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Originally Posted by jilwilliams  Hi Ashley, I was doing everything on the list below before I got my last yorkie (Miley) |
Thanks for the advice. I am going to purchase the books you suggested as I agree that I might have the same problems again if I don't learn to train differently, I found some low priced used ones on Amazon [I tend to buy most things on Amazon]. I did read some Yorkie training and many generic dog training books and articles before getting Joli and as she was a puppy, also before I got Somi I read a lot of things about how to introduce them and keep the peace.
I am also going to get the Rescue Remedy [the pet and people kind, I do have a lot of stress with Joli and other things so I think it might be a good idea]. Thanks for that.
I try to be consistent, but have had a hard time getting my boyfriend and roommate to do what I say [people are often harder to train than animals]. And I never blamed Joli for her bad behavior so much as I blamed myself for not teaching her correctly, with some dogs you can get away with not doing everything great and they still behave but Joli is definitely one of those dogs that needed me to do a little better.
My biggest fear with her fighting is that since she is so much bigger than Somi she will severely hurt her or even kill her since she will not fight back or even run away. Somi will just cower down and cry. If they were both fighting I feel like I would be able to handle that better.
I doubt it is her food, though it could be. Especially since I have changed food a couple of times recently and haven't noticed any differences between the foods. I have always given Joli higher end food though when she was a puppy I didn't realize all the good and bad about different pet foods and was using a higher low end food [better ingredients, but still lots of corn and grains]. Currently they are eating Wellness for Small Dogs I believe. I have been changing it just because they didn't seem particularly fond of any of the foods, so I have been buying small bags of different kinds to find their favorite. But I always get ones with meat as the first ingredient and no corn. They mostly get dry food because they have never fought over dry food, but since Joli so rarely got wet food when she was an only dog she gets very aggressive when another dog is around and she gets wet food. I think that is mostly because it is so rare because she has never growled at Somi when they are eating dry food. So I have kept with dry food to eliminate the possible problem.
I never thought about scented products upsetting her. I have many scented things to try to counteract the smells of using a litter box/puppy pad and doggy smells in general [as well as cat smells because my roommate has cats]. I can try to get rid of these and see if that helps anything.
Joli is pretty good on a leash if no one else is around. She gets really excited and barks a lot, but after the first minute or so will walk pretty well. [Especially when she has just gotten her hair done, she will prance around knowing she looks pretty
]
If she sees other dogs or people that she decides she doesn't like then she can get mean sounding. She has never attacked a person, she will usually [I'm pretty sure always] calm down when they get closer and let her smell their hand or something. Though she has snapped at [once not attacked] my niece [around 3 at the time] once because she never calmed down and let Joli get used to her. And I have never let her get close to another dog while we are out when she gets mean sounding so I don't know if she would attack an unknown dog. Though she is sometimes friendly towards other dogs. Now that I have figured out that she is probably mostly female aggressive it is probably male dogs she is more friendly with.
The hardest part about trying to help her is that she is aggressive randomly. I wouldn't really describe her as an aggressive dog, just a sweet dog with aggressive spurts. There is usually little or no warning to her attacks. They are never about food or toys and most of the time I have a hard time figuring out what she is upset about. So it is hard for me to help her when she gets upset about such random things.
I hope I can figure out how to help her especially if I can't find a better home for her.
Thank you for all your help!