Hello!
This is my first post, so I hope this is okay! We rescued our yorkie almost a year ago. His name is Chewie and he is aprox. 6 years old. When we got him we were told he was a Yorkie and Chihuahua mix, but the owner and I agreed he didn't look like a Chihuahua so we aren't sure if this is accurate. He is longer than Yorkies normally are so I think he is mixed with another kind of terrier. (Pictures attached)
We love our Chewie but do have some concerns and I thought some of you could help! When we first rescued him he was very afraid of my fiance, and he really doesn't like men. We think he was abused in some way. My fiance used to work late nights and come home when I was already asleep and Chewie would become very protective of me and try to bite my fiance. He no longer does this and loves his mommy and daddy so we are very happy about that. However whenever we have company Chewie becomes very scared when people walk in. He will bark, growl, and depending on if the person startles him, bite. He has bitten two of my male friends before. I now hold him whenever I open the door so that he is at their level and can smell them. He is not a mean dog. If he does nip at someone we of course tell him "no" and he feels bad afterwards and will try to lick them to make up for it. I normally have new people sit on the floor with him and let him go to them. He is fine once he smells people and gets used to them actually in the house. However when we take him outside to do his business he is very aggressive towards people. We live in a apartment complex and so we can't really avoid people around us. We are considering taking him to a trainer but we aren't sure what kind of classes he should take.
I really believe that he has anxiety, possibly due to abuse in the past. When I first got him he was afraid of a lot of things. For example I was holding a toilet brush moving from one bathroom to the next and he ran under the bed acting like I was going to hit him. I would NEVER hit him and it breaks my heart when he becomes fearful of me. He also obsessively licks, and he will lick anything. He licks the couch, bed, blankets, us, his toys and himself. He also has accidents occasionally in the house. I'm not sure if this is due to lack of training or if it maybe was something that scared him when we weren't home.
Just to be clear I am not trying to complain, I really wanna help Chewie out and I want him to be happy! I will not get "fed up" and send him back to the rescue. He is my baby now and I'll never let him go.
I just hope someone here has some advice for me! Thank you in advance and thanks for reading my long long post!
Hayley