|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
07-18-2011, 10:30 AM | #1 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 5
| New to YT, LOTS of questions! Hello, I have been reading yorkietalk for the past week, ever since my boyfriend and I brought home Goldie, a rescue dog who the vet thinks is about 5 years old. I have learned so much from reading these threads but now have tons of questions! I will try to keep my questions to a minimum to begin with, but we are feeling a bit overwhelmed! First, some background: Goldie was found by animal control as a stray and a woman who fosters dogs offered to take her in until she could be adopted. Not sure how long she was with this woman (probably 1-2 months) and we're not sure exactly how long she was on the streets or what her history was before that. This is all to say that we know there will be certain challenges with her, likely having either been abused or neglected. When either or both of us are home, she is pretty quiet (barks when she sees cars/people from the window) and loves to just cuddle with us and be scratched behind her ears. When one/both of us come in the front door she is SUPER excited, jumping and pawing at us. So, we are thrilled that in just one week she has bonded with us and feels comfortable with us. Here's the thing--we think she is now SO comfortable with us that she is now testing the limits and also gets very anxious when we leave her by herself. For the past two nights she has barked incessantly when we went to bed. We always keep that door and the bathroom door closed and let her basically roam the apartment, other than having a babygate up to keep her out of our pantry. Well... last night she somehow managed to jump OVER the gate and we found her in the pantry. She did the same thing this afternoon when I was gone for 1-1 1/2 hours. She has never tried doing this when we are at home with her. Anyways, we're not sure how to handle disciplining her with things like this because we know we can't let her run the apartment, but at the same time we don't think she's over her past traumas (the way she reacts to people other than the two of us, as well as dogs, is indicative of this. But that's for another post!) so we don't want to be too harsh. Anyways, sorry for the long, rambling post... I guess I'm just looking for some feedback from those of you have had similar problems, or from those of you who have also rescued a yorkie! Thank you!! Attached is a picture of Goldie, who is adorable even when she's acting up |
Welcome Guest! | |
07-18-2011, 02:03 PM | #2 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member | Welcome to YT! Hope you enjoy it here. I don't really have any suggestions for you other than getting creative with better solution for the pantry. Maybe taller baby gate. Be sure to check out YT's General Training section. There may be some ideas there. Does she understand any commands? Start teaching her some with praise and/or small treats. Squeaky toys worked real well with Roxy at side tracking her from trouble she was about to get into. Saying 'ah ah' & 'leave it' commands are good too. Keep up with the questions & be open to suggestions & willing to learn. Good luck with your new one.
__________________ June ~ Roxy LUV LUV |
07-18-2011, 02:12 PM | #3 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 5
| Thanks for your reply! Re: the squeaky toys would you just leave them near where you didn't want Roxy to go and the noise would sort of scare her off? Goldie doesn't know specific commands yet, but she definitely responds to our tone of voice or when we say "No." We are starting an obedience class with her soon so hopefully we can tackle the commands there!! |
07-18-2011, 04:26 PM | #4 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member | I'd grab one of her many squeaky toys & squeak it to distract her attention to entice her into a play session or toss for fetch. It would draw her away from whatever she was getting into and trading it off with some fun. That way there was no real discipline involved. It's one of my ways of training her to leave things that weren't hers. Goldie may have a different kind of favorite toys that would works better for her, but squeaky toys were the best for Roxy. The squeak draws her attention immediately, then some play right after was a reward. In Roxy's world, if a toy doesn't squeak, it's not a toy. lol! She has a basket full of toys. The latex squeaky ones are her favorites. Does Goldie appear to know how to play? Some of the rescues I've read about don't know how to play, and need to learn how. I've not had that experience, so I can't advise you on that. Classes should certainly help. Remember though that for classes to really work, you have to do the work between classes. The instructors just teach you how to work your dog.
__________________ June ~ Roxy LUV LUV |
07-18-2011, 04:35 PM | #5 |
Donating YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Georgia
Posts: 3,262
| God Bless you for rescuing this baby.
__________________ SUSAN : TESSIE : HOBBES :CALVIN :SASSY There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face! ~ Ben Williams |
07-18-2011, 04:46 PM | #6 |
Donating YT Addict Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: TX
Posts: 402
| Hi i am new too Your baby is soooooooooooo cute! |
07-19-2011, 04:43 AM | #7 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 5
| Thanks for the responses. RoxyLuv, I think you are right re: rescues not knowing how to play sometimes. Goldie needs to learn how to play and learn to have fun with toys. That's something else on our to-do list Last night was much better though--she barked for maybe 3-4 minutes (which we painfully ignored) and then she just went to sleep and didn't make a peep (or try to jump over the babygate) for the whole night! Small victories...! |
07-19-2011, 05:41 AM | #8 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: NY USA
Posts: 1,749
| Welcome to YT!! I also have a rescue and she still doesn't know how to play. But she loves walks! Have you tried walking her? (Please no collar just a harness) And I have another dog that will jump over the baby gate so I now use 2 gates one on top of the other. I'm sure others will have even more ideas.
__________________ Ivy, Max, Reggie & Cheryl |
07-19-2011, 06:08 AM | #9 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: upstate ny
Posts: 5,847
| Why don't you keep her in the bedroom with you instead of allowing her to roam the house at night? Dogs are pack animals and like to sleep together even if she sleeps on your bedroom floor or even in a crate? |
07-19-2011, 06:28 AM | #10 |
YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 5
| Cheryl, we considered doing that with the second babygate! She was fine last night so we will see how she does in the coming days... if she keeps doing that then we will probably get a second one to put up when we're not around. We go on walks every day, and she usually likes them... except that she barks at dogs/people who make eye contact with her/focus on her. When it's just her and me though we have fun and I know she likes them! Tjdmom, we were told she wasn't crated with her foster mom so we didn't want her to feel too closed in... we thought allowing her a bigger space would make her feel better. But we are considering using a crate if this behavior keeps up. Thanks |
07-19-2011, 08:28 AM | #11 | |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: upstate ny
Posts: 5,847
| Quote:
| |
Bookmarks |
Tags |
abuse, barking, neglect, night, rescues |
|
|
Thread Tools | |
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart