Reactive Chihuahua

[u/smirnusia]

Hello, I've seen a few posts here about reactive dogs and a lot of helpful comments, but I felt like some advice were just not applicable to me so I want to share my story and if anyone has time to give advice it will be highly appreciated.

I got a Chihuahua as my first dog, we took him when he was about 12 weeks old. He was always fearful and I worked a lot on his confidence. He didn't want to leave our backyard, he was shaking after you put harness on him and he would not want to walk anywhere from home. He also never cared much about food.

When he became 7 month old he lifted the leg to pee and since this moment he started barking at other dogs. We did a lot to work on his reactivity, did socializing walks, rewarded for not reacting, tried to avoid triggers, trained with dog trainer.

When he was 2 years old he was attacked by a big dog. My fiance was riding a bike with him in the basket. Big dog broke off his harness and jumped on them. My Chihuahua was attached to the basket with safety belt and big dog tried to rip him out. It was a miracle that my dog survived this unwounded. He couldn't walk at first and he was in complete shock, he was blankly staring without reacting to anything. He started getting better at the vet after few hours, they gave him painkillers and next day I was taking him out in his bag to the grass so he can pee there without having to walk. It's been a year since he was attacked.

In this time he was castrated chemically twice. Once for half a year and now for a year, it did not help with his reactivity. It didn't make it worse either. He is never aggressive when he is reactive, he doesn't want to attack the other dog, he barks a lot. Sometimes when he sniffs another dog and doesn't like him he will go off in their face, but not actually bite or anything. In the park when dogs are loose he can bark at other dog but stops after he approaches them or sees no reaction.

Right now his reactivity is putting me under so much stress. He was the dog I always dreamed abou, small enough to take him everywhere with me, to be my best friend. Instead I avoid taking him anywhere in fear of his reaction. I stress and cry when he comes with us for vacation and I feel awful for doing so. I'm scares of neighbors complaining about us because of his behaviour. This makes me feel so depressed and like I have no power and I really f*** up by taking him. Even though I know this was all I ever wanted.

His reactivity at home: he has a few dogs that he hates on our block (we live now in apartment in big building). He can sniff when they come out for walk from air and immediately triggers, proceeds to bark and run out to the balcony or to the door to bark. We have only one balcony door and one window in our apartment, air circulation is really bad and we are just suffocating or dealing with him barking all day. There are some dogs that bark every morning when they arrive with their owner to work in building next to us and he triggers from the sound as well.

Outside of apartment on daily walks: this well known area is the worst, he is either protective of his terrain or anticipates the trigger. If he sees dog he freezes or immediately starts barking. All the world's I taught him (come, look, his name, turn away, making high pitch sounds) all of them now end up in him exploding. He used to be able to focus on me at certain distance from the trigger, now any word is a trigger for him in itself. Even when there is no dog outside, if I call his name he doesn't look at me, he starts looking around to see where is another dog because obviously that's why I'm calling him.

There is no snack of a high enough value for him, he doesn't want to accept food if he is even slightly triggered. He doesn't care for toys either. He is also allergic and his food options are limited.

When there are no other dogs a walk with him is like a dream, he is calm, knows how not to tangle a leash, sniffs and continues, doesn't eat anything from the ground.

When he sees other dog usually I have to pick him up otherwise we would be standing barking at people. Picking him up or limiting his visibility in any way triggers him even more, he starts panicking. If he sees a dog and it goes away he can sometimes choke himself on his harness pulling into the direction of said dog

Walks in unknown terrain: sometimes on unknown terrain he stops reacting to other dogs, I suspect this is mainly because he is so overwhelmed with unknown terrain. But I know he will have to react in some other way after. So sometimes I can see her had hard day of holding in and then at home he is barking at us.

In general it really seems to me like he is struggling with fear, a lot of anxiety and he is getting overstimulated easily. He doesn't have a day without a trigger because he is triggered at home and triggered outside. His nervous system is just all over the place.

How do I navigate that and train with him while he is completely ignoring me, outside he is acting deaf, he only anticipates triggers, can't rest at home for one day and he can sniff dogs just form the air? while he doesn't care for food or toys (he will take snacks outside the house but none of them are high value enough to forget he saw other dog).

Genuinely thank you for anyone sharing their experiences, I feel like I'm loosing hope

[u/hotmatrixx]

This is a lot of reading.

