[donna]

Hi everyone,

I have two yorkie boys - from the same litter. They are 5 years old and unfortunately when we got them from the breeder we didn't know, and she didn't tell us, it was a bad idea to home two boys from the same litter.

We've had behaviour issues since day one, consulted a dog behaviour specialist but still the problems persist.

In all honesty, the rest of my family living with me are rubbish at following through discipline and yet the first to moan when the boys cause problems. However things are so bad now it is affecting our lives and I need help.

The biggest problem is that Bailey - smallest of the two - has a terrible aggression problem. You can go to stroke him, bath him, pick him up - basically do anything inside his personal space and he will snap, growl, bite and snarl. Because of his size he doesn't do much damage but it's horrible and today when I bathed him he bit me hard. It's becoming even more habitual with him. I don't know how to discipline him to stop this behaviour.

Problem two is that when we go to bed and leave the boys in their separate crates downstairs, they howl, bark practically all night long. We have tried coming down, saying 'no' and returning to bed. We have tried ignoring them - nothing works. It interrupts our sleep and I'm worried that our neighbours will soon complain.

Seriously - if we could solve those problems life would be sleep. I'm fed up of being mad at my dogs, I want to enjoy them.

I am prepared to do whatever training, techniques it takes - and I will make my family do it too. Any advice would be so much appreciated.

Please ask any questions if I haven't mentioned things that are important.