Baby jumping in pen
 

My baby is 16 weeks and a little @ 3#4oz. When he is in his Xpen, and wants to be let out, he will jump so high, like a little jumping bean and now that he is a little bigger, it almost looks like he is going to scale over the sides. I read somewhere that puppies should not jump from heights any higher than their height, but he is able to jump up higher than that. My question is, is this harmful to their legs/hips/joints??? I am concerned and wonder what ideas anyone may have about how to curtail this. He also won't come when called. He knows his name, but when I approach the pen to get him, he does the jumping thing and then will not come. I have to put one of my legs over into his area before he comes over. He is very hard to catch!!! Is this just a training issue? Does anyone else have this going on??? Any suggestions....

It seems to me that most Yorkies are jumpers. I've not figured out a way to prevent it. I don't encourage it, but if she's going to jump, she's gonna jump. And yes, some will even jump/climb the xpen & out. Roxy is so active that she's got to be building some good muscle tone which is good. Her first big jump at about 4 mo was off the end of my bed & leaped a good 6 ft w/perfect landing. So far I've not seen a delicate bone in her body. She plays so hard, runs, tumbles, rolls, & carries on so much I have chosen to not worry so much. Then there are dogs who do agility courses which causes a lot of stress on joints & muscles. It seems all this is the equivelant to all the stresses we put on our joints with everyday activity, sports, working out, etc that humans do. Good diet builds strong bones. No child or adult escapes injury of one kind or another in life. I can't live in fear everyday. If an accident happens, ya deal with in whatever way you can.

Sometimes pups have selective listening & hear what they want to hear. The first time I said, "Roxy come" (not even sure she knew her name yet), she came just a busting over to me. I was shocked. She does a lot, but not always. She does a terrific job of playing 'keep away'. Stays just far enough away to prevent me from getting ahold of her. She lowers herself onto her left shoulder & quickly scoots herself in circles just teasing me. Stink pot!

I believe some of this is training, but I think a lot of it is puppiness that she'll grow out of as time passes. Even children test us as they grow, so do our precious pups. Keep up at it though. Take a deep breath & exhale slowly when needed. Even when you think he's 'got it', he's likely to regress at times, then start progressing again. He will probably give you new challenges his whole life, so just be prepared for it. Good luck!

Good words to go by. Yorkies (at least the active ones) jump . . . a lot. They probably wouldn't be much of an effective terrier if their bodies couldn't make up for their small size with some impressive agility. Buster jumps up and down from furniture all the time without any problem. He has limits, though--we won't let him jump off the back of the couch, despite his occasional desire to do so. All this jumping strengthens muscles, which on balance is probably more helpful than harmful.