Yorkie attack! Please help
 

We have a very puppy/dog friendly home. We have a teacup chiweenie, a cathoula, and a miniature chiweenie and then we have Fagan the mini yorkie. All of my dogs get along fine, except Fagan. Every time any other dog gets near me or him he attacks and bites them, even the big cow dog. I don't really know how to react to this behavior because we have never dealt with it before. I got Fagan for Mother's Day and we adopted him from an agency we used for our other dogs. I just don't know what to do... he is the sweetest dog out of all of them but turns so mean so fast. I just don't want any of our babies to get hurt, even him. How do I stop this behavior? :confused::(

When Fagan attacks, what do you do? I would suggest reading some training books, watching 'It's Me or the Dog' on Animal Planet and 'Dog Whisperer' Nat Geo channel. It's up to you to change this behavior asap. Allowing this behavior to continue will only get worse.

Welcome to YT! Lots to learn here. Keep reading & learning from all the info here.

My dad watches the Dog Whisperer and he taught me a trick that he used on his cow dog with the finger and the "cht" sound and then he said walk them intoa corner to get them to understand you are the master. I have attempted to act out these methods and he does not heed to any of them. I have also been putting him in time out (in his kennel) to watch the other dogs play with me and lay around so he can see that is being bad. The minute he is out, he goes right back to attacking. My husband and I play around and it upsets Fagan so much he will attack my husband and when my daughter and Jeff are playing Fagan will often attack both of them. Almost as a fear of violent behavior or what he perceives as violent. 97% of the time he wants to be near me, at my feet or next to me, but he doesn't like to be cuddled at all! If you try to hold him, he refuses to stay put and wiggles his way out. If I lay on the floor he will come and give me kisses, but NO SNUGGLING AT ALL. I am not sure what he went through with his first human, but it must have been hell. The adoption agency had to shave him all the way down to relive him of the dandruff and mats in his hair. I just don't know how to undo the damage he may have endured with the other family. :(


Also, thanks for the welcoming. One of my dreams in life growing up was to get a Yorkie, and I had the chance to adopt one...and I know that he is a wonderful pup, I just need help. I am glad there is a an entire web forum for my FAQs and concerns. :D

Oh, so Fagan is a rehome? How old? I'm sure this is hard for you. I've not worked with a rehome before, so not sure I'm the best one to help you. Many here have, and may have some useful advise. I personally like Dog Whisperer & have learned a lot from him, but some here do not. I like IMOTD too. Some of what Cesar does on DW isn't effective with Roxy, but other things have. Sometimes it takes a variety of approaches to find the one thing that works w/Fagan. Something that Cesar does that has worked well w/Roxy is to hold her down on her side (gently but firmly) and hold her there until she completely relaxes for at least 20 seconds. Then slowly release her, and quietly walk away. Haven't had to do that in a long time, but it has helped her to settle down when she was totally out of control in her youth.

To start, you must say 'Ah Ah! No Bite!' the very second a bite happens, no hesitation at all. Timing is very important. Your voice must reflect that you mean it (stern), & not a whimpy plea. You do not back off for a second. You do this however long & often that it takes... every single time.

Fagan may be trying to be the pack leader and may have come from a situation where fighting was survival. You may need some expert help with it. Hopefully some other people here have more ideas for you to try or recommend good books. When you do have Fagan in a time-out for biting, do not talk to him or look at him or pet him. Just ignore him completely.

Do realize not all yorkies are snuggler/cuddlers. It was disappointing to me too, but I've learned to live with it. Roxy's likes to cuddle on her terms only. Otherwise, she wants to be near me, beside me, against me, very friendly, but not so much on the cuddles. Independant little stinker! However, I got my yorkie and she is so delightful in other ways. I wouldn't give her up for anything.

Good luck, and hope someone else here can give you more help.

thank you. i will try. :) I don't plan on giving up on him as did his previous family. I want to work with him until it sticks, I already love him very much. He is two by the way.

welcome to YT!

I recommend having a professional trainer come to your house so they can evaluate the situation and give you the best course of action to take. You don't want any of the dogs to get hurt and you don't want to cause more damage with the wrong method of correction.

I will look into that. It just seems kind of expensive, but I am going to look around for someone in my price range.

yeah unfortunately it can be expensive but in this case i think its the best way to go. Fagan is a rescue and you don't know what he experienced earlier in his life. Plus you have other dogs and children added to the mix. Your unsure of what to do training wise so a professional will help.

Cornering a dog is never a good thing. that will most likely make the situation worse because a cornered dog will defend itself. A lot of the time that means biting. the "cht" sound is good and i use it with my dog but the timing has to be right on. Also i don't think penning him up and making him watch you play with the others is doing anything. he doesn't understand that he has to play nice by watching others play.

What you can try is to always keep a leash on him when he is with you. If another dog comes over to you and Fagan attacks, take him by the leash and put him in another room. close the door and leave him for 30 seconds or so. If he's crying and carrying on while in there then wait till he's quiet for 3 second before opening the door and walking him back out on the leash. When he attacks again, repeat the process. Its not a quick fix but it will make him understand that if he snaps at another dog or a person then he gets taken away and doesn't get to spend time with you. Victoria uses this method for a few things on her show "its me or the dog"

Oh, and i just read roxyluv's post on using Cesar's method of putting the dog on its side/back. Honestly i would not do this with fagan. It can make the situation worse. This method shouldn't really be used at all by owners. I'm not gonna say it shouldn't be used at all, PERIOD. i do think it works when Cesar does it but he is a professional and knows the proper way to do it. with Fagan's history or lack there of, i wouldn't push it.

I took Ringo for a private session with a trainer and it was $20 for one hour. Of course, he did not come to my house - that was before we added another dog.

But he did address Ringo's dog aggression issues by bringing out his dogs; he started with a small, even-tempered dog and Ringo was fine.

However, as the dogs he brought out got larger - Ringo's aggression came out and we worked on it then.

In your case, it might be good for the trainer to see the dynamics within your own pack - if you can find one to come to your home.

Thank you for rescuing and I hope everything settles down soon.

I think the 'time out' in another room is an excellent method and is also good because you are not using his crate for punishment. You want him to like his crate.

We used this with Ringo when Lucy first came home. Also, walking your dogs together helps them bond. You might not be able to take them all out at the same time - but if you could walk Fagan together with another one . . that would be good. He can begin to see other dogs as the source of all good things (fun walks, treats, playtime, etc).

It took a good month for Ringo to completely settle down when Lucy first came home. Now he is fine . . she's the one trying to bite his feet; face, etc and he is remarkably patient with her!

Thank you for the advice. I will try some more and keep trying. To comment on the adoption thing, my husband and I are both adopted so we both decided to rescue and adopt dogs to show them there is relief for their pain. I plan to adopt more in the future as well.

I would agree totally with not using Cesear's method in this case you will increase the fear reaction as he will bark and snap with the dog further away as mum hurts him when dogs get close. "I will freak out when they are 5 feet awy instead of three and maybe then I will be safe. "I would call in a professional using positive based training methods only and it does not need to be that expensive if you can find the cause and set up a program you can do your self with limited hands on by the pro or only uses as back up.

We do not know his history so he may well have been rolled by a big dog or not seen them before. Not sure how long you have had him but i suggest a baby gate between him and the others so he can see and make no contact.
If he is calm as one of the other dogs walk by toss him a treat so he knows calm is what you want. Do not let him rehearse the bad behaviour as someone else suggested as it will ingrain it deeper.

Other suggestion is a muzzle tends to take the wind out of thier sails so they can think with the brain not the teeth but you most be right there at all times so he is not made to afraid of a dog getting to close or rolling him when he can not defend himself.

Other suggestion find a very nice very stable dog that speaks dog well and let him teach the dog life is ok with other dogs. I have the great good fortune of access to one and have watch him let a dog run repeatedly into him until the dog got he would not get hurt by him. the next time they meet the dog went to run at the dog and he simple said no and they have been friends ever since. After that you pair the safe dog with a nice smell and a treat and go find another safe dog and pair it with the same sent and treat and you teach the dog through treat and smell other dogs are safe but you best know for sure second dog is a sweet heart too.

Some of these guys just never learn proper dog body speck and can not read when another dog is safe or they need to worry. You learning the speack skills will help in teaching him that life is ok. So looking into On talking terms with dogs.

JL

Welcome to YT. In February I took in a 13+ years old male. The lady I got him from had gotten him from a rescue 2 years ago with no history. I knew Nikki about 6 months when his mom had a stroke and couldn't keep him. When I brought him home he immediately became glued to my side. He sleeps partially on top of me. If any of my 3 girls approach me when he is next to me he goes for them especially one of mine. Fortunately he has no teeth so he can't hurt them but he is intimidating them. A soon as one of my girls start to come near me I can see Nikki tense up and stare at them intently. If left alone he will then attack them. Now at first sign of him tensing I tell him NO and put him on the floor. .That seems to break the tension.He has improved by 75% by doing this. He is fine when they are all together on the floor or if I am not around. It's so hard to know what to do when you have no idea what they have been through in their past life. This is my first rescue/rehome so I really have no experience. Hopefully some of our experienced rescuers will have some good ideas for you. Good luck and I am glad you aren't giving up on him.

You are so good for taking in rehomes. I know it's hard, but still, every pet deserves a loving home.

