A Chihuahua Named Bugsy – First Foster Dog of 2012


Photo Credit – Peter Tsai

This is Bugsy (on the right), our first foster dog of 2012 and 21st foster to date. I picked him up last Wednesday so he has been with us for a week now. Previously he was with another foster parent for a month who was a foreign exchange student, but he went back to his home country.

Bugsy (previously known as Baby) is a male chihuahua/terrier mix that was surrendered to Town Lake Animal Center (now Austin Animal Center).  As you can see in the picture, he is about the size of a cat and he has a slight (cute) underbite. Bugsy is about 5 years old and  you can read his full bio here.

Bugsy is sweet and smart. He is house broken and non destructive. He has no problem with being crated, but once he is in there, he becomes aggressive and growls because (we are guessing) he has fear issues. At first it was disheartening to see him become like this, but with some dog training help from Jennie Chen (@misohungry on Twitter), Peter and I learned to better take control and reduce the aggressive behavior.

This is a video taken yesterday which shows his progress.  Good doggy! We learned he is good at catching treats with his mouth and he knows how to sit.  Bugsy has been getting better each day and it’s getting easier to put him in and out of the crate 🙂

~MJ