Fisrt time Yorkie owner frustrated with training - help please

[AlicetheYorkie]

Hello everyone. I'm a new Yorkie mom and I've been looking through all the forums here for a few weeks now, but I need some advice. My Yorkie, Alice, is 5 1/2 months old and I've had her for about 1 month now. I got her from a "backyard breeder" who works with a relative of mine. She was free because it was an accidental litter and they couldn't get their tails docked. but I saw the whole litter and the parents and they were all happy, healthy and clean so I brought her home. She's a happy puppy and super sweet but kind of skittish and extremely submissive. She bonded with me within the first 24 hours and prefers me to anyone else. She follows me around the house even if she's in a dead sleep when I walk into another room, she still follows. She loves nothing more that to cuddle on my lap and I love it too, it's definitely different than what I'm used to though. I have her sleep in her crate in my bedroom (hubby won't let her in the bed lol) and it only took a few days of her whining for only the first few minutes to sleep quietly in the crate all night long. Housebreaking and pee pad training is progressing well.

The problem I'm having is with all training in every other area. We also have an old beagle and an Akita and this is my first experience with a toy breed or a terrier. Simple things like, sit, down, stay, come etc. were so easy with the other dogs (even the Akita who are notorious for not really caring much about their owners' agenda lol). Alice is slightly encouraged by treats, but not to the extent that I'm used to (the dog willing to do ANYTHING for the treat). Praise doesn't really work too well with her while I'm trying to teach her because she always seems to be scared when I start asking her to do something i.e. gently push her hind end down for "sit". She gets petrified when I apply even the slightest pressure on the leash (but she will walk around the house with it attached to her collar if no one's holding it) even if I'm holding a piece of cheese in front of her and sweetly calling her forward, she'll only reach her head forward for it. I don't want to pick her up and try to sooth her in these moments because that will reinforce the nervous behavior. I'm trying patiently but she doesn't does seem to be getting any of it (my other dogs learned "sit" in like 5 minutes). I really like my dogs to know commands, like our Akita will go into her kennel if I say "house" and they will both walk away (like when we're eating) if we just snap our fingers and point to another area of the room and we didn't even really "teach" them these things, they just respond to our body language and "energy" (yes, I'm a Cesar Millan fan

The basic gist of my question is; are Yorkies hard to train, does it take longer, is there something that I should be doing differently with this tiny dog than I did with my Beagle and Akita? We used a "puppy class" at a local dog training club for the Akita but she responded so much differently to training and people in general than my Yorkie is. Alice just gets scared really easily whenever something or someone different is introduced to her (she shakes and will either try to bury her face into me or hide) Also, even though she now is really comfortable in our house and me and with places she visits often like my mom's and grandmother's house, she will still most of the time run away from even ME or cower when I go to pick her up, even if I go slowly. She is very playful and is always either running around our house like lightning, laying on my lap, or playing with her toys or our cat. I just can't figure out why when I sit on the floor with a piece of cheese and call her to me or put a leash on her or pick her up off the ground she gets scared??? I'm sooo not used to a dog this small (at almost 6 months she's only 4 pounds). She ran away from me in our yard today while sniffing at the ground (it's not fenced in but the only place she can really go unless she ran really far is one of our neighbors yards) and I couldn't catch her or get her to come to me no matter what I did until finally she gave up and cowered on the ground. Our other 2 dogs get attached to a 10 foot "tieout" that's attached to our deck which is what I what I was planning on eventually doing with Alice, so obviously she needs to accept being on a leash and learn to come when I call.

I've establish a strong bond and trust with my new little furbaby and I'm gentle and super affectionate with her while still making her fit into our "pack" with myself, my husband and our son as the "alphas". She has fallen in line with the other 2 dogs for basic everyday routine and seems to really love her new home here yet I'm having such a hard time teaching this dog just the basics. Sorry I'm so long winded, just want to make it clear about her personality, my usual philosophy for "dog psychology" and training and what the specific problems are. I appreciate any advice greatly Oh, and yes, she has seen the vet twice so far and has a perfect clean bill of health

[ChibiLuv]

Have you tried training the little one with the big ones? My little guy lives with a lab and whatever the lab is doing he will copy, works well if the big dogs are well behaved. Is cheese her favorite treat? Maybe try diffrent treats to see if she likes something else better. Also she may not like being picked up, she may have been dropped before or she might just think it's scary. You might want to look into getting a personal trainer to watch yours and Alice's training, sometimes dogs just read our methods diffrently and she might be confused about what you want from her. Give her time too, shes still a baby!

[marcie]

Welcome to YT. Marcie does well with praise and treats. But I do not expect it to happen over nite. Give your baby some time and your hard work will pay off. She sounds like a sweet pup

[chachi]

Find a treat that she loves maybe pieces of boiled chicken breast

[RachelandSadie]

my two both do tons of tricks. have patience, keep working with her and remember that she's still just a baby it may take time for her to learn an 8 week old lab is quite different than an 8 week old yorkie. development is different and it takes time to train.

[backwardsrain]

Why not enroll her in a puppy class like you did with your Akita? My Yorkie graduated from puppy class a few weeks ago, and I thought it was great. You seem pretty knowledgeable about training, but I knew nothing to start with and the class taught me a lot. Maybe the trainers there will have suggestions for how to make a shy dog be more outgoing.

I would not put my Yorkie on a tieout though. It won't stop wild animals or stray dogs from coming up to her, and a Yorkie is just a snack to animals like that.

[My lil friend]

Years ago I brought 2 tiny poodles home and 4weeks later brought another one home. At that time my big dog was an exceptional animal. I would work with him and one puppy. It took 3 days to teach sit and down because the big guy showed them how. Consistancy is the key. Use those commands all day not just during lesson time. Good luck with your new baby.

