[yorkietalkjilly]

Tibbe was 9 mos. old and kennel-crazy from living all of his life outside in a cage and extremely fearful, completely unsocialized when I got him. I actually thought he was brain-damaged and called some professional trainers to try to tell me how to tell. He couldn't concentrate on anything. He literally walked into things and fell off the porch step he was so uncoordinated. He stood with a foot in his water bowl for no reason. He turned it over and ran screaming over and over! But I found he craved being the center of attention and an easy "paycheck" treat for doing something right. And once he learned he COULD achieve something and get "paid" for it, he began to love working at very, very short sessions at learning simple commands and getting well-paid for the process with a quick treat and smiling praise. He LOVED that I would give him a treat after doing something right. It lit him up! Before long he insisted on training! It took me almost a whole year to one by one work out 99% of his problems and that was devoting 100% of my time to him. He was completely wild and terrified, screaming/growling/biting out of fear and had no trust of ANYTHING his first weeks here and it was hard to even settle him down for the longest time but we slowly got there. After a year, he was a perfect, well-behaved, obedient pet who is bouncy, loving, charming and highly intelligent and learns new things now quickly.

The little Yorkie you have probably needs such a program to help rehab him from his lack of trust and fear. Wanting to be boss is often a mistrusting, fearful dog who tries to let others know how tough he is as a defense mechanism and not just being mean. Getting him busy working at obedience training, impulse control, recognizing authority, Nothing In Life Is Free program, several sessions a day getting him trying to learn how to walk on a leash outside, pottytraining, challenging little games of seek the hidden treat, find the squeaky toy, etc., and a program of desensitization to the things he fears one by one is maybe one of the only ways to help him deal with his insecurities, fears and mistrusting state. If you have several dogs, that is very hard if not impossible to do. Rescue orgs. often have people that have the time, training and inclination to take this type of dog on.