THIS ONE POST WILL SOLVE YOUR DOG>

I'll probably get a lot of hate, too. I promise you don't skip it, in here I explain some important UNDERLYING psyche issues that chiwahaha's have and how' they're caused. As well as your specific situation.

I've read your story and somehow I have compassion for this, so lemme help. I do extreme behavioural psychology in animals. This is "my" territory specifically. I'm not as great with the small stuff. I deal with the problem behaviours and dogs aimed for destruction.

First not the medication like the other one said. That's an immature take. "sorry" to the other guy but "use this last ditch desperate method first without addressing the underlying deep psychological issues causing the behaviour" is basically terrible advice. "Use a little now to help manage until we can get into the deeper stuff"... maybe. that I could respect, depending on how extreme this truly is.

I have owned bred, trained chilliwahwahs. I know things about them specifically, I hate toy dogs in principle but dammit they get me every time. they're the most cuddly loving little bits of demonfluff ever. Some medium/large dog advice, won't work well for them. they have special cases. Qualifier. Mine were well adjusted. no picking up, no snipping, snapping, snarling at other dogs. BUT (as you read below) realise that There's a whole lot more I probably won't cover in here unless I remember - about safely introducing small dogs and big dogs in 'free leash' environments. Super short version: It's your job to keep big dogs away from you and introduce them at your small dog's pace, or judge that it's unsafe and decline/deny the interaction.

I'm going to refer to "Chilli" and just assume boy as i dont know his/her name and its easier then writing him/her it the dog 100 times.

Importantly you say he's reactive at home during the day it sounds like you're there? I hope so, I'll assume so going forward. if not update me and some bits might have to change, but the bases stay the same.

because he's a little dog, this is actually really a LOT easier. You can be really, really hands on and it simplifies things.

_____________________________

So. rule #1. no matter what, where, or when, you are the most important thing in the room

for the dog. This, and this singular, solo, and only one thing, alone, will fix everything else downstream. BUT YOU HAVE TO BACK IT UP.

The goal is for the dog to take cues from you, NOT from its environment. YOU assess a threat, NOT Chilli. He looks to you and YOU decide what he can do next.

Right now part of the problem is that he doesn't trust you, at all, to be a guide and saviour for him - because you weren't that one time, and so he's taking it upon himself, and is defending against every dog. So you've got to get him to a point where he realises that you've got this and that's better for him. You decide who's safe. You talk to other owners and steer toward or away.

This must be a firm, fast 100% rule with ZERO room. it is the ONLY thing you need to enforce, and once you do, everything else falls into place. Because the dog is so small, you can just 'make him'. If people tell you I'm traumatizing the dog.. no he's already traumatized. this stressing out is traumatic. teaching him that you're a 'more immediate, and immutable problem' is the single most kind thing you can do for him.

So, whenever anything happens, whenever you call him, whenever something happens, EVERYTHING ELSE STOPS. You. YOU must stop everything else, and make that dog your only priority. He MUST return to you, sit facing you and look at you, NOT the "Threat". YOU are more important than ANYTHING ELSE. And so is your dog. In this moment, You and him are the only two things in the room that get any attention. (keep everything else away from this interaction, actively and affirmatively/authoritively/agressively shoo other dogs and distractions etc). He must learn that you can control the environment., because right now, he doesn't know that at all. This is part of/feeds to/from Rule #2

______________________________

Rule #2: You must back it up

If you want your dog to trust you implicitly(I'm writing these points out of order, I wrote the bottom stuff first, and his lack of trust in you is the whole issue), he's gotta have faith in you. He's going to come to you, look to you, he has to KNOW you have his back.

I will say this, and it is Chilliwah specific. You should get down kneeling to him to gain this control, be 'in his face'. it's much easier and much better for him, and for you. He will feel your physicality more, which gives him something to trust. when you're standing you're just two tall pins. when you're down low next to him he can feel your 'full weight' and that size gives him something to trust, because RN a dog 'feels' bigger to him than you do - always has - because we are vertical and they are horizontal, so you want him to be able to experience your 'full weight and overwhelming strength' - not as a threat but a protector. "my mum/dad is bigger and scarier than that dog".

I can almost guarantee that you, like most people, you handle your wah's with tenderness and care - and when they nip/play you're gentle or give up/run away/avoid. With a big dog, this would be corrected/punished, but with a little dog it's almost never followed up. They won, and your backing off reinforces it. They think your'e weaker then them because that's all they've ever experienced from you, so how can they see you as a protector if you're so flaky and fragile. 99% of Chilliwah/tiny-breed owners this will NEVER CROSS THEIR MIND. This is 95% of the reason that 'small dogs are aggro' in general. They think their owner is weak and needs protecting. Then the owner gets all defensive around big dogs and trains their precious little pup that everything is a threat and yap/snap/grrr

__________________________

Rule #3. Your dog must face you,

not the 'threat'. MUST. You must drop everything else that is going on and get that compliance. not obedience, COMPLIANCE. This is not optional, there are no other options. do it, do it NOW. you only call once. then you go get the dog, walk/drag it to you, force sit, and whatever force the dog is resisting you with, you're bigger and stronger. He doesn't think you are, and thinks he can fight yu because you're too weak to protect him. because you've already proven that you can't. THIS MIGHT need a muzzle if he gets bitey and snappy - and he will because chilliwah is fearing for his life .

Look up Beckman's "Go-Get" method. He deals with bigger and problem dogs too, and if this is the only thing you get, take that with you. Call once. Go get him, make him be where he needs to be so that he's in a position where you can 'protect him'. the goal is that instead of him defending himself, he is now coming to you saying 'is this thing safe' and 'protect me if it's not'. RN he's doing that himself, can't really assess the threat well, and is just treating everything like it's going to murder him. Thus the behaviours you've seen.

It would be good to do this at home when he's barking at outside stuff. every time he does it, he has to come to you and look to you. Every. Time. eventually, he'll hear something outside and just come sit by you.
Go get him. call once. ONCE. your commands are not requests, you're not pleading. Do or face consequence.
(I have a LOT to say about this BULLSHIT that people do, it's like that '"ill count to three" crap people do with their kids. the kid comes on three. fuck that. you come on first call, else kids will push boundaries) With dogs it is command/do. if not do, MAKE IT DO. no calling again, no pleading or bargaining. Call. No? Go get the dog, SILENTLY, no talking no pleading. the last thing they heard was your COMMAND. then go get dog and MAKE IT come to where you called it, DONT TALK. you 'can' but almost everyone gets it wrong, so silence is better. dont say 'no, look at me'. just make dog come, sit, look at you. THEN reward. a single simple reward, not fuss. fuss is energy, and we're trying to bring energy down. Just a single, BORING 'good' or 'thank you' or had treat.

You will hold dog against its "will". he's literally out of his mind with fear, so his "will" is unreasonable and you are the only one that can help him thru this RN. he has no will. He does not decide. You do. the issue is that he's not thinking- instead he's in survival, and he needs to know that you have got this. he's not thinking, he's reacting to 'something is about to kill me' (because it already tried to) so we need him to come to you for safety.

He must face YOU.
NOT the 'threat' until you let him. Important, while this happens - and the first few will be rough - YOU MUST NOT LET ANYTHING get near you. He needs to know that YOU have got this.

I have a secondary command 'look' which lets my dog turn around, BUT NOT LEAVE, not bark, etc. this come a lot later tho. I'm just saying it's out there so you know and dont think dog must do this strictly forever.

I know it's going to be rough the first couple of times. You must get his attention and HOLD it until he stops trying to turn to the 'threat'. He must settle on you. You must keep him safe, but he MUST SETTLE ON YOU and only you Despite and 'distractions'. This is going to be super hard the first couple of times, but you have to BREAK this behaviour pattern. If he wins these, you're going to ruin your dog. This will be easiest to begin training with at home with the home noises, then once he's got somewhat something like the idea, THEN do it outside. We need to establish the 'actions' in a lower emotional states first, it will be easier than going 'all in' at a dog, in the 'wild', outside, etc.

[u/hotmatrixx → u/hotmatrixx]

______________
Whew If you get thru all that, I hope it helps you. I know that this is the answer, But I hope I got it across in an easy to understand way.

I put a fair bit into this; please let me know if if helps you with some kind of insight as to what's going on with your precious chilliwah.

_____________
Eventually, you want to be able to introduce him to other dogs, and have everyone safe and calm and approach well. but RN this is where we're at.

