Jealous Chihuahuas

[bfd70]

Help! My family has two chihuahuas, one male, and one female. They are four. My wife and I were admittedly not the best obidience trainers and tended to spoil them quite a bit (sleeping in bed...). Now our family has a new addition, a one year old baby girl. While the dogs manage to avoid her enthusiastic attempts at playing with them, and we teach our daughter proper dog interaction, they are extremely jealous and possesive of my wife and I. Both dogs have bee litterbox trained since being here 6 months. Accidents ere extremely rare. Now the dogs go on the carpet right in front of us. They also tend to go in all the baby areas. The other day our male peed on my wifes lap, as if marking her as his own. My wife is at her wits end, and has been researching rescue. I don't want to do that, I love my dogs too much (even if they sometimes make me crazy). Advice needed.desperate.

[Ambieruns10]

Obvioulsy a new baby is a big change for them. I would suggest trying to keep your normal routine with them that you had before you got your baby. I know this is hard but it will help with adjustment.

How long have you had the new baby?

[Leo]

If it was me I would look into doing some professional OB training with them (it is not too late to go to classes this problem can be corrected) they need to learn the NEW pack order of the house because it used to be You, Wife, Dog 1, Dog 2 and now it should be You, Wife, Baby and then dog 1 & dog 2. It sounds like they haven't gotten this message yet or are resistant to it.

The dogs peeing like that (both on your wife and right in front of you on the floor) is a dominance issue and their way of saying We come before that baby .... with some work they should be able to learn the new order.

Ask your vet or friends & family where they took their well behaved dogs for training if you keep hearing one place go there ... make sure it is a facility where they will teach you about being top dog and not one that is all about rewards with treats or even worse one that thinks it is ok to hit a dog (or look here http://www.nadoi.org/).

If your pets aren't Spayed & Neutered, Doing so could help with the problem.... Intact Males will mark especially if they feel their territory is being threatened.

If you are willing to put in the time you can fix this. A tired dog is a good dog... if they were used to all the attention from mom & dad and aren't getting any they may be acting out for attention... daily walks and a regular scheduled playtime every day could help this immensely.

Good Luck and when you get the chance please post a pic of them