[ziggy925]

Here's another vote for a puppy class. A good trainer knows different breeds and what works with each. I never pushed on Ruger's butt to get him to sit. I just held a treat above his head and kept moving it back till he sat down on his own. It also has a lot to do with "how" you speak to the dog. I have yet to figure it out, but the guy running the puppy school can get Ruger to do anything, so I know it's possible.

Yorkies can be very stubborn, and with the right techniques and a lot of patience I think you can get a Yorkie to do anything. Just remember, a Yorkie isn't a lab and will never be a lab. IMHO a lab wants to please you. A Yorkie wants to please himself.

[pinkpatty]

Keno is my first Yorkie, but not my first dog. I found him to be easy to train, better than my Bichon Frise and harder than my Standard Poodle and harder than my Keeshone. Large dogs seem to be easier to train. Just my experience, but Yorkie relatively easy to crate train. I have always crate trained all my dogs.

[Deuce]

Yes, yorkies can be extremely difficult to train, and each needs their own technique to get the training right. Rizzo has a very similar temperament to Alice in the shyness category and I've had to learn a whole new approach to training.
First, find a treat that she will go bananas for, Rizzo likes anything particularly stinky (jerky type treats for dogs or Parmesan cheese works well too)
Then you need to train her tricks that don't involve you touching her, like another poster said, just scoot your hand back until she eventually sits, praise and give the treat. Lower the treat until she is in a "down" position, praise and treat.
It's going to take a lot of work to get the shyness out of her, I'm still working hard with Rizzo and I've had him for a year now. I can take him for walks now without him just trying to run and hide constantly, but he still doesn't want to be touched by strangers and he'll bark if they get too close.
So find a training technique that works for both of you, bring in a professional if you're having too much difficulty finding it. They've seen a lot of dog personalities and breeds, I'm sure they could help you out better than us
Good luck!

[Deuce]

Oh, and if you're using a collar, don't. Use a harness instead, toy breeds are prone to issues with their trachea's and even the slightest pressure can cause permanent damage to them. Not sure if you are or aren't, just wanted to throw that in there because you mentioned the leash being attached to a collar. Sorry if I read it wrong!

[chachi]

Oh another thing we did when we were teaching tricks we would not only say the command we wanted we would give a hand signal. To me it seemed they learned more with the hand signal

[AlicetheYorkie]

Thank you all for your kind advice I'm going to get her a harness tomorrow to see if that helps with her fear of being attached to a leash (guess that one should have been obvious to me lol) She did seem to make a slight amount of progress the last few days and I also discovered that she LOVES peanut butter (I only buy natural) so that entices her try to figure out what I'm asking. The "sit" technique with just raising your hand and going back is what I've always done but Alice just keeps backing up ,lol. I hadn't thought about using the other 2 dogs to help teach her, I'll try that and see if it helps too My plan is to keep working with her for a while longer and if I'm still having trouble I'll definatly enrole in the puppy class. This is just a whole new world to me (now the picky eating is starting too ). I actually took her to a get-together this weekend at a relatives house and she was really good, played with their dog well and interacted with everyone. She's doing better in the yard too, when she starts to go too far I just say "Alice, Stop" in a firm voice and most of the time she does Oh, and as far as the tieout, I'll never leave her outside alone on it (I don't even let my big dogs out there long) it's just for them to go potty without me having to follow them around on a leash because then they think it's "walk time" and they don't do their business. Thanks again for the support and advice, I'm sure I'll post some praises when she finally learns some commands

[My lil friend]

A thought about putting any tiny dog outside alone,fence or no. I spend atleast one day a week putting some neighbors tiny chihuahua back in its yard,not always the same house. They are so little that they practically walk through the fence. Also Ive noticed buzzards,hawks and owls moving into the city and they are nolonger afraid of people. My littleones never go out without a person,rain,snow,sleet,cold or hot. One of my other neighbors has laying hens in her backyard,she was standing 20ft from one and a hawk swooped down and carried one of the chickens off.
I guess it is a bit of a soap box with me because my neighbors dont seem to care if their tiny ones are running free in the neighborhood. I apologize upfront if my lil rant offended anyone.

[AlicetheYorkie]

Originally Posted by My lil friend

A thought about putting any tiny dog outside alone,fence or no. I spend atleast one day a week putting some neighbors tiny chihuahua back in its yard,not always the same house. They are so little that they practically walk through the fence. Also Ive noticed buzzards,hawks and owls moving into the city and they are nolonger afraid of people. My littleones never go out without a person,rain,snow,sleet,cold or hot. One of my other neighbors has laying hens in her backyard,she was standing 20ft from one and a hawk swooped down and carried one of the chickens off.
I guess it is a bit of a soap box with me because my neighbors dont seem to care if their tiny ones are running free in the neighborhood. I apologize upfront if my lil rant offended anyone.

I agree. I've never left Alice alone outside and never will, I didn't think about making that clear in my original post when referencing useing a tieout for her to potty. I'll always be right there even when she learns to be attched to it to do her "business". I'm comfortable leaving my big dogs out there alone for a little while but even then it's never more than about 10 minutes and I check on them if I hear any barking at all. There was a Chihuahua running around our neighborhood almost every day a few months ago, pooping in my yard , he'd even come to my front door and bark (I think he liked my beagle lol) but I was so mad. One day I picked him up and walked around looking for his house, his owners neighbor told me they weren't home that they left him in the yard when they were gone!! He was like 4 pounds! He could have so easily gotten hit by a car or attacked by a big dog if he went into their yard. They've since either stopped doing that or fixed their fence cause I haven't seen him.