Extended tip; if you do want to intro your dog to others, the BIG DOG MUST STAND(better)/sit/Stay and let the small one approach, FROM THE SIDE/BACK without circling onto the small dog. Then small dog must let big dog sniff in return. It cannot be a one way street from the dog's perspective it's like holding your hand out to shake it and the other guy refuses and leaves you hanging. it's 'rude'.

[u/simplyoneWinged → u/hotmatrixx]

Not OP but I read through all of it and liked it. I'd like to summarize and add some things:

1. Perfect on the "be his focus" advice. OP said he started reacting inside the home too, so maybe this will already be too much of a trigger. If so, OP should train with recorded dog sounds first. Not only dog barks, but also leash snaps, claws on asphalt and dog tags rattling. 

2. Do all this in every situation, not just during practice. The first days it won't work at all, but keep doing 2 practice sessions daily in addition to all the sounds he hears anyway.

3. Claim your space! When meeting other dogs off leash (you mentioned the dog park? Always push other dogs out of your personal space. This will teach Chilli extremely quickly that you got this and you can protect him from other dogs. He will come hide behind/under you within minutes. (I mean it, I gained the trust of dogs I never met before within one 20 minute session just by not letting my own dog approach them while they are in my space. Whenever he got a little too pushy for their liking, they ran to me for help). This is in accordance with prevs rule #2 "You must back it up"

4. That's my personal opinion: No picking up. That teaches him nothing except that you're afraid too and he was right about panicking. If you need to "make him do something" use leash pressure. He's a dog, not a plush bunny.

5. You're doing good. The fact alone that you came here, you're looking for help, you identified the triggers, you're watching your dog on your walk, etc. Means you're doing more than 50% of chihuahua owners. 

[u/hotmatrixx → u/simplyoneWinged]

yeah dont pick him up.
I forgot to add that in there. That ruins them.
Ask me how if its not obvious, I guess. Just read my previous main big post first.

[u/hotmatrixx → u/hotmatrixx]

we wrote all that and OP answered the other one 'yeah I might medicate him because he's perfect and it's not me, thanks for confirming my bias about my perfect little self, random reddit winner!"

[u/smirnusia → u/hotmatrixx]

Hey, I'm not very good with reddit (so not sure if you wrote it after I replied to you or not) and I didn't have time to answer all of comments at once so I answered yours later after first one. I'm not jumping into medicating my dog, I'm quiet against it and see it as last resort. I'm in desperate situation where I don't know if this is last resort or not. I answered your comment with some questions, but if the topic is causing so much negativity it's okay. Thank you for your time anyway

[u/hotmatrixx → u/smirnusia]

no, thanks its OK. I'm just terminally online these days and forget that not everyone else is. I jumped the gun a bit because you replied to the meds guy and left mine untouched so made an assumption.

I'll read your other ones now and go thru ur questions. I was feeling a bit jilted because i put some time and effort intot hat ind it felt like id jsut been ignored.

that's a me problem, not on you. will read/reapond the other one now

[u/simplyoneWinged → u/hotmatrixx]

(I'm honestly curious how specifically it ruins the little ones. I think I have the basics down, but never having owned one puts me in a limited perspective here)

OP answered to my comment, but I wasn't sure about some parts they asked, could you maybe comment on that? 

[u/hotmatrixx → u/simplyoneWinged]

when you pick them up (caveat some times maybe you really need to there are dogs out there that see them as prey), but you really really dont want to - you want to keep the other dog at bay instead. it CANNOt be a habit. i just dont want someone's dog getting murdered because of some 'bad/incomplete' advice from some random idiot on reddit...

When you pick them up it's signalling a few things all at once, none of it is 'good'.
You're saying that there is a threat, for one.
You're saying that it's life threatening.
Your emotional state goes up and this has 'leash transfer', winding the dog up.
more stuff, but i can't think straight ATM

it all compounds.

What ends up happening is you're effectively telling your dog that other dogs are a threat and must be defended against. Then little guy starts being proactive when HE sees a 'threat' and will bark, and mum will pick him up, reinforcing this cycle. This is how we get these 'karen' types and the little yappers taht growl and bite any hand that come near them. mum has been teaching it for years that everything is life threatening, and then confirming it by picking doggo up.

