Smart, loving and loyal to a fault, Chihuahuas need love and patience along with their training.
If you're in the market to buy a Chihuahua as a pet, you're looking at a very good choice for a loyal companion. Although many may make fun of them for being yappy and nervous, that's an oversimplification, and they make fine pets. But they do have personality traits that bear strongly on how you train them. Know what you're getting into before you bring the dog home, so that you can properly train him or her.
A key issue to remember before anything else is that the Chihuahua is a very affectionate dog. The thing of it is, they don't just give affection, they expect, require and often demand it. If you own a Chihuahua, you need to show him or her a lot love and attention. Their loyalty can often go to the extreme that the dog chooses a single member of the family as his or her own "assigned" person. They miss you a great deal when you are away, particularly if you are the "chosen one."
While these traits have a lot of positive aspects, they can also make some aspects of training difficult. Just remember to be patient, calm and positive. These dogs learn quickly. They are smart, and as long as you use a lot of gentle training that relies on positive reinforcement over punishment, you and the dog should be fine.
Harsh words, a loud voice and harsh punishment will likely prove counterproductive and may make training take longer or not take at all.
Housetraining the dog is obviously a big concern, but we'll hold off on that for the moment. Instead, let's focus on something that has a greater significance in terms of overall behavior and sociability. From an early age, you need to socialize the Chihuahua with adults other than family members, and with other dogs as well. (Chihuahuas don't always interact well with small children, as the dog is small, vulnerable and may find them threatening.)
So, why the need for heavy socialization with other humans besides your family? Well, frankly, a Chihuahua is generally suspicious of anyone except for his or her owners, particularly the special family member the dog chooses as his or her own. When strangers are around, the Chihuahua may stay extremely close to his or her owners and shy away from others. If you have the chance to expose your Chihuahua to a wide variety of people from a young age, you can minimize this problem. Of course, if you don't want the Chihuahua to trust others or be nice to strangers, this may not be a concern you need to worry about.
If you plan on taking the dog anywhere but your own backyard and you think another dog (that isn't a Chihuahua) might ever visit your home or be added to your family, you need to socialize the dog early with other dogs. Usually, a Chihuahua will recognize members of its own breed, and is less likely to be aggressive with them, but he or she is likely to be very aggressive with other dog breeds if you don't guard against that early. Exposure to a wide range of dogs at a young age is likely to prevent this overly aggressive behavior.
This kind of training with strangers and other dogs may also help reduce the Chihuahua's characteristic excitability, which may in turn mitigate the problem of excessive barking. It is true that they can be noisy dogs, and unless that doesn't bother you, it will pay off for you to calm the dog down early in life.
Now, about the peeing thing. You may need a lot of patience to housebreak a Chihuahua. Paper training this breed is a common practice and can work well, but you may need to have a two or three day period when you can spend nearly all of your time with the dog. After a regular meal (with perhaps a little extra water), bring your dog to the designated elimination area you've picked for training, and praise him or her lavishly when he or she sniffs that area and/or urinates in that area. If the dog doesn't urinate at first, return him or her to the area every 10 minutes and, again, give praise for sniffing the area or finally urinating there.
Cage training the dog might work for housebreaking, but the Chihuahua was breed for activity. The dog likes games and walks, and likes to expend both physical and mental energy. Confining the dog to a cage may simply make it sullen and make your housetraining take longer.
Although praise is necessary for effective training, don't rely on too many food rewards. This breed tends to gain weight and needs to be fed lightly.
Also, in terms of training the dog while walking (to heel, stay, etc.) you don't want to use a collar. For that matter, don't use a collar in general. Use a body harness so that the Chihuahua's neck is protected and you can avoid serious injuries to this relatively fragile dog, such as a collapsed trachea.
