[Sophie's Auntie]

Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie, Sophie's Auntie, and I'm a "refugee" from another yorkie chat site which will remain nameless. Sophie is my sister's 14-month old pup, and we took Sophie to a puppy obedience class last summer when she was about 6 months old. The classes were held at a doggy daycare center in our neighborhood, but we didn't care for it. Sophie was the smallest pup in the class, and all the other pups were quite aggressive and some would pounce on her. The instructor would tell us that we shouldn't protect her, that she had to be socialized around other dogs, but we weren't comfortable with her philosophy and we were concerned about Sophie's getting hurt. We were aware of obedience classes at PetSmart and PetCo stores, but we ultimately hired a private trainer to come to our house once a week, and she was very helpful and Sophie adored her. I must say, however, that training is a process, especially if your yorkie is an "independent thinker," so we work with Sophie every day. Sometimes the standard command words don't work with her, so we substitute some other word that we find more effective. We're fortunate that we never had any problems with housetraining...she was already paper trained when we got her at 12 weeks of age. We still have some work to do with the leave it-drop it-come commands. ...because if Sophie doesn't feel like obeying, she won't! And, she doesn't work for free!! That's been our experience, so we remain patient, keep a sense of humor, and keep those treats coming!! Nice to meet all of you!