Yorkie and pitbull Biting each other Help !

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by gemy

Our OP has not posted in awhile. I can only hope she reconsiders a few things.

Here are my beliefs:

Some large breeds are more suited to our Yorkie breed than others.

But all larger dogs to Yorkies and that is a whole lot, need to be trained, and the Yorkie protected until the new dog is obedience trained. Think about any dog that weighs 50% or more than your adult Yorkie. Damage can more easily be done inadvertently by the heavier dog.

Rules of "engagement"

1) Be prepared to crate and rotate until and unto such time as your new dog is fully trained for the basic obedience commands. This means only under the most limited circumstances is the big and the little allowed in the room together even WITH supervision, and never without supervision.

2) Know your dogs. That means what is their prey drive like. When they are puppies you will have only a inkling of their prey/toy/defense drive.
3) Be prepared to exercise and train separately, and one day hopefully together.
4) Train your new dog to never interfer with their pack mates eating. That means you stay present in the room in which you feed the dogs, and physically block if necessary one dog from going to the others bowl.

5) Likewise always discourage toy sharing and playing tug of war between two dogs of disparate size.

6) Never play fetch with one toy and two dogs of disparate size. That is a disaster waiting to happen. And be very cautious of two dogs of even the same size. I would not do it on wet grass or slippery ground, too much room for twist/rotational injuries.

Some-one mentioned that this seems like a stressful situation to live under. Perhaps it is for you, think about it. It certainly requires forethought and planning and a commitment on your part for likely 2yrs or maybe for the lifetime of your dogs, just depending on how everything works out. Are you ready for that?

This year I hope to add a female BRT puppy into our pack. At 8wks old she will likely weigh more than 3x Razzle's weight. For the first couple of months or more depending on how our large Male responds to a pesky puppy, she will sleep at night in a crate, as will Razzle continue to do so.

Razzle and this puppy will have very very supervised interactions, and maybe for the first month or so with both on leads. The puppy when very young will have her gated Xpen to be part of our pack, and will go on walks - separately, then with Magic, then with Razzle. She will start obedience training the moment she comes home, and then formally as soon as last shots are given. Hopefully she will be allowed out in the yard with Magic, but never with Razzle unleashed. That will only come when she is at CD level of obedience and only if her prey drive is not high. If her prey drive is high, that may mean never with Razzle unleashed - free in our backyard or outside.

OUr belated Zoey with a very high prey drive, only got to being allowed free with Razzle in the house, and NEVER outside off lead together. Also we train no chasing of toys in the house for obvious large dog reasons. We do play hide and seek the toys, and we will practice heel on lead and off lead, and come down sit stay, touch, drop, leave it, etc.

Excellent post, you have given so much solid information, without being judgmental. Maybe Ann could link this post to the library?

[DBlain]

I think I am the one that said it would be to stressful and that is because after owning 5 dogs I know I am still not equipped to deal with the situation the OP has going on, nor do I want to invest the time it would take to make it work.

Can a large prey driven dog live with a small prey driven dog, sure but it would require a ton of effort on the part of every human living in the house, one mistake could be fatal in less than a heartbeat. Gail is a wealth of knowledge on this because she she has taken the time to learn what to do, she also had her first large dog before she brought the small one home and by that time had several years of training classes and experience under her belt. Her husband is as committed to making this work as much as she is, he to had years of experience with other large breeds. While I can't speak for the OP I doubt she has the background to make this work, if she did she would not be talking about keeping the dog outside so it does not mess up her home or hitting it for playing rough. I also doubt she has the desire to make it work because if she did she would be trying to get as much knowledge here and asking questions and even PMing those that gave her advice, has anyone gotten a PM from her? Anyway like I said earlier I doubt the OP is taking our advice but hopefully the next person thinking about this type of arrangement might give it a second thought.

[Verbena]

I have a friend that has a toy poodle (female), Maltese (male), pit (male) was a bait dog, XXL pit(female) age in descending order from 4 years old to 10 months. (Oh and a cat but the cat is old and stays in hr daughters room.)They all get along. The poodle is the instigator of the group actually. She gets everyone else riled up. My friend does keep them separated when she goes out the two small ones together. The pits together. It is all how you bring your dogs up. She had 15 years ago. A very large rotti and 8 cats not one cat was harmed. Again it is all how you bring them up you have to be the boss, the alpha. And she is

It can be done

[gemy]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

Excellent post, you have given so much solid information, without being judgmental. Maybe Ann could link this post to the library?

Thanks Nancy; Ann is more than welcome to link it.

[concretegurl]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

Excellent post, you have given so much solid information, without being judgmental. Maybe Ann could link this post to the library?

[concretegurl]

okay so I have some of my pc functioning...needs to see a professional but I'm being cheap we just need a new pc.

I was wrong actually Shasta is not 90 pounds she's 83...
while these aren't the best pics of her (she is just too much of a mover) wanted to show her bone structure especially her rib cage and head to show-

in no way is she fat, she literally is big boned...I can't scan her papers to the pc to show she's a purebred pit, but whatever someday when I find the pic of Queenie (she was over 100 pounds).

I guess I should have had the forethought to have a size comparison in the pics but oh well there's Milo who was trying to get her to hold still by holding her collar-that obviously was not a reality lol Milo is 8 and about 70-75 pounds 4 1/2 feet tall.