teaching chihuahuas not to bark SOOO much

Can you teach your chihuahua not to bark at every single movement someone makes? Well, let me tell you about mine. My teen daughter who lives in this house and they see every single day is barked at by my chi's at every chance they get. When she comes home from school, when she goes somewhere and comes back in, and even my husband gets "the bark treatment" when he comes home from work. I don't know why this is. When they see me coming or even getting out of my car, they will NOT bark at me. Perhaps this is because they instinctively know where their food is coming from? I don't know. Whatever the reason, I decided to try something. Now, I love my chis and I would NEVER EVER hit them.One day they even started to nip at our family friend, who they have seen many times and this had to stop. So, a couple of days ago, I took a rolled up newspaper whenever they started to bark at the family members coming in the door, I tapped it on the table and said NO, and they instantly stopped their barking. Just tapping that rolled up paper on the coffee table did the trick for me. What also works is an empty paper towel roll. They don't like the noise of it. So, if you have BARKING CHIHUAHUAS like I do, and they tend to bark alot, you might just try this. Please do not scare them with it too much though. Just a tap or two on the coffee table does the trick. Try it and see.

Tricky little female

Yesterday, I went to buy some dog biscuits and brought them home and much to my suprize, they liked them. They suprized me this time because most of the time, they are very picky. Well, Prissy liked them so much that when she saw Shorty with his new piece of cookie and decided that she wanted more. So, she went up to him, and him being a male, he just thought that he had to sniff her, and that is what she wanted. Poor Shorty, by the time that he got in one good sniff, she snatched his cookie and ran off with it faster than lightning. My husband was sitting there, totally in shock that she would do this to HIS poor dog..... what a laugh. I thought she was just being a tricky little female.. In the end, she got what she wanted---his biscuit.

my dogs and american idol

Well, last night was the night for all of those american idol watchers to see who was going to be kicked off, and my hubby came home late from work and we went to grab a quick bite, and hurried home to be in front of the tv for American Idol, which had some suprizes for me. I was totally wrong about which guys were getting kicked off, but right about the girls. Well, my Prissy just thought that she had to have my full attention and so did Shorty. They tried their hardest at trying to get us to play with them and when they saw that we were totally indulged in the tv, they finally settled down to sleep a bit, under the covers where they usually are. Sometimes I see Prissy watches tv, but she was just NOT interested in American Idol. lol.

my barking chihuahuas

While my little darlins are laid back and resting for the moment, I have decided it might be quite interesting to look into some scrapbooking.. and I have found some very interesting sites out there. There is also some for pet scrapbooking. Check out some of these links to see what I am talking about.
http://www.petpagememories.com

http://dogloversscrapbooking.momsbreak.com

http://www.theartfulcrafter.com/scrapbooking-five.html

a chihuahuas dog food choice

there have been so much controversy over dog food lately.. and there are soooo many brands of dog food to choose from. How do you find a great dog food that is healthy and something they will actually eat? Well, most chihuahuas are very picky eaters to start with. I have tried numerous foods and there are just some they like better than others. For starters, when looking for a good quality dog food, you look for something that starts with having a meat source in the first ingredients. Corn meal is not a meat source, but many dog foods do have alot of it in there. My chihuahuas are small, being 2 lbs and 5 lbs, so they seem to prefer the really small kibble food.
Anyone out there have any suggestions on dog food which is really good, but doesn't cost an arm and a leg to buy? any comments would be appreciated.