I’m not really a dog person, more a fan of cats and reptiles, but I remember being very attached to an old Chihuahua my family had for awhile. Never did get the hate for them, my experience with them has been that they can be very cuddly and a good size to come sit in your lap while watching tv or something. Never noticed the one I had to be particularly mean, though she was pretty old when we got her so maybe she just didn’t have the energy.
The problem is that shitty owners encourage shitty behavior because they think it’s cute. We have 2 chi mixes and they’re perfectly fine.
I’ve always more or less seen it as mostly just a training issue as a lot of people think their small size makes it unneeded.
Having had five of them from puppies, one having a litter that we kept two from, (Sister’s idea, I prefer cats) none of them were ever really aggressive unless antagonized. Maybe a bit yippey when the doorbell rang or a stranger was in the house, but after about a minute, they calmed down when they saw there was no threat.
What were they originally bred for? Besides mocking God.
Food, it looks like. They’ve been a breed for like 500 years, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techichi Food, sacrifices and lap dogs
Killing rats i think?
Aren’t most ratters a bit bigger? Of course smaller is better if it still gets the job done. And if we are being serious and shit then the breed may have changed a fair bit from when they were working dogs to today.
