Hello friends, I am 26 years old, male, living in Colorado, and have recently became the owner of the most precious 12 week old Yorkie girl, named Bailey. I came to be her owner when my girlfriends mother bought the puppy and decided that she doesn't have the time to be responsible for her and take care of her properly and train her and everything that goes with having a puppy. So she wanted to give her away to one of her friends, who in all honestly would most likely be just like her. So instead of having that happen my girlfriend and I decided to take over and now she is my (our) puppy.
All I want for Bailey is to make sure she's trained so that she becomes a well behaved member of my family, and not a terror running through the house. A little background on her is that shes right around 12 weeks old. I understand that she was sold from a breeder to a pet shop, and bought there. I'm told shes 100% yorkie, although i'm not positive. I don't know how old she was when she was sold from her mother. Which, from what I've read, can be a big deal. She's current on her vaccinations from what i'm told. I intend on getting in touch with the breeder this week to see if I can find out more about her.
I didn't come here just to tell you that story, I would love and appreciate some training tips for her. I want her to have the best possible life with me so I don't want to worry about having to control her around children or other dogs, or worry if I leave her alone in the house about what she'll get into. Currently she's bitey...so bitey. I've been doing the stern NO! when she bites my hand and try to give her a toy to chew instead but she just goes right back for my hand or walks away. Very rarely does she take the toy. When we're playing she will bite on my hand or my pant leg or my sock, she just always seems to go for that over her toy. On top of that she bites EVERYTHING, i understand she's a puppy and thats what puppies do so I don't want to not let her bite anything and deprive her of experience, but she bites on crown molding, the cracks in the sidewalk so I worry about if she could hurt herself doing that or if its normal puppy behavior. When we play its mostly fetch without the her always bring the toy back, tug of war (until she bites at my hand, then i stop the playtime) when we're outside I run around and let her chase me (this is when she bites at my pant leg usually) I'd love to be able to play roughhouse with her without her getting super bitey...but I refrain from roughhousing since shes still learning to not bite. Am I playing with my puppy wrong? What about swatting on the nose? Is that more of a big dog thing, or just a terrible idea in general? I've met dogs trained that way that are very well behaved and their owners swear by it, but most of what i'm reading about yorkies say its a terrible idea? and no, i haven't swatted my puppy on the nose. I am how ever curious as to what to do to show her she behaving badly, since praise and reward are for good behavior, what shows her not to do something.
Potty training...we're getting a kennel for her tonight, is there a perfered type (plastic or wire or whatever). We actually have a travel crate for her..but all she does is chew on it and chew on the metal and I think its too small for her and I just in general dont like it so i'm buying her a new one and she can grow with. So general tips on making kennel (crate) training easier would save me alot of heartache from hearing my puppy whine...because that's just brutal. My girlfriend also has been using the potty pads with her indoors in case we can't get her outside or we're gone with her here, she's been using those more and more lately which has been good to see. Ideally I would like her to use the potty pads when we're away, and give us a signal (like waiting at the door) that she has to go outside to potty. Other training or commands: She's learned to 'come here' so far pretty well and now when she responds to 'come here' we're teaching her 'sit' which she seems to have picked up in about a day. These i feel are less important than the biting and potty training but I do want her to be well behaved and understand things like "no" and "down" so she doesn't jump up at our food. And about praise is it just like saying "good girl" or something like that in a lovey dovey (talking to a baby type) voice with extra petting and attention? Definitely want to make sure i'm doing that right.
Speaking of food...I have no idea what kind of food she was fed at the breeder but we have some harder puppy food (feels like softened, small pellets) and also canned soft food (Royal Canine, first ingredients are water and chicken, not corn or anything like that). She LOVES the soft food, but i'd like to get her on the harder food because i've heard its better for her teeth (like the chewing helps keep her teeth clean...?) She barely eats the hard food as it is, and I would like to know if there are any tips for getting her more toward the hard stuff. For treats, we seemed to have found one she loves (thanks to the people at petsmart) so I feel like we have good rewards but any advice here would be amazing. I've read a few conflicting things about how often to feed the puppy, i've heard as high as four times a day down to as low as twice a day (keep in mind she is 12 weeks)
Look I realize i've just asked you all just about 99% of training and caring for my puppy, and trust me I will be reading as much as I can on this and doing my own research. But you all seem like a very nice group of people who not only care for your dogs, but everyone else dogs also. I just want to make sure that I do the best job I can for Bailey as her owner and make sure she grows up to be the best she can be. I love this puppy as my own, and even though this is extremely long and I don't know if anyone will even read the whole things, she's worth every bit of effort and research I have to put in to training and raising her. Thank you all for you time if you have any extra questions or would like to get in touch with me email me at
Spiffhimself@yahoo.com. Thanks again
OH and how do they get along with big dogs, I want to get a husky puppy down the road but I want to make sure they'll get along.