Aggressive male chi

Question
Hello, my 9 month old male is so aggressive when in my arms or lap. I have had him fixed in hopes the aggression would at least less but, he seems maybe even more aggressive. The main problem is if anyone comes near me my son, husband or a stranger he gets so worked up and bites me repeatedly. It's the craziest thing anyone has ever seen and believe me when he is mad it does hurt even though he is only 3 lbs. It's like he is aiming to hurt them but instead he bites me. He can just be sitting in my lap and if my husband walks by he starts going nuts and bites me. Please, Please help.

Answer
Hi Nancy...

As I was reading what you wrote, I was thinking to myself just how common it is for Chihuahuas to be VERY protective of the people that they love and then I saw where he gets so agitated that he actually bites you.  I run a Yahoo group for Chihuahua owners and there's two people on there that have male Chihuahuas that do the same thing.  One in particular is really bad, but he has some severe medical problems as well.  I think your first course of action is to see a good vet who is experienced with this breed and have your dog thoroughly examined.  Did you have any blood work run prior to neutering him?  You should talk to the vet about the necessity of doing that if you haven't already.  As I said above, it is really common to see exhibitions of behavior that relate to a Chihuahua's devotion to the person that they love, but the fact that he gets so out of control that he bites you makes me really feel that any potential medical problems should be ruled out before you start just concentrating on this being a behavior issue.

When you said that your dog was worse after being neutered, I wondered if you know if your vet used one of the safer gas anesthetics like Isoflorane or Sevo?  That's all that I would let any vet use on my Chis, especially one as small as your little guy.  I have heard that people see behavioral changes when Ketamine is used as an anesthetic for their dogs and cats and that's an anesthetic that I try to avoid.

Let me know what you think about what I've said here and please schedule your little guy for a thorough examination.  If that comes out okay, then write me again and let's discuss some behavior modification and talk about why he is doing what he does.