Confessions of a Rehab'd Chihuahua

Hi! My name is Monchi, and yes, at 10 years young, I'm a rehabilitated chihuahua. By looking through my Instagram profile @MonchiPaw you might not believe it, but the truth is that over the course of my first 8 years of life, I developed all sorts of behavioral issues that led to many problems for myself and my mom. When I was a puppy, I was very shy, and all of the other dogs at the park intimidated me. After all, I was only a little chihuahua! My mom had the best of intentions and was always trying to help me, picking me up from the ground and protecting me from anyone or anything that could potentially cause me harm. Looking back I see that she used to worry way too much. I don’t blame her as some dogs can look and sound scary.

Luckily, at home I was safe and spent a lot of time playing and cuddling with my mom.

Life was so much easier and a lot more fun at home.

As years went by, and I continued to grow in my loving but sheltered environment, I really didn’t want to play with other dogs. In fact, I would bark and growl at anyone who would come close to me or my mom. Sadly, my behavior gave me a bad rep and led to people calling me ugly names and referring to me as the vicious chihuahua in the hood. Nobody wanted to hang out with me, and I had no furriends.

This constant reaction caused me a lot of trouble as I was no longer allowed to walk near dog parks or hang out around other people. My mom didn’t trust me to be off-leash anymore. It made me very sad to see everything my mom was going through due to my behavior.

Something she didn’t know is that this whole time I’ve been trying to show her something about herself that needed to change. Her constant worry and lack of confidence was creating a very negative energy for her and most importantly...for me!

Luckily, it’s never too late to change, and in 2015 she completely changed her life around. I think she was benefiting from some life coaching because her energy shifted in a positive way and she started spending more time retraining me and rebuilding the trust in our relationship.

As a result of all the work we did together 2016 was pawsome!

I celebrated my 10th birthday with a big pawty and lots of furriends.

I feel like a whole new chihuahua! Rehab period is over and now every day is a new adventure. I can also sense how happy and proud my mom is, which in turn makes me feel confident and happy. She finally realized what I’ve been trying to tell her for a long time. Once she cleared her fears she was able to see the world and my behavior from a different perspective. And every day we continue to work together to become better and better.

Thanks to our success my mom got the crazy genius idea to help other dog pawrents too. I guess it’s a very good thing to do since we both believe that every dog deserves a second chance in life, and it all starts with the right shift in energy.

Love & Paws,

Monchi