tiny size. However, anyone purposely breeding for a size well under standard should immediately be eyed with suspicion, again IMO, because that is certainly not in the best interest of the breed. Also, sometimes a puppy will be exceptionally small due to a congenital defect that isn't immediately noticeable, such as a liver shunt.

This means the new family brings home the puppy and it's seemingly healthy for a while and then suddenly starts having health issues and eventually is diagnosed with the shunt. Many dogs do fine with a shunt and live a relatively normal life and lifespan, but not all do. Another thing to consider when getting a toy/small breed puppy is that they may be prone to hyperglycemia until they reach around 4-5 pounds or 6-8 months (or maybe a little older depending on the puppy). This can be especially true with a very tiny puppy (the so-called teacups). So if you do end up getting a toy breed you should have either some karo syrup or nutri-cal on hand at all times and make sure the puppy is given a snack after any heavy play sessions, regardless of whether they have been fed their entire ration of food per day or not. There is hardly anything scarier than a young crashing puppy (again IMO).

We feed 3-4 times a day depending on the puppy (how well they eat, how active they are, how many treats they are getting between meals etc) until they are around 6 months old or until the puppy is spayed or neutered. Once they have been fixed, they will start to put on weight, so they are cut back to 2 meals a day until they start to gain weight, at which point they get fed once a day like the adult dogs. If they are one of the lucky few that manage to stay rail thin, then they get to eat 2 times a day until they start gaining weight. If you prefer to feed 2 times a day, you can cut daily rations in 1/2 to feed twice a day as adults. We just feed once a day for convenience mainly. They do get treats in the morning though.

Daiquiri just turned a year and she still gets fed twice a day some days. She is not at all food motivated and I actually had to hand feed her for quite a few months to get her to eat. She isn't picky exactly, she just can't be bothered to slow down to eat. That requires her to stop what she is doing and stand in one place and when she was younger that was just not in her plans. She is still a little bit hit and miss. Some days she will eat her whole bowl and seconds and some days I am hand feeding her, begging her to at least try something.

Her poor sister, on the other hand, seemed to gain weight the moment she was spayed and she may be on half rations soon if she keeps sneaking her sister's leftovers. Her nickname is now FattyBoBatty ;)

You also might want to consider an older puppy or a young adult (1-2 years) if you are not really into the whole young puppy thing (since you have young kids and having a young puppy is like adding another toddler). Toy/small breed dogs tend to keep their puppyness quite a long time, so even getting an older puppy you don't miss out on the "fun" parts of the puppyhood, but you can skip a lot of the worst parts like potty training and teething (which may be a blessing with young kids. Sharky teeth and toddler skin might be a bad combo).

Good luck if they talk you into a puppy/dog of any breed :)

[formergothardite]

Doing my part to change the reputation of (long hair) chihuahuas around the world ;)

I've already decided that once my furry children cross the rainbow bridge and I'm emotionally ready for another dog we are going to get a Chihuahua. Our local animal shelter is very high kill but they also seem to get small dogs a lot, so I'm hoping to adopt from there next time. Is the long hair hard to care for? I've only had short haired pets.

[Curious]

I've already decided that once my furry children cross the rainbow bridge and I'm emotionally ready for another dog we are going to get a Chihuahua. Our local animal shelter is very high kill but they also seem to get small dogs a lot, so I'm hoping to adopt from there next time. Is the long hair hard to care for? I've only had short haired pets.

Not at all. They are very "wash and wear" kind of dogs. We give baths about every 2-3 weeks because both our girls are both very outdoorsy and like to be on our laps/right in our faces, so I prefer a fresher smelling fluffy companion if they are going to be spending a lot of time on me. We just use a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner by Tropiclean (I can get the exact link if anyone is interested) that is gentle and pretty "green" and we use that for the bathing. Then we towel dry. Give a quick brush through. Toss them in a warm shirt or robe and let them go. Once they are dry, I do another brush through and that's it. I run a comb or brush through them a couple times a week or so. I run a comb through Tequila's ear fringe more often if it starts to look ragged so it doesn't get mats.

It takes less than 1/2 hour to groom both of them unless I'm doing some major grooming with feet trimming, nails etc.

[Palimpsest]

Service dogs do not have to be "registered" anywhere. If you have a disability/disease/impairment (I'm not exactly sure what you consider epilepsy so please forgive my hamhanded wording) and your dog alerts/"services"/helps/insert word of your choice here, as long as the dog is not disruptive, is clean and has his rabies vaccination you are good to go.

If you need more info shoot me a PM and I will be happy to give you some links to information, vests, info cards to hand out if you are stopped etc.

Curious, the bolded is absolutely true for the USA under the ADA. Any "SD Register" here is a scam. But, as we are an international forum, I wanted to say that I don't think it is necessarily true for the UK and Australia, and probably a few other countries. I fairly sure both the UK and Australia maintain registries of SDs.

Per the ADA public access rules SDs do not have to pass any tests, may be owner trained, and do not have to be registered or have documentation. The owner must be disabled under the provisions of ADA, but may not be asked or need to disclose precisely what the disability is in order to get access.

From the ADA:

When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.

Of course, most people with SDs I know say that in practice they are challenged all the time because many businesses don't know the law. It is a good idea to carry info. The same people also emphasize that SDs should be incredibly well behaved in public because otherwise it makes all SDs look bad.

I agree with them. We actually met a huge dog-agressive SDIT recently at the vet's. He was all dressed up in his vest with SDIT and "Mobility Dog" patches, but the owner had no control over him at all. He lunged and snapped at my sighthound from across the reception area. My little guy, who was behaving beautifully, just looked at me in horror so we went outside to wait for our appointment. Not a good advertisement for SDs, and I hope that SDIT improves with good training.

