my yorkie is obsessed with mouse hunting!

[Chillster]

our 1 1/2 yr old female yorkie, Chili, looooooooves loves loves to go scouring my house looking for mice. we do have some mice in our home that she has spotted, and she has gone ballistic! so now she knows they are in the home, shes always on the lookout sniffing around. we set traps out at night and we have caught about 20 or so over a few months. well her newest thing now is to nark repeatedly at our refrigerator, scratching it, barking, panting like a wild animal. we pulled the frig out so she could see theres nothing there. but shes still obsessed, barking non stop and scratching like somethings there. I think its the scent of the mice that drives her nuts. HEEELLLPP anyone? trying to stop her barking she will not listen to me. shes obsessive, or possessed. im not sure lol

[rubymoon2072]

have you tried gating off the kitchen when she barks and doesnt stop. If you ask her to stop and she does not respond I would try taking her out of that room and making sure she cannot reenter until she stops barking. repeating until she understands what you are trying to convey to her.

I may not have the best advice. Hopefully someone else will chime in. They are mouse hunters it was what the breed is known for. She is following her instincts and yes probably smells their scent.

[Magnus]

LOL Your post reminds me of Christinee's furbutt Charlie. Maybe she can give you some advice.

At least you know you're safe from all those evil mice.

[OwnedByJezebel]

I would find out how those mice are getting in and fix it so that they can't come in anymore. They can carry in diseases like lepto and other nasty things.

[Lovetodream88]

Have you found where there coming in at so you can try to fix it so they can't? My moms yorkie is a hunter and would scratch all the paint off her cabinets if there was one in there and bark and everything until the mouse was caught. When they took out there old kitchen they found the holes mice where getting in at and closed them up before redoing the kitchen. These dogs where once used for ratting so that is still in there blood.

[coolcowsmoo]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

These dogs where once used for ratting so that is still in there blood.

When we took Avery for training the instructor told us that tidbit about Yorkies being used in I think the fabric warehouses for hunting the rats and keeping them away. Ever since my husband tells people we have a Ratweiler :/

[hobbette]

maybe there is a nest in the wall behind the fridge and she can hear them? no idea what to do about it except get rid of the mice. can you block off behind the fridge and leave traps out there full time? we had a mouse problem last year that drove me completely insane. didn't bother the dogs at all.

we had no luck with traps until we got these Amazon.com : Ortho 0321110 Home Defense Max Press... we baited them with jiff whipped chocolate pb and normal pb caught one after another almost all of them with the chocolate traps. I had baited the previous traps with the same things. I think maybe the smell wasn't strong enough to tempt them into the no kill kind we started with, and the other snap traps they were just not triggering them.

The traps that worked have the trigger surrounding the bait spot that lifted just a tiny bit above the bait when set so they can't reach it without setting it off. the down sides to the traps are a couple mice weren't as dead as the should have been, sometimes there is mouse blood around them, if you don't find the mouse fairly quickly they stick to the traps, and being plastic the catches eventually break.

[yorkietalkjilly]

The fact that you have caught 20 or so mice in your home with traps tells me you have a huge rodent problem and likely your dog won't settle down until you have a professional service out to totally clear your home of them and prevent new generations from ever breeding. Clearing out bushes and things close to the base of the home helps also.

Yorkies were originally bred to hunt rodents and are genetically programmed to ever live to catch and kill them efficiently so she's just sporting her good terrier genes when she goes crazy after smelling, hearing or seeing one.

[Christinee]

OH boy! Been there done that!! We had a mouse problem. Charlie killed three baby mice on his own and he ended up OBSESSED!! Literally to where all he could do was think of them and try to find more. LOL

We ended up getting rid of the problem and then moved. Until he knows they are gone, he probably wont stop. I didn't even know where were any mice at first, but he did. I thought he was losing his marbles because I didn't know what he was barking and whining at all the time until I seen one myself run across the kitchen floor. I'd scream and that made him go even more ballistic and want to catch them.

I'm LOL-ing right now looking back at it now.

[Christinee]

I remember his eyes would be big and his tongue would hang out of his mouth when he'd be on a mission after mice. It was like he transformed into this other obsessed dog after mice.

[Christinee]

Someone here on yorkietalk (I forget who exactly) Recommended one of those zapper houses that electrocutes them. That thing is what worked for us. It took a few nights (because they wont come out during the day too much) but they work! Just put some peanut butter in them and they can't resist! I'd wake up every morning to dead mice in it who tried to get the peanut butter. The good thing is, is that it is probably the most humane way to kill them too. ZAP and that is it they are done. And you neatly empty them into the trash or wherever you are dumping them. No mess and you are not killing them painfully. I'll see if I can find a link.

Whatever you do, don't use those sticky traps. I tried those at first and felt so horrible. I made my fiance take one we had out back and kill it by dropping a brick on it to get it out of its misery sooner. I felt so horrible. I even cried thinking about it being trapped on that thing and how it must have felt.

[Christinee]

Here is the one we used. They only kill one at a time, so we bought two and put them in the place we knew we had mice activity. I'd find a new dead one it them every morning until they were finally all killed off....

Victor Electronic Rat Trap - Mills Fleet Farm

You can get them at Home Depot.

[Buster Brown]

I was just watching one of the new designer remolding home shows and they were doing cabins and one had mice. They said to to put steel wool in the mouse holes to block them because they will not eat through steel wool. How to Get Rid of Mice Naturally: 15 Steps - wikiHow

[Christinee]

To make sure they (the zappers) weren't a danger to Charlie, I put a milk crate over them. I then put a heavy dictionary on top of the milk crate to make sure charlie couldn't move it. The holes in the milk crate are big enough that the mice will just crawl through them to get to the peanut butter and it still ensures your pup doesn't end up being the one getting electrocuted instead of the mice... Just to be on the safe side.

Good luck. I know they are a horrible to deal with, but you can get rid of them.

[matese]

Yorkies, terriers were breed to flush out vermin, I had 4 yorkie HUNTERS, one was obsessed with squirrels, another with chip monks, third with mice, the 4th with all of the above, but mice were her most favorite. I had a t-shirt for her BORN TO HUNT. She would rather hunt then eat. Under my deck I keep lumber from left over projects. Seems a nice hiding place for mice & moles, my last girl would pull the wood apart trying to get at them. They are relentless lil hunters. Steel wool to fill spaces, holes will work, mice cannot chew through it. Eliminate the mice ,and you'll eliminate the barking. Yorkies are hunters, if it is there, they will find them. I love their hunting instincts, spring, summer & fall, my pups were knocked out at the end of the day from a full day of hunting . Good luck in riding home of mice.