A friend of mine called Petsmart to check into training classes for her yorkies and was told that her yorkies were untrainable. The trainer had never even met her yorkies. I was surprised by this. My yorkie did great in class and she just won a prize at Petsmart for performing the best trick.

I recently met a guy in the park who has a 5 month old yorkie. I have been showing him how to train the little guy and within a couple of weeks he can do sit, shake hands, and down like a champ. I showed him leave it and stay and I know next time I see him the pup will be doing leave it and stay like a champ too. I don't know why trainers would tell people that yorkies can't be trained. I don't agree. The ones I have trained have been quick learners.

We know the UK...ya'll have the Queen. :D

Actually some of us did pay attention to geography class. ;)

My understanding is that they were brought to the Yorkshire and Lancashire areas of England by poor Scottish immigrants and the breed was refined in these areas and given the name Yorkshire terrier.

The immigrants were poor and the land owners allowed them to tenant farm with certain conditions. They were allowed to own only dogs that would fit through a seven inch hoop, this assured they could not hunt large game. The immigrants typically worked as day laborers and in addition to coal mines they worked mowing fields, where their rat killers were very welcome to come and hunt. They would dig pits for the rats to jump into before mowing the fields and once the days work was done they would wager on how quickly a given dog could kill all of the rats in a pit.

The genetic experts of the day were horse breeders. Carriages owned by the affluent would be pulled by more than one horse and the best breeders produced matched sets of horses to pull carriages. The day laborers were hired to clean stalls and do manual labor but were also exposed to the genetic expertise of the horse breeders and they applied what they learned to their beloved breed. The Yorkie was very quickly refined into a valued companion, one that would guard the families food supplies from rats with deadly efficiency and still be beautiful at the end of a leash for an afternoon stroll.

I don't hold this out as fact, it's just bit's and pieces I have picked up reading about the history of the breed. JMHO :cool:

For Hundreds of years, scots working-class people were accompanied by their terriers. The wealthy elite owned almost all the land, and only people with prosperity and high social standing were allowed to own large hunting dogs. Poor people in scotland were only allowed to have small dogs. The game dogs whom these people developed hunted all kinds of creatures, including rabbits, rats, squirrels, otters, badgers, and foxes.
The scots came to Yorkshire county in northern England in the 1800's. to work in the mills and mines. They brought with them their little dogs, who hunted the rats in the factories and became house pets.
Yorkie fanciers came from surviving a hard life, not from books. They were breeding for dogs who were good game ratters. tough little dogs who could keep the vermin at bay. The Waterside Terrier is said to be is an ancestor to the Yorkshire Terrier.
The Yorkshire Terrier in the mid 19th century England wern't quite the same as the Yorkies of today. They were larger weighing approx. 12 lbs. their coats were medium , rather then floor length. Still , they were distinct from other terriers of the time, and you can see the family resemblance in the yorkies today.:aimeeyork
History:
the Yorkshire Terrier
by Deborah Wood,&
Wayne hunthausen, DVM .

How annoying and what a coincidence. I was in PetSmart over the weekend. A training class was taking place while I was in there and I stood and watched for a short time. I really wasn't too impressed and the dogs didn't look that impressed either:~(.

I guess you don't have to have too many smarts to qualify for a job as a pet trainer at PetSmart!

Not Petsmart
 

In an interest to fairness this did NOT happen at Petsmart, but a rather large dog training facility here in Tulsa called TDTC. Also the instructor was a woman not a man.:aimeeyork

Regarding PetSmart - I just thought that I would mention that I posted my message after reading post # 11 & 16.

Good News!
 

Out of the blue and totally unexpectedly the President of this place called me about an hour ago. She said she had heard about this incident just last night and she had wanted to hear my side of things. She was extremely nice and professional. She has offered a new instructor or our money back.

That IS good news! Congratulations!

I had heard this about the Maltese. The maltese was used by English nobility (women) to sit on their laps and used as flea deterrents.

Wanted to add: That even though the maltese may have been bred to be lap dogs, they are still very intelligent and smart enough to train.

Im a little upset... as i was A PETSMART trainer for 4 years... and yes you do have to qualify and go through a training program....

but thats besides the point... because unfortunately... not every trainer is the same... and i know that alot of people have had bad experiences with them.

ive heard alot of horror stories of people who had gone to other petsmarts, or even petcos where they were told their dogs were untrainable, or felt like they didnt get their moneys worth. i usually spent extra time with these people to prove that their dogs were in fact trainable.

yorkies were actually one of my favorite breeds to train, along with min pins, and chihuahuas who are also "untrainable" just cause it was more rewarding.

im sorry you had such a bad experience. i know there was once a trainer i was working with who use to just make things up if he didnt know the answer to a question... to try to make himself look like he knew it all...

Well I am a little geographical challenged...LOL There are places in the United States I couldn't tell you the exact location but thanks for the correction.