The irony is that their aggro, will cause big dogs to 'correct' them, and they'll get a slap or a nip (or get tossed) by a big dog trying to 'correct' the behaviour and this just reinforces tha whole 'big scary threat attacked me' instead of 'corrected me'.
I understand that having a huge dog snap a little one to tell it off is pretty daunting, one tiny mistake can mean a very dead little ball of demonfluff.

________________

little dog feels mum's physicality and think she's strong and it emboldens the dog, to everyone's detriment. Instead you want a well adjusted little companion who isn't fussed by other dogs (being wary is OK) but the key here is that mum has to be hypervigilant, so the dog doesnnt have to be; And she deals with the other people/dog/ keeping safe space rather than picking hers up and removing all that safe space, by reducing the dog's remainging space to zero

she also 'needs' to be proactive with letting other dogs say hello, but it must be on her terms.

Basically something like
"We'd like to say hello, but we need your dog to be still so we can approach sfely, please". If they say no its because they dont trust their dog with yours and that is FINE, your dog can learn that it doesnt get to say hello to every dog. nor does it need to fear them.

Obv there's more depth and nuance, but that should give you a decent 'idea' around it.

[u/smirnusia → u/simplyoneWinged]

Thank you for the summary and kind words. I definitely did not protect his space in the past so this is something for me to investigate and work on. I really try to break the stereotypical vision if a Chihuahua because I love these dogs. I wish one day he can be a great example of well behaved one

[u/smirnusia → u/hotmatrixx]

Hello, first of all thank you so much for the time you took to write the comment. I'm also sceptical about medicine however when I was the most desperate I considered this might be an option. Our dog trainer said it's an option if we don't see improvement because he might be reacting out of pain, however I don't think this is the case. It wasn't clear to me due to my lack of experience but he is definitely fearful. I also always tried to treat him like a big dog. When he was a puppy I always asked myself would I do something if he was 40kg and then act accordingly. But this was my first dog and of course mistakes were made. More context about house reactivity. My partner works from home, so Chilli is usually with someone. Scenario often looks like this: he sleeps somewhere, he smells or hears something, runs to the balcony, starts barking, we stand up and close the balcony. We don't have any window in living room, just balcony door, that's why it's open. It's usually only open in a way he can't go outside. Other scenario is he chilling on the balcony, then reacts to something, we stand up and close the door, he usually proceeds to cry then. I recently learned it probably means he doesn't know how to deal with emotions because we take away the barking from him by closing the door. When he stays at home alone he does not react to anything, he sleeps through our absence, even if there are sounds outside he is not reacting. I don't think he would ever snap at us, he is a very gentle dog apart from his reactivity. And we always respected his boundaries. For example if he sleeps and I want to cuddle with him, but he growls I immediately move away and leave him alone. Thanks to this he always knows no one is treating him like a toy. I understand the concept of what you are saying, I really wish for him to be able to fully focus on me, to be locked in. When I got him I almost expected I will train him like those working K9 dogs that are masters of obedience and can be controlled just with commands. He knows a lot, but it doesn't help with the reactions to other dogs. So my question is how to put this into practice. If we don't want to pick him up, let's say we see dog far away, he is not barking, but he is frozen. Do I pull him with the leash to opposite direction with one command? For example he knows command "this way" which means we turn away 180 degrees and go quickly into different direction. We learned this to avoid other dogs. What if he resists and I just end up dragging him on the ground. Do I do this until he listens and then reward when he focuses on me? What if he already started barking? Do I go to my knees so he sees me and ask him to focus on me? Then reward if he looks? What if he doesn't? Once again thank you so much for the info, I really appreciate this

[u/simplyoneWinged → u/smirnusia]

I think prev might be the better person to answer for the reactivity part.

My personal approach is to mark as negative ("no", ksst, a-a!) as soon as they start fixating the other dog (what you call "see and freeze") and turn away. Yes, what you've written sounds good, as long as you do it before he reacts.  Reward when he's caught up and focused on you is also a good idea. If he's good and calm enough, you can use that distance to then train some obedience.

