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Originally Posted by amstutz1  Good morning to all on the Yorkie Forum!
I have just taken in two rescue Yorkie Females aged 4 and 5 years of age. There were in pretty bad shape when the shelter (in Ohio) obtained them but they are cleaned up, immunized, spayed, and microchipped. We had a 350 mile drive to our home in PA from the shelter in Ohio. The dogs slept almost the entire way. They are underweight and need a lot of affection. I am taking them to my vet in the next day or two.
I own two 18 month old boxer females. Although they are both good dogs and well trained they still act like new puppies sometimes. They are very curious about the newbies in the house and I am having some difficulty with the interaction. The boxers tend to overwhelm the little guys and bark a lot at them. We use crates and have the crates connected to a pet door and an outside two acre fenced dog run. I need to get the boxers to accept these small dogs so we can have one set up for crates and pet door.
I have read Victoria's and Cesar's books regarding introducing new pets to the household but it is still is a chaotic time in our house. Any suggestions or referrals to a FAQ on the site would be appreciated.
I am retired and try to spend as much time as possible training my dogs. These Yorkies have had little or no formal training as evidenced by their behavior. I will have my hands full!
Thanks!
Michael Olmstead
Elliottsburg, PA |
First Welcome to YT. It certainly sounds like you have your hands full at the moment.
It sounds like your Boxers as the breed usually is, are high energy dogs. I think for some time maybe as long as two years you will need to crate and rotate like you are doing now.
I would make sure that your Boxers are well exercised, and of course trained. Sometimes it is helpful to have a weekly structued obedience class that you attend. I would do one night/day with the Boxers, and another night/day with the Yorkies. The most number of dogs I tried to train with in the same obedience class is three, and that is a lot of work!! Plus you need two crates set up to place the two dogs you are not working with into.
You didn't mention if you have a human partner you can work with; if so I would start exercising one Boxer and one Yorkie together. That is once the Yorkies have adjusted to their wonderful new home. I would also walk the two Yorkies together daily.
Pack dynamics are going to take awhile to sort out, and during that process you need to keep all dogs safe from each other. Particularly the smaller Yorkies.
For myself, I've never trusted my high prey large dog to play with my Yorkie. The only time they were off lead together outside was when we were swimming. It took about 2years within the home before I allowed my Yorkie and my high prey gal to roam together in house, and only when I am at home. At night I always crate my Yorkie, and leave the big dogs free.
If you do a "search" here on this forum, you may find some older "threads" that have more info for you on training multiple dogs.