I am so, so sorry. I didn't have time to read every post, so if this was mentioned, my apologies. I try and help when I can on this board because everyone has been wonderful to me.

Anyway, dogs don't understand time outs. It makes no sense to them. They might realize they're in trouble, but don't understand the concept of time outs. A human child will think about what they did wrong...a dog does not.

I found this article on-line. It may help:
Multiple Dog Household, Help them get along

Please let us know how it goes.

He may not be dog friendly and be acting out of fear. First thing I do when I see this behavior is to do a controlled butt sniff. Hold Fegan and allow all your other dogs to sniff his butt, while you hold him and prevent him from biting. Then, while holding him still, allow him to sniff their butts, I know this sounds weird, but it is how dogs meet and greet each other. Sometimes doing this will break the tension and solve the problem all together.

If he only attacks when he's close to you, he may be protecting you. You may need to get more Alpha with him, let him know you are boss and have control of the situation. Watch him closely because you want to catch him right before he reacts. Sometimes they will freeze or tense up and/or stare the second before attacking. That is when you need to get his attention by doing 'Ah Ah', or anything that will cause him to refocus on you. Warning: If you do a touch to refocus, sometimes their reaction will be to bite, as he will be focused on the other dogs thinking to bite them, and you draw that energy to you instead of them. So vocal interuptions may be safest.

If he's next to you on the couch, refocus him and then place him gently on the floor. This is not a 'time-out', this is letting him know that his behavior will not be tolerated by you. When this behavior happens on a couch or a bed, this is the area they are defending. By putting them on the floor, you change what they are perceiving to be 'their' territory.

My male Yorkie has to sleep on the floor, in his bed, bc he cannot stop defending the bed. The others do fine, and I am working with him to change that, but for safety's sake, he sleeps on the floor. At times, he even defends the entire bedroom! (only if he wakes out of a sound sleep) Everyone has learned to keep their distance at night!

Sorry, I have to add too that as he is very new to your household, you all may have to adjust your behavior so as not to upset him and cause him to exhibit the behavior you are trying to curb. This can be confusing him a great deal.

As he was adopted, you don't know his history, and you do want him to feel comfortable, so no teasing. It can take months for a previously owned dog to learn to trust his new owners. You really need to allow him time to adjust.

It took my male eight months before he would lick my cheek. I had given up that it was ever going to happen. I cried when it did, it was so unexpected. Now I can't stop it! And don't want to!:D

I forgot to add a few things:

1. He is approximately two years old
2. I have no history on his previous owner/family
3. The condition in which we received him was sort of below standard considering they had to completely shave him down, whiskers and all. Some groomer...
4. The neutered him about 2 days before we adopted him and did not tell us anything about it, I had to research his records on my own to find that out after seeing a cut (with no stitches on his ____)
5. He plays well with our dogs at times, it only seems he acts out in my presence.
6. He is very affectionate to everyone in our family even my 3 year old daughter.
7. He does not respond well to his name, (Fagan or Faygen), this is the name the shelter gave him because they did not know his original name.
8. He does know sit and fetch and lay down but shows resistance doing them. He is also somewhat leash trained.
9. I have only had him 6 days and I have had my other dogs a lot longer. Starting with Weenie for 1 year, Luke for 4 months, and Jimmy for 3 months.
10. I have no training skills, my other dogs did not require any training. They were all potty trained and leash trained completely before their adoptions. None of them fought or growled either, they just simply accepted each other 100%. They even all sleep piled up on top of each other. Except Fagan...he just wants to sleep right next to me and doesn't like to be bothered while sleeping...


I just want things to go smoothly but I am still afraid that one of them may get hurt, especially Fagan if he somehow manages to finally upset Luke (the catahoula boxer mix). Thankfully the other dogs are so well adjusted and well mannered I don't have any problems out of them when he attacks. Luke weighs roughly 140 lbs and could easily cause injury, but so far so good. I just want to fix it before we have to experience that kind of upset.

You are going to need a set of eyes that can look at this from the out side. We all can toss out Ideas but you need someone to actually see and know what is going on and the body language used by all dogs.
Best thing to do is call in a trainer that understands rescues and aggression and lack of social skills.

JL

Luke weighs in at about 40-50 lbs. not 140 it was a typo... appologies

That is ok typos are allowed.
I have one that is 100 right now and one that is 40 and one that is ten and everyone is in time out for not being happy with each other.

JL

I suppose I am not the only night owl that searches these forums. I have just been getting more and more involved in the adoption processes. I just saw some things on a youtube video that shocked and upset me. I was just discussing with my husband that we should look into adopting more when we get Fagan settled.