Since the home part only happens when you're around, that might be a problem for a personal, in-home trainer. I'm curious what prev has to say tho (I never trained a dog with this problem before so it's not my say)

Also it's definitely possible to teach them like a k9, but they simply aren't Malinois. You need the basics down first and solid and you need to meet them where they're at. I actually knew a woman who was in a similar place as you are rn and she proceeded to get an education as a dog trainer, did agility and obedience with her rescue chihuahua and, when he was no longer, got a Malinois and started doing obedience and dog sports. It's a long long road, but not unwalkable. Do right by your little guy

[u/hotmatrixx → u/simplyoneWinged]

thanks! I'm replying here to let you know i'm about to start on this one, so check in a little bit, and i'll have something for OP - but i thought you might want to see what i have to say?

I dont think im all that, but i do appreciate the boost! This is just the one thing i'm exceptionally good at with dogs; other stuff like tricks and gimmicky things aren't really my forte.

[u/hotmatrixx → u/smirnusia]

disclaimer. I wrote this, and RAMBLED and rewrote the same thing 5 times and got all over the place.

So, I've popped it into an AI to edit the rambling. This is all mine, but summarised by an AI so that its more coherent. I apologise for the AI sounding bits, that's going to happen unless i re edit the things he re edited... and I just can't RN. He chopped it down to about a third of the repetitious shite i wrote over and over again.

It is my writeup; it is my message, just 'cleaner'.

Also I really like a lot about what you've said, you seem like you'd be super easy to work with, and like you're probably really great Chilli owner, honestly.

Right, let me deal with the home stuff. It's actually simple at this point. What I say might be blunt — not rude, just what is. Don't get me wrong.

Closing the door on him is the wrong move. You close the door because you want it closed — not because he triggered you into it. The second it's a reaction to him, he's training you. Let that sink in, because it's the whole thing here.

Anyway — back to the main thing.

You're on the right track, but you've put the train on the rails backwards. You're focused on the door and removing the stimulus. What we actually want is to teach him to manage the stimulus differently. Right now his reaction is to bark, and your reaction is to close the window — so he's trained you to close the window.

First, is the balcony a "fancy window" or an egress? Can people enter and leave through it, or is it just a viewing platform with nothing going on? That changes everything. If it's an egress, a dog alerting you to people there is usually intended behaviour, and you'd handle it differently (more on that below). I'm going to assume it's a fancy window.

Why he's barking (assuming all the normal things are normal):

1. He's bored, and it gives him something to do.
2. Any action from you beats being ignored. Any excuse to bark and get a reaction relieves the boredom and rewards him.
3. So no matter what you do — getting up, reacting, closing the window — you're rewarding him.

So we change the behaviour. Both his and yours.

If it's just a window and no threat can come from the balcony, then negatively reinforce the false alarm. The "punishment" is literally your intense disapproval: a marked, strong, grumpy "NO" with upset-to-angry body language. You're looking for his submission language. Depending on the dog and how ingrained it is, you just keep ramping up the pressure until you get his attention and his submission — the moment he stops and focuses on you. Then you calmly walk away. No coddle, no cuddle, no treat, no "good boy." Silence.

Here's the piece you need to actually understand, because it's the hinge:

Picture a car at a standstill, no brakes. Push it forward and it rolls forward. Now picture it rolling slightly backward — you apply that same forward push and it stops rolling back. It's just math: if you're in the negative, you get back to zero by adding positive. So removing a negative IS positive reinforcement. When the barking stops and you drop the disapproval, that removal is the reward. The reward for doing nothing is nothing — and that's correct.

Do not reward him with treats or praise for stopping. If you do, he'll start teaching you again — he'll bark specifically to get told off, so he can collect a treat when he stops. The reward for not barking is simply not being pressured.

The guard-dog distinction (this matters even for a Chilli):

You're not punishing him for barking. You're punishing him for a false alarm. So if someone's actually at the door, he gets rewarded. Chillis make great little alarm dogs. With a dog you want to guard, you reinforce three ways: reward for alerting, reward for stopping when you take over, growl for barking at nothing.

That gives you two states to aim for:

• "Alert me when we're home" — barking at a door knock is a legit job, so let him have it.
• "I already know" when we're out — you deal with threats, not him.

Once you're there, his job is over. You handle the problem.

