Chihavior

Question
I have a question about just ONE of my Lulu's strange behavior.  She sleeps in the bed with us and at night she gets out of the bed to go use the bathroom.  She can get down, but is too small to get back up.  She "asks" to get back up by barking. When I wake up to reach over and help her, she cowers and slinks just out of reach.  This goes on for several minutes before she gives in and lets me pick her up. She does this a couple of times a night and it gets on my nerves.  Heard of this before?

Answer
Hi Michael...

Have I heard of this before?  Not only have I heard of it, I have a very small Chihuahua that does almost exactly the same thing, with the exception of getting down off the bed herself.  You didn't say how small your Chihuahua is, but my Chihuahua is really too small to be getting on or off the bed by herself and I've heard of just too many small Chihuahuas fracturing one or both of their front legs with having either fallen or jumped from a bed.  When my Chi wants off the bed or on the bed, she lets us know and then she twists and turns and navigates out of our reach and this goes on for a bit.  Likewise, she does the same thing when we go to pick her up out of the play pen that we feed her in.  I have NO doubt that this behavior is due to an innate fear of falling that very small dogs have.  I have observed the look on our small Chi's face when my husband is trying to pick her up and when he's carrying her and I'm convinced that the behavior that you're speaking of is due to this innate sense of self protection and fear of falling.  While the dog wants you to pick her up and place her on the bed, she's also getting a signal from her brain telling her that she could fall and she's torn - hence, the behavior that you're talking about.  My dog doesn't cower, but she does sometimes slink around a bit.  Mostly it's a dance that consists of twisting and turning which makes it impossible to get your hands around her to pick her up.  I'm wondering if the display of cowering and slinking with your dog is due to the fact that she most certainly senses that her behavior is getting on your nerves which makes her even more fearful?  I'm also wondering if anyone at all has ever dropped her before?

Have you ever considered doggy steps?  My 8 lb. Chihuahua uses them to get up and down from the bed and I wouldn't be without them.  Some Chihuahuas have been known to develop joint problems later in life that is often associated with excessive jumping in prior years.  I also have doggy steps in the living room so that two of my Chis can get on and off the couch.  They must feel better using them because they took to them right away with no training and never felt a need to jump off of the couch again.  My small Chihuahua is just too small to be using even the doggy steps though and that makes me wonder again just how small your Lulu is?

I'm also wondering why Lulu is needing to go to the bathroom "a couple of times a night"?  What are you feeding her and how late are you feeding her?  When I was feeding my small Chi dry food, we definitely had a problem with her needing to urinate at night.  Due to a problem that she was having where she cannot adequately digest dry kibble, a specialist had us put her on a human grade, premium canned food and her need to drink water late at night and urinate during the night diminished.

I hope that the information that I've given you is helpful.  If you want to answer some of the questions that I've asked above and do a follow-up with me, that would be great.  In the mean time, trust me that she can't help the behavior that she's displaying and doesn't mean to get on your nerves.  You're doing the right thing by inquiring about it and now you can try to help her with this.  She really wants to please you, trust me...

Jo Ann