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Originally Posted by Ashley V  With this last part, is it possible she has some sort of separation anxiety? I think I remember you said she also does it in the crate too. It's not vindictive, she could be anxious. I had a dog that did that even if we baby gated him in our master bedroom and I walk the 10 feet to the bed that was directly in front of the bathroom door, except he would get bad diarrhea. Have you ever talked to your vet about advice?
My personal opinion is that I think you and your girlfriend are not on the same page with training, which can be very confusing for the dog. I think you are willing to take the time to try to train her properly, but need to get your girlfriend on the same page. As someone said before, you mentioned wanting kids in the future, but can't get on the same page with training a dog... a child requires more work and a lot more cooperation from both parents. Not a knock, I'm just saying that if you want kids, you two need to work on this issue long and hard before ever getting that far.
I think you've been given some great advice. I would talk to the vet and make sure there isn't anything wrong medically and maybe just mention some separation anxiety. I don't think that is the problem, or at least definitely not the whole problem, but I thought I'd throw that out there. I also wholeheartedly agree with the others in saying that a trainer needs consulted, but it will NOT work if you have two people working with a dog, that are not consistent and not on the same page. The dog is going to be confused if one is being consistent and doing the right thing, while the other is doing it half the time, then giving in the other half.
As for the growling/biting issue, look back on all the times she's done it and find a common denominator. I know you mentioned something about her chews. She sounds like she is getting protective over them. One of my two yorkies gets like that sometimes. I have to take it away from time to time and tell him "No!" when he growls. I won't give it back unless he's going to be nice. He's usually pretty good about it, but he has his moments. Another thing with the growling, because you have hit her in the past (once again, not a knock, just trying to help), she has probably already learned to fear you some. When dogs are afraid, they act out by growling and biting. They won't do it unless they feel afraid or threatened in some way. If you are going to make this training work, you need to regain her trust. Take her on walks, take her with you to places when you can, and even try to give her little treats for being good. For the tricks she knows, pull out the treats and have her do them sometimes for you and try and teach her some new ones. Most of all, be kind to her and talk nice to her. |
She doesn't get diarrhea when this happens, it must be the anxiety causing spasms or something along the digestive track making her speed up the need to go rather than vindictive. (This is one of my ignorant ideas that I was clueless on). I'll make sure that my fiance speaks with the vet about doing a checkup to make sure all the plumbing is good if I can't go for whatever reason.
As far as the same page goes, I was supposed to be back home to get into my work about 1am because I waited for her to get home from work. I wanted to show her the progress and using the speak in order to go outside so she would try doing it over the weekend I was going to be gone. It became a 3 hour talk about working together. She got pretty defensive about things and we talked a great deal about where I am thinking and where she is thinking. I explained, with the help of those posting here, a lot of what I have learned and what we should try to do. I didn't tell her to do anything though she felt like I was...which she said was her problem. I swear, I was presenting things to her on a level of which I'm not going to bark orders, I want to try doing some things and it won't work unless she is helping. I also asked her to come up with ideas too and I'll work with her as well. Another patron of this site mentioned that women don't like being told how to raise their children or pets...and that statement is very true. We also spoke about kids and I brought up the fact that if we can't work together on this dog, how are kids even going to be possible? I love kids, my nephews and nieces will drop anything they are doing to spend time with me and I try to do something with them at every opportunity I can - which, sadly isn't anywhere as much as I would like to.
We weren't fighting, but we weren't smiling through this talk, but by the end of the conversation, we were smiling and joking and it was a good situation. I just wish it wasn't 4:30 in the morning when I got to my shop and started working. I went to bed about 6 and got up at 10 to get back to work.
I think I have established the source on the biting idea. I must have been moving too fast around my fiance because I about got it again last night. I was getting ready to leave and when I bent down to give my fiance a kiss, I ran my hand up her leg to her waist for the start of a hug (she was climbing in bed for the evening) and a bolt of gray and cinnamon from the side of the bed to stop with her jaw resting on my hand and a serious look on the face. That may have been the cause of one of the bites anyway. She must be acting in an over protective mode since I'm new in comparison.
We'll get this. I know it won't happen overnight, but I'm persistent in anything I do. I think my fiance is on the same page too - and after the talks, I think she had the right idea on some of the training methods she had tried before, I just don't think she was doing them long enough by the suggestions by you all and research I have done. Point in fact, in the conversation last night, she said she tried a trainer...when I asked how many sessions I was told almost 2 weeks. I don't think that's enough with 95% of the dogs out there (not just Yorkies).
The dog is in a good home and she will be staying in this home. I hope to be reporting some major changes and exciting new through the next months for you all to read.