[yorkietalkjilly]

Sadly it sounds as if your grandparents aren't up to having pets if the dogs have bad flea infestations and aren't trained or well-behaved and a baby could potentially get hurt. The dogs' behavior isn't their fault - it's just a lack of proper training, which can be remedied if your grandparents are willing to work with them. Also, constant itching from fleas can make a dog nervous, anxious and moody.

A bath and grooming won't cure the house of the fleas as you will have to wash all the bedding, have the furniture they lay on cleaned of flea eggs and every place they go in the house treated or the dogs will just get fleas again. The bites and itching are absolutely miserable and it's really cruel to have dogs living with them, though your grandparents are likely too old to fully appreciate the dogs' awful condition.

If you are going to live there, I would start one of the free Nothing In Life Is Free programs(look them up on the Internet) and obedience training the dogs and teaching them how to respond to commands for positive reinforcement of praise and treats and exercise them a good deal daily with walks. I'd do NILIF intensely for a good two weeks - make them do a command such as "sit" and wait for every bowl of food, every toy they play with and every time they want to jump up on the couch or get a cuddle from anyone or get let outside. Keep the NILIF & obedience training fun and upbeat and the dogs will love the training and obeying of the commands! You'll be surprised at how quickly a dog will stop being dominant and misbehaving once he's got a job of learning and working to learn and happily perform his obedience commands and how much respect he gains for his pack leader/trainer in the process - if the training is kept up longer than a month or so. The training forms a wonderful bond between the dog and his trainer and they become much better, well-behaved pets when training is regular and continued. Once you have the dogs off to a good start, get your grandparents involved and unless they are quite ill, they will love it when they see how it changes the dogs for the better.

Keep the dogs away from the baby until they are free of fleas, well-behaved and obedient. If you are not going to live there, you might talk to your grandparents about the needs of the dogs in the future and see what they plan to do to keep them from being flea-ridden and miserable again. I imagine they aren't getting regular vet checks or the vet would have treated them for fleas and educated your grandparents on how awful fleas are to live with for the dog and dogs can get tapeworm from fleas. Also someone needs to talk to your grandparents about what they do when one of the dogs is ill or injured and be certain they know to get the suffering dog quick vet care.

Yorkies often have poor dentition as a breed unless they get regular teeth brushings and routine dental cleanings so you want to be sure the vet checks out their teeth and gum health as they can get awful abscesses and painful, swollen, infected gums. If these Yorkies have bad teeth and gums, your grandparents need to be educated about how to keep their dental health care up in the future also. They need to be made to understand that fleas and constant biting and itching are an awful way for two dogs to live and if they care for them, they will want to make certain that never happens again.

Also a good housebreaking program is never too late to start and the dogs will learn to be clean in the house if a good program is begun and kept up. Having a baby in the house, not having pee and poo on the floor is an absolute necessity now. There are several housebreaking threads and articles in the YorkieTalk Library here to read exactly how to begin housebreaking.

With a little regular vetting and training, these two dogs could turn into wonderful, well-behaved, happy pets who are a joy to have around.