strange coughing after drinking

My 11 year old non-Chi has a collapsing trachea, and the cough is ghastly! It two 2 years, 3 vets (including a holistic one), lots of meds to try, 3 x-rays and an ultrasound to find the reason (he has an enlarged heart too, so we had to rule that out). Now my 3 year old Chi coughs sometimes too! The coughs do not sound anything alike-Tucker (the 11 year old) has a cough that is deep and hacking and he spits up a little at the end. I can actually feel his trachea push outwards when he coughs; the cough has gotten worse over the 3 years I have had him. Nina (the Chi) has a cough that sounds like a cough and a sneeze at the same time and it only happens sometimes when she drinks. I think she sees that the other dog gets attention when he coughs, so she tries it now too. LOL
I find that rubbing Tucker's nose when he coughs or holding him and calming him down works well. He coughs when he drinks, when he?s been lying down for over an hour and gets up, and when he?s excited. I feel for the "parents" of coughing dogs; I haven't had a full nights sleep since I got Tucker 3 years ago....not that I'm complaining, he is worth the lack of sleep.

It's also something that occurs in other small breeds. Our Min Pin has the same wheezing. I rub their throats and talk gently and they usually calm down and stop wheezing. It is scary the first few times you hear it though. My first instinct was to rush them to the vet!