[kalina82]

Originally Posted by Luvdogs2

For the time being, she's not getting those treats. She really likes them though. Maybe after we get some real good time together and she starts making some good progress, we can start working on not getting so crazy with them.

This is where the drop it/take it game will come in handy.

I have asked my fiance if I can have one time of feeding per day. Would you suggest if I did all of the feedings for a while? I know the food giver is often the one of most respect so I wonder if me taking over for a while completely would be a good idea.

Ideally you should be the giver of all food and treats for a while but if you don't want to push it with DF then do what you can.

Oh, I have been meaning to ask you all, what size of pup(s) do you have in pounds and how much do you feed them (and how often) do you feed them. I have read a good number of posts on schedules to feed, but I could use some pointers on how much. I read that an adult Yorkie needs between 1/4 cup to 1/3 of a cup of kibble per day. That doesn't look like much food at all. The fiance wants to feed her about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup in one sitting, and that looks like too much.

my Morgan is about 5lbs and she is eating Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream. Since Morgan is a good weight I go by what the bag says as far as feeding amount. She gets between 1/3 and 1/2 of a cup of food per day. I have a measuring cup for dog food and use that to measure it out. Even with that amount she usually doesn't eat it all in one day. Its a grain free, high quality food with no fillers so when she eats she is only getting the important nutrients. when they eat food with fillers it just fills them up for a little while and then they poop out most of it. They are not getting enough nutrients from that food so they need to eat more of it. A high quality food will make them poops less, and poop smaller amounts because their body is absorbing more of the nutrients.

I completely forgot to ask her about the dog food too....I know they have a blend specially for Yorkies because I remember looking it up a few months ago looking for the nutrition label online. While we are on that, does anyone have a suggestion on preferred brand for this breed? If, by chance, the food she's laying down isn't the best - how much of a problem is it to change food types? Does a person have to start mixing them and transition or can it be a pretty bad shock to them?

Perhaps its Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier Food | Royal Canin or Eukanuba Yorkshire Terrier Dog Food | Eukanuba.com ? I know they both make yorkie formulas. I don't like Eukanuba/Iams corp so i would never feed one of their formulas even if they were high quality (which they are not). There are people here on YT that do feed the Royal Canin and have great success with. Personally i feed a grain free, by-product free, corn free, high quality food with a good amount of protein in it for my specific dog's needs.

In your case, whatever you are feeding I would stick with right now. You don't want to change anything and further upset her. She's already dealing with a lot. Wait until she's further along in the training process before you change anything else. When you do change foods you need to do it gradually over the course of 1-2 weeks by slowly mixing in a few kibbles of the new food with the old food until you are only feeding new food.

One thing that is really shocking with the behavior I have seen is she doesn't chew shoes or anything like that on the floor. If the remote falls off the couch, she doesn't get into it. Magazines, cushions...nothing. What she goes after is if you hang your coat off the back of a chair, she gets into the pockets and will pull out tissues, gloves or coozies that I will use at school for my water and such. She is also a pretty big fan of snagging my fiances underwear through the laundry basket and dart under the bed. It's hard to not laugh at times with that one. My fiance will giggle about licking my mouth and I poke back and say "at least my undies are safe..."

Simple Solution - hang your coats up in a closet or on a door hook where she can't reach it. Put the laundry basket in the closet or on something higher up so she can't reach it. Or get a hamper with no holes in it.

Back to the bed and being defensive...she has been set in her kennel overnight (she has a spacious kennel and a crate bit enough to turn in and lay down) when I had started sleeping over and leading up to me living there. On the weekends she is allowed to sleep on the bed with my fiance since I have to come home to work. Lets just say she doesn't do the lick in the mouth thing and is allowed to roam at night...if I roll over, have a leg spasm, shift in the night or have some romance - will there be a high risk of aggression? Would it be best to just keep the routine of the kennel in the evenings?

Thanks a bunch

I would crate her at night. This way she won't have the opportunity to be aggressive for any reason. It will also help to potty train her. Her crate should only be big enough for her to stand up, turn around, and lay down in. Any more room and she will use one side as a toilet and the other side as a bed. The crate i have is 24"L x 18"W x 21"H and it comes with a divider panel. Without the divider the crate would be too big for potty training purposes. When morgan was a baby she had less then half of the crate to use because she was so small. I put a bed in there that took up the whole area that she had so it was only a bed area with no room to do anything else. This was used at night time, and while i was not home. I made sure i was never gone for more then 4 hours by coming home mid-day to take her outside. That kind of small space is not to be used for long periods of time (besides night time) so if you are gone longer then that she should be set up in an ex-pen with a wee-wee pad, bed, water, and toys.