Chihuahuas Are More Than Ornaments

[talon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AI1EE20101119

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/07/earlyshow/contributors/debbyeturner/main1982217.shtml

http:// chihuahuaservicedog.blogspot.com/

http://www.dailygate.com/articles/2009/03/05/news/01.txt

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2002236307_costcodog09e.html

And of course, there's Itzl

I don't know why it always amazes people that Chihuahuas - or any small dog, for that matter - can't be useful as well as cute.

I've owned 4 Chihuahuas (2 are still alive), a German Shepherd, a Dachshund, and several mutts. I have rescued and trained and found homes for 24 more dogs, mostly Chihuahua mixes.

I will set the intelligence of Itzl up against any German Shepherd or Golden Retriever or Labrador any day.

It's not size that matters when it comes to intelligence.

Size only matters if the service dog's duties include ones requiring physical strength - guide and mobility dogs, for instance, although I know a Chihuahua/Terrier mix that weighs around 10 pounds who is a very good guide dog. His owner/handler has been blind a long time and has had previous guide dog, so she knew to trust the dog. The dog didn't need to use his size to pull her or tug her or stop her. She responds to light cues, and when she won't respond quickly enough, he will whine or even bark, which brings her to attention. For someone new to guide dogs, I suppose a large strong dog would be needed until the blind person learned to trust the dog. Then that person could have a guide dog smaller than a German Shepherd.

For hearing assistance, the dog doesn't even have to be able-bodied. All it has to be able to do is hear and alert their owner/handler in a way the owner/handler understands. Itzl, for example, shrugs at me when he's in his pouch. Out of his pouch, he looks at me then stares at whatever sound I need to notice. If I fail to look, he will move to catch my attention, then stare at the sound. If he's on a leash, he will stop and stare, or bump into my leg and then stare, cutting his eyes at me to see if I'm looking where he's looking. At home or when visiting, where he runs free, he'll run to me and bump into my leg or jump in my lap and stare at the sound. If the sound frightens him, he'll shake at me and try to climb into his pouch. If it's a tornado siren, he tries to herd everyone to the safe spot - and he knows where all the safe spots are at the places we frequent. If we're driving, he sits in a car seat (like a baby seat, but built for dogs) beside me, and will lean over and put his paw on my arm to alert me to ambulance and police sirens.

He ignores well-behaved children and dogs. Misbehaving children (ie, ones having screaming melt-downs) tend to fascinate him and he watches them have their hysterics. Ones who try to pet him without asking or warning, he ducks into the pouch or runs behind or around me. I don't let the little brats annoy him. Misbehaving dogs, he'll warn with a growl - the ones who jump up on me or leap in to my face while their owners laugh.

It's when we're out walking or in stores that his services are the most useful - he alerts me to people coming up behind me who would run me over, or warns me of small children running loose so I don't get tripped by them, alerts me to when people are talking to me, and alerts me to the sound of back-up beeps from delivery trucks and personal SUVs. The delivery people usually check for pedestrians - the people driving SUVs - never! I guess they figure they are too rich and important to look and see if there's anyone behind him, so I am always amazed that more SUV owners haven't run over more of their children - you'll notice when a child is run over by a parent, the parent always is driving one of those behemoth vehicles. I attribute the survival of those children more to the speed and awareness of the child than the driver parent. And my survival to Itzl, who alerts me when one of those oblivious drivers of gargantuan vehicles might hit me.

Itzl has saved my life from those sorts of drivers more than once. For that service alone, to warn me of idiot drivers when I'm walking, he deserves his service tags.

He doesn't often wear service vests, because they don't make them small enough for him and I haven't made many for him. He does have his collar and leash in the appropriate red or orange colors (red is easier to find, but orange is supposedly the proper "hearing assistant" color. I suppose I should make his pouches in service colors...he's got seasonal ones - a mesh summer one with pockets for cooling ice packs, an all purpose green one that we use by default, a pumpkin ornamented Halloween one, and a fur lined leather one with a storm flap for winter use.

He is a very much indulged dog because he works for the special favors he receives. He gets special treats and is fed a special diet (partly to control his potty habits, partly to prevent others from feeding him food he's not allowed to have). He wears a huge variety of costumes and sweaters and T-shirts because he loves dressing up. He has rain booties and snow booties and wooden floor/marble floor booties with gripper pads so he doesn't skid on the floor. He has a rain coat and a snow parka. He has his own passport, work ID, 401K retirement plan, health insurance, restaurant gift cards, business cards, shopping gift cards, work desk (they built my desk so he has his own section of it), and meal plan at work.

I do get kind of tired of people assuming he's a pet and telling me they wished they could bring their pet wherever we happen to be (in the store, at work, eating in a restaurant, walking down a hotel hallway...), but not as tired as I do of assorted employees telling me I can't be there with my "pet" dog, of being shadowed by store employees, of being accosted by store security over and over, because "little dogs are pets, not service dogs".

And that's not true, as the links above show. Small dogs love to have jobs, and they do them well. In fact, small dogs may be better at some services than large dogs - search and rescue, for example. Small dogs can get into smaller spaces and go deeper into collapsed buildings to search for survivors, and the rely on their hearing as much as their smell. Small dogs can sniff for drugs in places large dogs can't get to. Small dogs are easier for elderly people (the most likely to have hearing impairments) to care for.

Hearing dogs are going to be more important as our population ages and begin exhibiting the irreversible hearing losses of a generation exposed to excessive and loud noises in concerts and via electronic devices (head phones and earplugs). And, unlike guide and mobility dogs, hearing dogs don't have to be of a large, strong breed of dog. There is no preferential breed for hearing dogs, no physical requirements other than good hears and a sharp mind, so any size or breed of dog can be a hearing dog.

Most of the hearing impaired people I know prefer smaller dogs: terrier mixes, Papillons, Pugs, Min Pins, Scotties, Chinese Crested, Beagles, Basenjis, Maltese, spitzes, Italian greyhounds, Shelties. We need to become accustomed to seeing smaller service dogs.

And not just smaller service dogs, but a variety of service animals as well. Parrots make outstanding hearing assistance animals and seizure alert animals, for example. There are also miniature horses, goats, pigs, and monkeys.

When Itzl reaches the end of his service years, I hope I can find another small dog to assist me. I'm not set on any specific breed, although I'd prefer one with a medium coat as opposed to either long or short or even hairless (the exception being a Chinese Crested). It won't be Itzl - I think an Itzl only comes along once in a lifetime - but I won't let the memories of Itzl diminish the service that future dog will provide.

So if you see someone with a small dog or an unusual animal as a service animal, don't think "pet", watch, and maybe you'll discover they are a working team. The clues abound: the animal is exceptionally well behaved, stays close to the owner/handler, pays attention to the owner/handler, is acclimated to being in public, doesn't beg or solicit attention, is quiet, is not disruptive - although the people around it may be disruptive and unruly in trying to get the animal's attention or to pet the animal or feed it. Pity the people are as well-behaved as the animal.