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Originally Posted by AndiMarie  Hi Erin and DukesMom,
Thanks for your replies. It makes me feel better just to know that other people have expereinced the same thing.
Erin, thanks for the heads up - so to nip this in the bud, I know Caser Milan... I know what he recommends, but I work with a trainer that recommends especially for this dog, who is quite fearful and has been timid from the get go, NOT to do the dominance, alpha dog, alpha rolls stuff. So any help along those lines will not be helpful in this situation.
I read that this barking at family members can be a yorkie thing and it is helpful to know if others experience this and how your families handle it.
Thanks.  |
I wouldn't say it's a Yorkie thing but maybe a terrier thing? Yorkies that are yappy dogs tend to be that way because their owners didn't treat them like dogs (not referring to wardrobe, etc. and we all love our dogs like kids and a coat isn't going to ruin a dog) but I mean things like feeding them from the table, letting them get away with jumping, chewing, etc. It's easier to not train a little dog because you can just pick them up and their messes are small. No one would just let their Golden pee on the floor because it's easier than getting up at night, but oddly some think little of it with Yorkies because they are so small.
Sorry... it's late and I can't sleep so you get to hear what I really think.
Anyway, some other things to help with the guarding/barking would be teaching "drop" and "leave it" Loki used to growl at me when I would take his stick or Kong (any food toy or anything food related) so I taught him "drop" and "leave it" which of course come with a MUCH better reward (or simply immediately returning the object, once they get good at it.) It took maybe a month or so of working on this for him to drop his stick from across the room. Even today I will walk over to him while he is chewing and pet him, ask him to drop the stick, pick it up and look at it, praise him and give it right back with a big "THANKS BUD!" Seriously no one wants his stupid stick, but he thinks we do, so he needs to know that even if we take it we will give it right back OR give him something better (cheese, a new stick when his gets too small, etc.) He is really smart so he even knows phrases like "no one wants your stick buddy" (I bet Tobi is smart too, the smart ones can be nervous because they remember everything.) I use "leave it" for when he is getting too interested in something, like tonight I set my bowl on the coffee table after dinner and he kept trying to sniff it. I told him to leave it BEFORE it became an issue. LOVE the leave it command
Teaching them to stay while I fix their food and then a release command to eat is good too!
The anxiety is harder. You have to teach him to look to YOU for cues. Loki thinks big dogs are going to eat him so when we see a big dog I give him a super easy command (like SIT) and act like I just won the lottery. Now when he sees a big dog he looks at me like, why aren't you acting like a dork and giving me treats??? Anyway, this took years but it works. And I'm not so good about walking him every day so we only work on it like once a week in decent weather. You can get results faster if you work on it all the time.
As far as him guarding YOU, have your fiance walk into the room (hiding a treat) If you can, place Tobi on the floor if he was on the bed or couch with you so there is less to guard. If he is nice to your fiance, then he gets the treat (and attention from both of you) If he barks, say "no" or "AH AH" and remove him from the couch/bed/room calmly. He gets 5 minutes without your attention, which is what he really wants. If he behaves for his time out, then start over. If he's smart and you do it a few times he will realize that barking=time out. Then he will realize he gets a treat when your fiance comes in. You don't have to keep this up forever. We did it for like a month and then the behavior just kinda disappeared.
Some people will say they have to stop sleeping with you or sitting on the couch because you have to be "above" them, but that's a misunderstanding. I love sleeping with my dogs, so I taught Loki the "move" command since he would growl if you reached over and moved him. (if he did, again he was immediately removed from the bed for the night) But it was also kind of a respect thing. He prefers (and happily obliges) if you ask him to move, rather than just shoving him over (and waking him up). (BTW, Loki has medical issues so he was actually in pain when we touched him causing the growling. Now he is on meds that fixes the pain and the training fixed the behavior so no more issues. But you can definitely check for medical issues!) He also knows up and OFF. Off is great. If he is being obnoxious about his "spot" (like laying sideways!!!!) he is asked to get OFF and he knows what it means. He has to be invited back up. Seriously, just work with Tobi and learn how to communicate with him. Loki sleeps next to me but he knows that it is my bed and he is allowed to sleep up here if he follows the rules, but not because I yanked on his collar or yelled at him. He just gets annoyed when I ask him to get off that he stays off. It's not worth his effort
There are dog beds on the floor. He's snoring away in one right now because I was disturbing him by moving around
People have tried to tell me that Loki is trying to dominate me. It's not true. You can just tell by body language. Heck, he gives in to his little 6lb sister who is half his size. He's more like a little nerd with no social skills who goes into meltdown mode a lot. We had to seriously build his confidence and teach him stuff like "It's on TV" for when a doorbell rings or a dog barks on TV. He used to completely freak out and now I just say "it's on TV" and he looks around and goes back to his nap. Just one example but these are things that help a LOT.