Hello,
I have been reading yorkietalk for the past week, ever since my boyfriend and I brought home Goldie, a rescue dog who the vet thinks is about 5 years old. I have learned so much from reading these threads but now have tons of questions! I will try to keep my questions to a minimum to begin with, but we are feeling a bit overwhelmed!
First, some background: Goldie was found by animal control as a stray and a woman who fosters dogs offered to take her in until she could be adopted. Not sure how long she was with this woman (probably 1-2 months) and we're not sure exactly how long she was on the streets or what her history was before that. This is all to say that we know there will be certain challenges with her, likely having either been abused or neglected.
When either or both of us are home, she is pretty quiet (barks when she sees cars/people from the window) and loves to just cuddle with us and be scratched behind her ears. When one/both of us come in the front door she is SUPER excited, jumping and pawing at us. So, we are thrilled that in just one week she has bonded with us and feels comfortable with us.
Here's the thing--we think she is now SO comfortable with us that she is now testing the limits and also gets very anxious when we leave her by herself. For the past two nights she has barked incessantly when we went to bed. We always keep that door and the bathroom door closed and let her basically roam the apartment, other than having a babygate up to keep her out of our pantry. Well... last night she somehow managed to jump OVER the gate and we found her in the pantry. She did the same thing this afternoon when I was gone for 1-1 1/2 hours. She has never tried doing this when we are at home with her. Anyways, we're not sure how to handle disciplining her with things like this because we know we can't let her run the apartment, but at the same time we don't think she's over her past traumas (the way she reacts to people other than the two of us, as well as dogs, is indicative of this. But that's for another post!) so we don't want to be too harsh.
Anyways, sorry for the long, rambling post... I guess I'm just looking for some feedback from those of you have had similar problems, or from those of you who have also rescued a yorkie!
Thank you!!
Attached is a picture of Goldie, who is adorable even when she's acting up