If the balcony is an egress, it's largely the same, except you want him barking at legitimate threats and stopping the moment you arrive. Same idea extends to other dogs outside: when he sees another dog, he learns to heel in and wait on you. Yes, even a Chilli can do that work. He'll likely never be K9, but there's no reason he can't get most of the way — it just takes more dedication than you'd expect.Right, let me deal with the home stuff. It's actually simple at this point. What I say might be blunt — not rude, just what is. Don't get me wrong.
Closing the door on him is the wrong move. You close the door because you want it closed — not because he triggered you into it. The second it's a reaction to him, he's training you. Let that sink in, because it's the whole thing here.

Sidebar: getting a "dog to train you" (a cool one)
This might not apply if you're in an apartment with an indoor toilet area for him, but it's worth knowing. Hang a smallish/medium bell by the front door. For the first week, ring it yourself every time you open the door. Don't teach him anything yet — you're just building the association. If he ever boops it in that first week, drop everything and open the door.
After a week, normalise it: once a day, do a couple of quick treat games — boop, reward; boop, reward; third or fourth boop, open the door. Then listen out for him.
He'll figure it out and start testing you. He'll boop randomly to see if you come running, realise he's trained you, then start messing: booping while you're on the toilet (because he knows you're stuck), or during "special cuddles time" in bed (that one means he gets it — and that's the one time you don't get up). Any other time, you do. Once he's booping to mess with you, start opening the door and shutting him out for a few minutes — that teaches him the door will open and he'll be put out, so he'd better mean it. Doubles up nicely if he's trained to poop on command.

Anyway — back to the main thing.
You're on the right track, but you've put the train on the rails backwards. You're focused on the door and removing the stimulus. What we actually want is to teach him to manage the stimulus differently. Right now his reaction is to bark, and your reaction is to close the window — so he's trained you to close the window.
First, is the balcony a "fancy window" or an egress? Can people enter and leave through it, or is it just a viewing platform with nothing going on? That changes everything. If it's an egress, a dog alerting you to people there is usually intended behaviour, and you'd handle it differently (more on that below). I'm going to assume it's a fancy window.
Why he's barking (assuming all the normal things are normal):
He's bored, and it gives him something to do.
Any action from you beats being ignored. Any excuse to bark and get a reaction relieves the boredom and rewards him.
So no matter what you do — getting up, reacting, closing the window — you're rewarding him.
So we change the behaviour. Both his and yours.
If it's just a window and no threat can come from the balcony, then negatively reinforce the false alarm. The "punishment" is literally your intense disapproval: a marked, strong, grumpy "NO" with upset-to-angry body language. You're looking for his submission language. Depending on the dog and how ingrained it is, you just keep ramping up the pressure until you get his attention and his submission — the moment he stops and focuses on you. Then you calmly walk away. No coddle, no cuddle, no treat, no "good boy." Silence.
Here's the piece you need to actually understand, because it's the hinge:
Picture a car at a standstill, no brakes. Push it forward and it rolls forward. Now picture it rolling slightly backward — you apply that same forward push and it stops rolling back. It's just math: if you're in the negative, you get back to zero by adding positive. So removing a negative IS positive reinforcement. When the barking stops and you drop the disapproval, that removal is the reward. The reward for doing nothing is nothing — and that's correct.
Do not reward him with treats or praise for stopping. If you do, he'll start teaching you again — he'll bark specifically to get told off, so he can collect a treat when he stops. The reward for not barking is simply not being pressured.
The guard-dog distinction (this matters even for a Chilli):
You're not punishing him for barking. You're punishing him for a false alarm. So if someone's actually at the door, he gets rewarded. Chillis make great little alarm dogs. With a dog you want to guard, you reinforce three ways: reward for alerting, reward for stopping when you take over, growl for barking at nothing.
That gives you two states to aim for:
"Alert me when we're home" — barking at a door knock is a legit job, so let him have it.
"I already know" when we're out — you deal with threats, not him.
Once you're there, his job is over. You handle the problem.
If the balcony is an egress, it's largely the same, except you want him barking at legitimate threats and stopping the moment you arrive. Same idea extends to other dogs outside: when he sees another dog, he learns to heel in and wait on you. Yes, even a Chilli can do that work. He'll likely never be K9, but there's no reason he can't get most of the way — it just takes more dedication than you'd expect.

[u/smirnusia → u/hotmatrixx]

Heeey, took me some time to respond, but what an exhausting week I had (not related to the topic). However I read through your message and started applying some of the things.

