© Working Dog Chihuahuas by Midwest, 2007

Male or Female?

Choosing the sex of your puppy and debunking the male myth! 

As a result of multiple emails and Puppy Applications preferring puppies of the female sex for various reasons, we chose to make this page available to take the time to clear up some myths and partial truths about our lovable males.  

First, many people believe that males are difficult to house train. This is partly because they are concerned about a behavior called "marking" where the male urinates on everything he comes across, including household furniture, appliances, and clothing.  This is not an uncommon behavior in UNALTERED MALES.  To alter a male means to have him neutered.  Vets agree that it is best to neuter a male who is not intended for breeding.  Midwest Chihuahuas require our males be neutered prior to the completion of the eighth month of life in most cases. However, oftentimes Veterinarians choose to neuter early and as long as the sizing of the pup is appropriate to be done safely, early neuter is not bad.

What we know about Chihuahuas is that if you neuter your male before he begins to lift his leg, the chances that he ever will lift his leg, or mark his territory, are very low.  

Often times, neutering your male will help to tame his personality a bit if he does happen to be a bit more active than you would have liked.  But what we know about male Chihuahuas is that in most cases, the males are much calmer, much easier to get along with and much more loving than the females.  They are eager to please and thereby make training easier.  Females tend to have more temperamental personalities than the males.  They are moodier and generally not as laid back as the males.  Also, females tend to be more active...in other words, hyper...than males.

It is agreed upon by most Chihuahua professionals that males, especially altered males, make much better family pets than females. Males are highly loyal and protective and they form bonds with their people just as strongly, if not more so than females.

Another strong point for the males is that they respond very well to commands given, and they usually learn very quickly.  Female are smart, and they learn the commands but are more likely to ignore them, in our experience.  Males are so quick to learn that one of our breeder friends sold a puppy to a woman who actually trained her little guy to walk on a treadmill for exercise...before the age of 4 months!!!  

Additionally, you also have the possibility with females of pyometra, which is a uterine infection that can cause death.  Sometimes female dogs are purchased so that the buyer does not have to worry about marking behaviors and aggression they might mistakingly associate with male puppies or do not want to pay for spaying or neutering.  However, in pyometra cases, an infection can occur in the uterus three to five days after the heat cycle and can potentially lead to the death of your girl.  So please keep in mind that whatever sex you purchase, there are proven benefits to spaying and/or neutering your loving companion.  Remember that regardless of sex purchased, Midwest Chihuahuas have a spay/neuter requirement in nearly all instances.

Don't get me wrong.  We love our girls.  But for pets, our boys are by far easier pets to have.  We've had more females with house training issues than males.  We've also noticed with our own dogs that females tend to be more "barky" than males.  Our males are, for the most part, quiet and content to be where ever they are, especially if they are in our laps!

Female Chihuahuas are beautiful animals and we love them dearly, but we put up with a lot more from them than we do from our males. 

For family pet purposes, we recommend a male over a female every time.  It's been demonstrated to us time and again, that males, especially those who were neutered at an early age, make the ideal family pet.


Our Working Dog Chihuahuas program has 27 working dogs raised and doing daily jobs and 4 service dogs in training. Of the 27 fully trained, 19 of them are male.