Teach Your Chihuahua to Bring His Bowl

This exercise teaches your Chihuahua to bring his bowl to you at dinnertime. If you practice it before a mealtime, his motivation to learn will be much stronger. Make sure before you start that his bowl is one he can easily pick up, something made from light and sturdy molded plastic in a shape he can reasonably be expected to carry. Don’t use a metal or ceramic bowl. It will be too difficult for your Chihuahua to hold, and he may drop it.

Teach your Chihuahua to bring his empty bowl to you on request. Your dog will need to know the “Take it” cue before you start teaching this exercise. It has three stages and can be taught with a clicker. You will start by handing him the bowl, but ultimately the aim is for him to go and collect it from where it’s kept and bring it to you so that you can fill it with food.

• Take the bowl and practice the “Take It” exercise, asking him to take it from your hand and hold it for a second or two. Practice over a week or two, asking him to hold it for a little longer each time. Finish each practice by taking the bowl from him and feeding him his dinner, so that he expects holding it will bring good things.
• When he’s happy to hold his bowl for four or five seconds, hand it to him (“Take It”), then encourage him to bring it over to the counter, where you have his food waiting. Walk alongside him, and use “Carry” as the cue as he’s carrying it over.
• Practice these first two stages for several more sessions until he is confident taking the bowl from you to the counter.
• The final step is to get your Chihuahua to collect his bowl for himself, instead of taking it from your hand. This is usually the hardest thing to teach him, and may take a few tries. Go with him to the area on the floor where his bowl is kept and ask him to “Take It,” as he would from your hand. Make sure it is arranged so that it is possible for him to pick it up from a flat surface—it will need a rim or recessed handle for him to get a grip on. When he picks it up, praise him lavishly but keep the momentum going as you say “Carry” and turn to walk with him to the counter where his food is waiting.
• When he can put “Take It” (from the floor) and “Carry” together, try just nodding toward the bowl until he looks at it, then use both cues without standing by him or walking with him.

Your Chihuahua will learn to use his initiative in putting several actions together – and to prompt you to give him his meal.

Why it’s useful

As you stop directing him from up close, he’s acting more independently. A particularly self-starting dog may even start bringing you his bowl unprompted when he knows it’s time for dinner.