In case anyone is confused by all the initials: SD = Service Dog, SDIT = Service Dog In Training, and TD = Therapy Dog. I actually spend a lot of time explaining the differences between TDs, SDs and SDITs. :)

My TDs are just well behaved pets who volunteer to share doggy love. They are not SDs, perform no tasks for me, and I am not disabled under ADA. They do not go everywhere with me (although I'm sure they'd like to! :lol:) and have no rights to Public Access. We have to be invited, and provide documentation that they have passed a TD test and are healthy, before we can visit most institutions.

[Curious]

Curious, the bolded is absolutely true for the USA under the ADA. Any "SD Register" here is a scam. But, as we are an international forum, I wanted to say that I don't think it is necessarily true for the UK and Australia, and probably a few other countries. I fairly sure both the UK and Australia maintain registries of SDs.

You're right. I shouldn't have ASSumed that the OP was in the US. Thank you for providing more detailed information. I'm not very well versed in service dog protocol outside the US, particularly current information since I no longer belong to any service dog related lists or groups. I do try to keep up on the US laws because I never know when the universe may send me the perfect candidate ;)

I will add also add, in case the OP is in the US, that when I had my guy in training that I did not run into any problems taking him places. He has been to sold out Pittsburgh Pirates games, restaurants, malls, target, etc. Pretty much any place we went. The nice thing about a small dog is that they are not that attention drawing unless you want them to be. We could go through the mall and people would think he was a stuffed animal because I held him (for his own safety). I carried a small berber mat for him that we put down under the table at restaurants or any place he needed to sit/lay for an extended period of time. That way he always had a clean/soft place to lay and he knew it was his spot. I didn't have to worry about him laying in gunk on a patio if we ate outdoors or who knows what under a table at an indoor restaurant.

One other tip, I learned from being "in the field," dogs attract kids. Kids like to grab small dogs heads. Small dogs don't appreciate this very much. I taught my guy a few tricks that would head off the immediate reach for the head and always carried easy to give treats for small children like cheerios (cut in 1/4s cause I'm generous that way ;) ). We taught sit up (some call this beg), wave, high 5 and shake. Kids loved it when he would sit and wave at them and they could give him a treat and they forgot all about wanting to grab his ears/head to pet him. He loved kids and didn't mind them petting, but tiny hands coming right for his head made him nervous and I wanted to avoid that stressor for him. We got pretty good at catching kids and setting them up for positive interaction and everyone left happy.

Edit to add: I was looking for a picture of him working, but can't find one on this computer. I did find this one of his "grown up" vest that he got for Christmas, though.

[laura oz]

Our cat Chicken got fixed and he's a big, fat, & happy doorstop. He must be awesome for the female kitties in the neighborhood, cause the ladies come to him. He reminds me of the super fat cat that was in an episode of South Park. He'll lay in his window perch, and if he sees a lady that he likes, he'll make a fluffy call to her. The little lady comes running & it cracks me up.

Do the long hairs shed really bad? I'm always fighting Chicken's stray hairs even though I wash his chunky hiney once a week and use one of those specialized brushes to get all the loose hairs almost every day. I know some people swear their poodles etc don't shed, but every "furwooferbaby" I've ever had has shed.

[Curious]

Our cat Chicken got fixed and he's a big, fat, & happy doorstop. He must be awesome for the female kitties in the neighborhood, cause the ladies come to him. He reminds me of the super fat cat that was in an episode of South Park. He'll lay in his window perch, and if he sees a lady that he likes, he'll make a fluffy call to her. The little lady comes running & it cracks me up.

Do the long hairs shed really bad? I'm always fighting Chicken's stray hairs even though I wash his chunky hiney once a week and use one of those specialized brushes to get all the loose hairs almost every day. I know some people swear their poodles etc don't shed, but every "furwooferbaby" I've ever had has shed.

I would say that their shedding depends on the level of grooming I do. When we just had Teq and I *might* have been a tad obsessed with her grooming (because it was SO easy. She was always on my lap, so I'd just grab a comb and run it through her....a lot of times a day lol) she hardly shed at all. Now that her sister is the one that spends most of her time on my lap (Teq tends to sleep behind me on the chair now, she figured out she doesn't get brushed if she is behind me :shifty-kitty: ) and she only gets brushed a couple times a week she does shed more. I was actually shocked at how much she shed just today and I debated digging out my furminator to run through her.

Daiq has shorter (long) hair than Teq and she does shed less than Teq even with the couple times a week grooming.

This isn't the best pic ever, but it's the most current one I have. It was just taken yesterday. We couldn't get Teq to put her ears up, she was too excited about the prospect of belly rubs. I could get her head up, then her ears went down. If her ears were up, her head was down. You can sort of tell the difference in their coat though, despite the shirts.

[formergothardite]

Those little faces. They just make me smile. I want to snuggle them.

[Curious]

Those little faces. They just make me smile. I want to snuggle them.

:) They are the best. snugglers. evah!

Right now one is on my lap and one is sleeping on my footstool keeping my feet warm :)

They sleep under the covers most nights. One of them usually sleeps ON me under the covers. Once in a while both of them do. They are definitely people dogs. They are pretty low maintenance as long as they can be with their person they are happy. They aren't dogs that do well being home alone 12 hours a day.

[Becoming_Me]

Thanks for the video and the pictures of your babies, Curious. Total love!

What I love best about the sport of freestyle is that it is almost impossible to train without positive methods like clicker training and its a new sport so there are no old timers saying inane things like, "you have to pinch the dog's ear to train that move".