Our large 10 lb Chihuahua is pretty calm. She goes into a frothing fit if someone comes to the door and sometimes she gets running fits and runs around the house a couple of times. She saves most of her energy for chasing other small animals like squirrels and chipmunks.
We have 3 bassets. They sleep quite a bit, but love to tell anyone who walks or drives past the house they live there. We have a sunroom, so they see a lot of movement, and can wake up from a deep sleep and be outside in moments. All day long.
On to the chihuahuas. We have two of those. One is the wildest thing ever. He does the whole bouncing and dashing through the house at least twice a day. And he instigates a lot of the mad dash to the yard incidents.
Then we have the fat chi. He was just diagnosed with hypothyroidism. He weighs nearly 2x what he should (he came to us this way). He is pretty mellow. We have had him for about 8 months and he barked for the first time in the last couple of weeks. Now he barks non-stop, food, water, you name it.
The love sponge description of chihuahuas is so true. The bouncy chi has befriended a neighbor girl. When she comes over, he won’t leave her alone. She picks him up and he roles over and closes his eyes, heaven.