My Bella Blue is 5 yrs old and has NEVER attacked another dog before until I took in a rescue, Alfred, a male that's about 9 yrs old. She hates him. She'll wake up from a nap see him and attack (he will be asleep no where near her)! Alfred started out as a foster dog, we foster many dogs before they go to their forever home, however he has so many health issues that he has to stay with us and we really love him (he's very sweet and very loving). So I do the Caesar method the fingers with the "cht" sound, and it works if I catch her right before the attack begins. It does not work once she's "red zoned" we have to just get her off him and we put her on her side and make her stay down until she is clam, we usually have to gently hold her down during this time. She still does it but now we can usually sense it before it happens and deal with it from there. It tough and upsetting sometimes but we just have to be on top of her when he is near her. Alfred is pretty good at giving her space and usually walks away from her. I hope this helps and good luck!:)

The neutering part is important... he may still have hormones floating around in his system for a bit (a few months) before you notice any change in his behavior. (hardheadedness, protecting...etc.)

Also, Yorkies are different... if they don't absolutely know that you are the pack leader, then they will seek to control situations that arise if you don't. Ex: Doorbell rings. Dogs run barking to the door. If you do nothing, dogs continue to bark at the door and may run out when the door is opened. Bad situation. When you do something, it would be to go to the door and claim the area in front of the door as yours, by making them quiet down and back away. This action tells them they can relax, you are in charge, you are handling the situation, and can open the door if you wish without worry.

I think I understand where you head is in regards to your dogs. I had a GSD, a Maltese, and had just got a 'new' 5 year old from the Humane Society. My dogs acted appropriately til this Yorkie came along.

I watched all the shows on TV about training, bought books and did research. I decided this Yorkie's behavior needed to stop, the protecting me by going after other pets, and in general running the show.

I didn't want to change him, just some of the things he did. I had never told him 'no' don't do that, I just accepted what he did as part of him. I finally realized (after two vet visits for fighting wounds) that I was going to have to put my foot down and get a handle on this cute little monster.

So begins training. Not easy, bc before I was used to just enjoying my dogs, and to keep a constant eye on him would literally be work, and I wasn't sure if I was up to the task or not.

Well, the first time I caught him ready to pounce and told him 'no', he got upset with me and wouldn't even look at me for hours... almost a day and a half. I had been warned this may happen, but not to give in. He got over it, and the first thing I noticed was a more relaxed attitude on his part. Basically, I regained the position of Alpha in his eyes, and he gave up feeling the need to control everything, which can be difficult for such a small dog to attempt to do. He's still not perfect, but he's getting there.

Yorkies, in general, need to be treated like little children. They need to have limits set for them, and they need rules. The fact that he resists or hesitates when doing simple commands tells me he doesn't quite see you as his Alpha. And you do need to get a handle on this situation before he gets himself in trouble.

Walking them together as a group will help to establish bonds between them, and you. Plus, it tires them out so they will be less interested in starting stuff.

Forget about where and what he came from. You can't change it, let it go. He's with you now, that is what he knows, and what he cares about. Don't feel sorry for him. Be 'in the moment' always.

Don't tolerate behavior that you do not want to see repeated.

I hope this all makes sense to you.... I think maybe a puppy class may even be helpful (basic training class) to help you learn how to train him and help him in responding to you.

Why not work it the other way around.
Start just simple rewarding her for even a quick glance at the dog that upsets her. a gentle pat or a food treat. That which you feed you get.

Why not then increase that to if you can look without reacting for a second can you give me two then up to three.

Once you take out your negative response and add in the positive you may just see lasting change.
You got her so defensive that she wants that dog gone and dead as it is making her loved humans her humans not his hurt her and make her do things she just can not.
If you had someone in your life you did not want to be around you ask them to leave or not be near them as much as you can or hit ignore. why do we expect our dogs to do that which we do not do our self.

JL

Dogs do not generalize at all. So not only may he not actually know what is expected of him he may not have been trained enough to have them working effectively. Add in he has been fixed and rehomed and the stress on this poor little one is through the roof.

He needs to get the basics placed on him with love and respect and positive so he learns to trust and interact with his people.

He wants to understand his world and right now he is just very confused and upset and gentle guidance an support will help him get stable.

And someone actually trained to work with special needs dogs needs to come give him a hand to understand what is going on in his world.

JL

Another thing you can try is NILF or Nothing in Life is Free. It's a gentle way of reminding your dogs, every day, that you are in charge. They must sit before their food is put down; sit before they go out the door . . .

I can't remember all of it but you can google NILF.

We practice it every day. No food is given until everyone's butt in on the floor. No one is allowed to go near the front door when the bell rings . that's my space and they all know to stay away.

It might not solve all your problems, but it is a good, mannerly, way of reminding everyone that YOU are in charge.

<> DIAMONDS in the RUFF - Follow the Leader <>

Here is a link to Nothing in life is free.

JL