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Originally Posted by Yorkadelphia  Hello, new user here!
My husband and I just welcomed our new 12 week old Yorkie Oliver three weeks ago. The first couple of days we had him, he was relatively calm. He would bark like a mad man if we stepped out of the room, but we spent a lot of quality time with him, and he has become very affectionate with us. He has gotten to the point where he is OK to be left alone (we have a dog walker come in daily while we are at work), but we are starting to get a little concerned about his behavior.
It all started with his shots, which he got last week. He ferociously bit the vet when he got the shots and he kind of attacked the tech who clipped his nails. The vet warned me that Ollie has a bit of "Napolean complex." The bad behavior continued when we took him to a puppy socialization class. Although he was the smallest puppy there, he was kind of a bully. Most of the time he was playing nice and the other puppies were wagging their tails, but sometimes he was too much with the nipping and barking, and he drove them away.
I took him to the groomer for the first time today and they had to muzzle him because he was nipping at them so much. We are trying to teach him bite inhibition and rewarding calm and obedient behavior. This forum has been great for tips. Should I be worried about him, or has anyone else in my shoes seen their Yorkie act this way as a puppy?
I really appreciate the feedback!! |
If you do a search on here for "biting problems or aggression issues", you will see you are far from the only person, who has had these problems. You'll also see books/training tools referred to with those threads.
But to answer your question is this "normal" Yorkie behaviour, actually not. Even for a 12 wk old puppy that if I've read your post correctly you got at 9wks old.
I'm glad to hear you are attending puppy socialization classes. You need to (if not already) have spoken with the trainer there, so they can help you with your training questions.
There are very good resources at the library or on-line for positive training techniques. One program is Nothing in Life is free. There are many others.
You do need to patient and consistent with discipline, it will take some time to correct this bad behaviour.
The other axiom is that a "tired dog is a good dog", make sure your puppy gets plenty of excercise; outside or inside; short play sessions, coupled with basic obedience training, sit, stay, come, commands etc.