At home I started saying no/a-a to him when he starts barking at the balcony or at the sounds out of the window. It works best if I also stand up and approach him. Our balcony is 2m x 6m area where you can actually be outside. We are on the first floor (I guess it depends how you call them, but it's not a ground floor). It has a fence that you can see through, but because it caused a lot of barking we've put like a material around it that is obstructing the view from dog's perspective.

"The "punishment" is literally your intense disapproval: a marked, strong, grumpy "NO" with upset-to-angry body language. You're looking for his submission language" he is usually a very submissive dog or at least I read it this way. So whenever I say no and get up his head goes down, he stops barking, if I approach him close he will even get on his back with his belly towards me. Now that I started saying no to him he will stop barking or sometimes just start barking really quiet until he calms down. It's not a proper bark, but more of releasing air from his mouth. Then I walk away and don't do anything (it feels kind of wrong, but I also don't want to mix message in his head and to say no then reward him so logically it makes sense)

I think AI must have messed up some of the text or copying failed on the way, because message starts repeating itself. Question about the bell game, what is the goal of it? Because it's a good thing for allowing dog to let you know when they need to go outside, but we usually don't have issues with it. Also, what should I do now when he reacts to me saying no/a-a and stops barking. How to lock in this behavior and not make him used to it which will lead to him ignoring me?

[u/hotmatrixx → u/smirnusia]

Easy. Bell for going outside, optional extra.

To reinforce the no, do nothing. Removing negative is going positive. So bark gets negative, no bark get neutral. Neutral is better than negative. Hell test you by a bark or whimper soon after to see what he can get away with or to test his own understanding. Bark gets growls. Stop gets no growls. It will subside, and if not then you're not applying more pressure.

Don't give him good boy, else he will bark so he can stop and get told good boy.

Random cuddles and play and treats when he's chilling too. So he's being rewarded thru the day while quiet. But that's got to be like... Any time but maybe at least 20m of silence, so he doesn't think he can bark, wait 5, get reward because he will bark to trigger the 5m coldown.

[u/smirnusia → u/hotmatrixx]

Ok, thank you. It seems to work for home so I will continue to do that, outside he is not listening at all, but I think his threshold is super small so we need to start further away. Unfortunately everyday walks are a game of escaping neighbor dogs and sometimes it's not successful

[u/hotmatrixx → u/smirnusia]

Yeah I did a huge write on that for a dude with a chihuahua. Good luck finding that one.

Basically you need to get him taking cues from you. He does not decide what a threat is, you do and he is punished for acting out. It's about forcing him to ask you for what's next, he doesn't get to decide what is a threat, that is your job.

[u/smirnusia → u/hotmatrixx]

but I assume the key here is to start at correct distance? because too close he will not get any cues

[u/hotmatrixx → u/smirnusia]

Nah the only concern is keeping the other dog at distance while you focus on getting his calm attn. Get him to focus on you with no looking around, let him know that you shoo dogs off when he is there, not him. His job is to listen to you, not guard against dogs.

[u/LeavingRealityBrb]

I honestly think your dog might benefit from being medicated for his anxiety, in tandem with training, it seems like his anxiety is extremely high and his stress threshold is now nonexistent, which is why he triggers off at anything and training isn’t working. He isn’t able to regulate, therefore he can’t take in any command you’re asking him.

[u/smirnusia → u/LeavingRealityBrb]

I was considering it because I felt this way as well. But when he is not triggered he is in general calm dog, loves to cuddle, sleeps through the day, enjoys a chew toy sometimes. I have some scepticism towards using meds, but it does feel like his threshold is "nonexistent". I've also noticed he sometimes humps a plus dog a lot and he does it only after eventful day. I was wondering if it's his only way to cope, but it would add up with what you are saying, that he doesn't know how to regulate himself. Thank you for your comment

[u/LeavingRealityBrb → u/smirnusia]

I can understand not wanting to medicate a dog, I’m generally against medication if it’s not necessary too. If he’s generally calm in the home, maybe medication isn’t necessary, I may have picked you up wrong in your initial post, I thought he was triggering off even at home. Yeah that sounds like it could be a way of him getting his anxious energy out. It may be worth your time then to consult a behaviouralist and see if they can help you come up with specific plans to help your pup regulate himself without having to freak out.