The MOST well behaved dog I've ever seen
 

Franklin and I were at the dog park today, all by our lonesomes in the small dog area when this guy brought his dog into the big dog section. It immediately started barking and growling, being extremely aggressive. None of the other dogs reacted except a tan lab. It started growling and barking back and they almost got into a fight! Well the dog owner was a good one (thankfully) and took his aggressive dog and left.

Afterwards, I overheard the tan lab's owner say that his dog had been coming here since it was a puppy and had never been aggressive ever before. THEN he made his dog lay down and stay until he released it. The dog literally layed down for 10 minutes while humans, babies, and other dogs ran around him. The minute the owner said "okay" it jumped up and ran around with the other dogs.

I don't know about you guys but I've never seen a dog that well trained (in real life). It was amazing! :)

Here's the real point of this post:

The guy said all he'd done was read Cesar Milan's books. I love the Dog Whisperer and watch it all the time, but I don't feel like we can train our tiny Yorkies the same way he trains dogs. My biggest concern is that Cesar predominantly works with a training collar and we can't even walk our dogs on a collar! How can we apply his training techniques to toy breeds that are at risk of collapsed trachea?

Isn't that cool to see? My trainer has 10 dogs (she used to breed labs) and they are ALL like that. They come to classes and help demonstrate and I've seen them do agility and more and they are amazing.

It IS possible to have well trained Yorkies. Loki was a terror when he was a puppy so he and I did lots of training and he can do stays and all of those things (he's iffy with distractions, but that is due to lack of me practicing with him). Anyway, we used all positive reinforcement techniques. I'm not a Cesar Milan fan because while some of what he says is true (exercise, etc.) what he does isn't. (He might say the dog is calm when the dog is visibly stressed, for example) He uses old school techniques that make for good TV but not good training. The real trainers out there (I'm talking the PhD's, the people know have studied it their whole lives) don't agree with him. There are so many better techniques out there that really do work, they just take a lot of effort and repetition.

So many people explain the right way to train better than I ever could. Pick up a book by Pat Miller (Positive Perspectives) or watch "It's Me or the Dog" on Animal Planet with Victoria Stillwell. Also check out www.whole-dog-journal.com

If you have specific questions I'd be happy to share! I do have a bookcase full of books on positive reinforcement training if you need more suggestions!

Thanks for the reply! That's interesting to hear.. I've never heard that opinion about Cesar before. I guess it makes sense. I'll definitely do some more research and check out those books. I have the summer off so I can use that to really work on training Franklin.

I think my girls, Harlee and Izzie read that book because they've got me trained...Especially the scratching on the cabinet door to get them a treat...woof and I open it !!!!:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

small dogs can be trained just the same as big dogs. There are other types of corrective collars/harnesses that can be used. There is the haltie and gentle leader. I just use a regular ol step in harness. morgan is well trained (except at the dog park:rolleyes:). she walks well on a leash, either right next to me or a step behind me. she can sit, stay, come, lay down, give paw, roll over, play dead, high five, etc... i can put her in a down/stay and then walk 50 feet away, wait 30 seconds and then call her to me.

at the dog park though she pretends she can't hear me :rolleyes: especially for the first 30 minutes of being there. once she calms down and has smelled every dog, leaf, rock, and fence, then she'll listen to me. hehe

I think that because yorkies are so little and cute people assume they can't be trained as well as big dogs. I don't agree. My Tucker is able to drop in his tracks when I tell him to. He'll sit, stay, lay down....I take him out in the front yard off leash and tell him to get in the car. He is trained to wait on the porch until I lock the door and go down the steps first, then he'll come and walk with me to the car. When we come home he waits on the seat until I get out of the car and tell him he can come out. I agree that Ceasar's ways are not always the best ways. It takes patience, consistancy and lots of practice, but you can train a yorkie.

I hate to say it but this is so true, before Lily I could not stand people with un trained dogs. I have a big dog who is trained very well as have all my previous dogs have been. Well.... Lily is my first small dog and as much as I love her she is a brat and it is all MY fault:rolleyes: . With my big dogs I would do training 1 hour a day every day. Lily is so spoild, this set of posts has opened my eyes to the fact that just because she is small and so darn cute does not mean she can get away with everything.:eek: