Help Yorkie wont stop barking
 

My yorkie barks when she hear voices or people walking around outside the apartment. She used to bark at people outside when I walked her but I comforted her and told her its ok and eventually she stopped that. But barking at home continues. She barks when the door bell rings and while I am answering the door. She also barks if someone she has not met as a puppy comes in and will not stop until the person leaves. I have another dog he is a maltese. He used to be a very quiet dog never barked or whined. When my yorkie threw a barking fit he copied her and has continued to do so. He also copied her during a whining fit. Now they both bark. I'm not sure what to do. Any help would be appreciated.

So far, a stern "NO BARKING!" is working for Higgins, but not 100% of the time. I am planning to get a whistle which a friend who has 5 Chihuahuas blows when she wants her gang to STOP barking. She discovered it by accident and now one healthy blow and they shut right up.....hmmmmm......

Higgins COMES when I blow the harmonica. Wonder if he will stop barking if I blow the harmonica.....Where is my harmonica????
:o

It seems that a sound they do not like is the key to solving this problem unless you have more stubborn dogs. I found a website that has some tips. http://www.dogpatch.org/sheltie/barking.html I'm going to trying the throwing a can of method. You throw a can of coins and they don't like the noise so they stop barking. I hope it works. They don't really listen when I say no barking. I'll let you know if it works. Then I'll have other problems to work out with my maltese, he likes to destroy stuff when he's unsupervised or when we go out and the yorkie joins in. We saw couch stuffing in both of their poop. My yorkie doesn't do it when she is left alone....but joins in on his mischief.

P.S. I tried shaking the can 1st that didnt work they still barked but when I threw the can that had a much better effect. Seems to be working, the bad thing is I have to do it everytime they bark.

Honeyvixen82 ... welcome to the forum! I know everyone here has read our method about a bzillion times but it worked in one day for us ... soooo ... here goes! :) We also read this method in one of the many books we studied before we made a decision to buy a Yorkie ... if you use a crate ... the second day we had Toto, when we put her in her crate to nap, she started yipping! We had read that when they do this, simply tap on the metal part of the crate with a metal object. The theory being that if they do something you don't like, in turn you should do something that they don't like and I can assure you Toto doesn't like to hear metal on metal!! :p [I used a little metal curtain rod, and it only took about 6 times and she never did it again ... each time I tapped, at the same time I firmly said "NO"!] This also helped her to learn the "No" command! :) We WANT her to bark ... we just want her to know when it's OK to do it and when not to! She learned that if we firmly tell her "No" ... that means that she better quit whatever she is doing, because it's wrong! This has worked wonderfully for us and if you choose to try it, I hope it works for you! These little guys are the most wonderful discoveries we have ever made! Toto is our joy!! ;)

Here's a quick fix...at least something quick you can try.

Otis is terrified of those birthday curl-out whistle things. The one I had didn't even make noise; it just curled and uncurled. So when he did something I didn't like, all I would have to do is REACH for it, and he would stop.

Thank you all
 

Thank you for the welcome bettyeanne. :) It seems there are alot of different ways to do this but most have to do with a sound. (and some with an action) I guess I just have to find the one my dogs don't like and is most convienient. Thanks for all the help everyone! I appreciate it. :D

An annoying sound to them is key. Welcome to YorkieTalk Honeyvixen82! Hope the training methods works out for ya!

Thank you very much fasteddie. :) My yorkie got it pretty quick for today anyway. My maltese isnt getting it though. It's calmed him but he still lets out a bark. He seems to be slower than my yorkie at learning things. Yorkies are very smart dogs, so I have noticed.

Oh yeah since JuneBug is mentioning one of the things her yorkie is scared of....I'll mention mine too lol :D I thought it was funny..She is afraid of fire hydrants. I tried to show her there is no reason to be scared of it by going near it and comforting her but she wouldn't go near it.

Hahah, I thought all dogs wanted to pee on fire hydrants? Or maybe that's just naughty boy doggies. :P Yoda sure loves doing it!

Hi Honeyvixen! I have a malt and a yorkie too!!!!! Bentley (malt) is 3 years old and Mia (yorkie) is 1. My maltese is my barker and I must say, he very good at it! He has this high pitch, ear piercing bark and does it everytime someone knocks at the door or enters the house. He has been neutered but I think he has some territorial aggression which I think is the reason behind the barking. Other than that he was a breeze at housebreaking, he's very smart and seems to understand a lot of what I say to him. He's also very attached to me...a one person dog and he really doesn't interact much with other people...he's devoted to his mommy :-). I have tried everything to get him to stop, penney's in the can, squirt bottle, slapping my hand with a rolled up news paper & a stern NO! None of those worked on him, my new method is blowing a whistle and that works better than anything. The problem with the whistle is that sometimes I forget to put it on. Mia isn't a barker and I guess she sees Bentley getting in trouble for it that she doesn't want her mommy getting onto her. She is very sensitve, sweet nature, loving to all..she's a little angel, I tell everyone she's a gentle soul. Neither of mine are destructive but Mia has been a challenge in the housebreaking. If you have some problems with destructive behaviours I would consider crate training them. Tell me all about your pupster's. Everyone always ask me to compare the two breeds, so what's your take on the yorkie and the malt?

Hello Luvmypupster :) Precious ( yorkie) is going to be 2 years old this September and Lucky (maltese) is a year old. Lets see now to compare them. Precious was not easy to housebreak but Lucky was a breeze as well. Both are smart dogs but my malt is just a bit stubborn when it comes to being obidient. Both very loving dogs. My maltese loves everyone but will still bark at any sounds he hears. My yorkie on the other hand doesn't like strangers. Precious used to chew things up too not as badly as the maltese. I gave her a stern NO when I caught her and she eventually stopped. It is hard to stop my maltese since he only does it if no one is in the room or if we go out. I have caught him a few times and told him NO but it still hasn't sunk in. My yorkie grew out of it so I'm hoping he will too. When family visits precious jumps on them as she whines. Lucky doesn't jump but leans on theirs legs. Sometimes Precious will even bite their hand as shes jumping from the excitement. I been trying to teach her to calm down by telling the visitors to telll her to sit before they pet her. She will sit for like a second then return to jumping on them. Neither one of my dogs is fixed. I been looking into getting precious spade. A maltese and yorkie mix can be cute but I think 2 dogs and a cat is enough since I live in an apartment. Here's a website of a really cute yorkie maltese mix for an example. http://www.geocities.com/blt22.geo/angels_page.htm

Try the water squirter method!
 

Now this method has always worked for me over the years. I found that if you fill a water squirter bottle with tepid water..(the sort you spray plants with) as soon as they start to bark..squirt them with it..The shock of the water is generally not liked and I found it worked for me. Also I found if I left the bottle where it could be seen..it said to them..''hey if we bark again..we know what will happen''' I found this method good really and not too cruel.

I do know about consistent barking..our last yorkie..sadly no more became very poorly for most of the early part of this year. and one of his problems was that he consistently barked at everything..but thats another story really.!

Still give it a try..it can't hurt can it.. :)

Whistles, party favor blow-things, and water squirter bottles. Heheheh... funny what things we can use to make our Yorkies stop barking! :)

Well I have tried them all , the water bottle the Quiet the can with coins. Nothing works. I don't mind chester barking when people come to the door. But how in the world do i get him to stop... even if i pick him up he will not stop barking... it is anoying... Help please. Anyother suggestions.

Hi.... Ygeorge and welcome...
 

Hi there...yep it sounds like you have a problem!!!!!!!

Firstly tell us a bit more about your yorkie..i.e. age..how long you have had him..and if the barking started with any particular thing...e.g. thunder or anything like that and if chester barked from the beginning or when......Have you had him checked out by the vet.. to see if there is any underlying problem...(our yorkie only started consistent barking when he was older and that was due to health problems.))

Come back with some more info about chester and we'll go from there.

Ygeorge ... have you tried the "tapping on the crate" method? We broke Toto of barking by using this in one afternoon! Just tap metal against metal and say "no"! If she ever barks at the improper time now, all we have to do is say no!! Worked for us! Good luck! :)

Hi I need some help in here
 

Hi...I just became a member and I have no clue on how to post a message in here. I am a new yorkie owner and have many questions to ask. Help please!! :)

Hi When we first got Chester he did not bark much, but we noticed andy time the door bell rang... especially with that pizza comercial for domino was on . And the door bell rang he would go crazy. We would say No! chester, No . After a month or two of that comercial . He finally figured it out. We don't mind if he barks for the door bell , as we are uaally down stairs in th finished bastment and can not hear when the door bell rings, only issue is when you say No or quiet.. He will not stop. We have to hold him and carry him to the door and he is still barking at the door... . But if he is in his creat it is even worse. he will keep barking even when you say quiet ! he will make a wining sound. So you know he understands and emidiatly start all over again until the person has left the front door. Once the person is in side the house he stops.

I think this started the first time the door bell rang. Oh he also alerts us if he hairs any noice like a load bang next door.. He is like a little gard dog with a big bark. My mother in -law just loves it because she feels so protected when he is around. But again once he starts that it ... he will not stop.

chester is now two years old 4- 5 pounds . Very high sprong and lots of energy we can go for two hour walks and he still full of engergy to play.
He is extreamly stuborn. Right now i'm trying once again to see if we can get him potty trained to go on the pee pads. He never had and issue to go out side, but the winter here is so bad and he can get lots in the snow in the back yard. So I started that yesterday , this will tell you how stuborn he is. He has drank so much water and we always let him out twice for the night.
So we did the same with the pee pad. Both times he would not go. He went all night with out messing his create. Wow what a shocker
:confused: I woke up this morning and let him out and then placed him on the pee pad and said go potty as normal. He just sniffed around for two hours. We have just put him back in the create and feed him and gave him water again. I will try once again before we leave and pry he goes on it.
oh. p.s yes we tried the tapping on the create. evey thing works for ten min the first time and we keep doing it but he just won't stop once he gets used to the load sound , tapping , coins even the water bottel... if we reach for it .. he just runs quickly and starts again . We are lost.

The thing is i'm worried about is we are bringing our new maltees home next week, I hope, and I don't want her getting this bad habbits.

:(

Well after two long days and hours. We finally got chester to go on the pee pad. We also got the play pen . That really helped . He would not go on the pee pad.. He held it all night and until 3:00pm in the day. I could not belive it.
So today we went out and got a play pen for when our new puppy comes they will have an area to play in. I put the pee pad down water and his favioret towel. He went right in and did his business... :p . My husband and I were soo thriled. Chester got treats and hugs and kisses. Yippy. That was the fasted thing he ever learned.. and he did not miss.

So we only have to fix our barking problem and we will be set. Thank you all for your help. Any suggestions are welcome . Please help us :(

As some people have discussed, try using some loud obnoxious sound (a small bell or paper towel roll) to use and scare your Chester. When he barks, use it to scare him. After a while, he'll understand it. :)

I will give that a try thank you. :o

I bought a playpen for Tish before I even got her. I think that was the best thing I ever got for her and me. She only goes in there when I have to leave for work or step out for a while. I leave it open for her during the day when I am at home. She goes in there to do her busniess. I have a wee pad also but use newspaper in there instead. I leave a newspaper on the outside of the weepad also. She does not pee and poo in the same place. So she will do one on one and another on the other. She is such a good girl. She does go on the carpet sometimes when she is scared that I am going out again and she thinks I am going to lock her in :) , but she is doing really good.
As for the barking I thought her to bark now when I say bark. So now when she does bark when she is not suppose or to much I say NO BARK. She is catching onto what I want. She is a smart little cookie :D

How did you teach her how to bark on your command? I think that is really cute. I think if I could teach chester that then maybe, just maybe we would have control over his barking.. Chester really likes his paypen .

That is cool that you taught Tish to bark on command. So yes, tell us your secrets! :)

barking!!!!!!!!
 

When she would bark I would keep saying bark to her this way she would relate the word to what she was doing (even if I did not want her to bark then :) ). With all the other tricks that she learnt before, I figured she would catch on. Believe it or not she learnt this in one day. When I say Baby to her she does a low growl. It is so cute. When I say bark or baby you can see her thinking about which one I want her to do. If I say baby and she barks I tell her no that is a bark I want a baby then she will do her growl. It takes alot of patience but it worked. Gee this all sounds like a tongue twister. :)

You got an amazing girl yizzl! That's neat that you would think about training her to bark or growl. So intelligent, these little Yorkies.

This is the thread I have been looking for. I am having the same problem...........My Mei Mei constantly barks. I love her, but it is really getting to me and my husband. Plus she now has my other two dogs, (Shih Tzu and Pomeranian) going now, which they were both good until we got her.

She will even bark in the middle of the night 2-3 times. :(

I tried the can with the pennies in it and I shake it at her, but sometimes it doesn't work.

I am going to try the tapping on the ex pen and the squirt bottle.............wish me luck because I don't know if anything is going to work for this fiesty little girl!! :o

Rudy has taught my other two all his bad habits :p Even my 14 year old chow-mix barks when she wants in. Rudy would bark at night and scare me to death. I think they are learning noises. Rudy now at 11 months doesn't bark when I am sleeping now. He does bark when he sees or hears something, he is a good 5lb watch dog :) I think they out grow it some as they get older.............Cindy
Maybe it is the third dog thing. Rudy is the baby like Mie Mie. Rudy alway want the other two's treats, even after he has already had more than them.

HAHAHAHAHAHA im so sorry for laughing but i know EXACTLY what you are going threw you have a yorkie i dont care what people say yorkies bark my dog goes from one side of the window to the other and he doesnt have a regular bark im actually going deaf from it everytime someone says something to me im like what I didnt hear you i found something that works the NO dont work if he is very stubborn and brownie is VERY i make him sit on my lap and he cant get up till he calms down or he goes in his cage now hes starting to get better now i tell him < you WANNA get punished and he stops i also tell him to go lay down < yorkies over exzaderate sorry for the spelling they are like kings and queens cause if you have a yorkie you spoile it everyone does anyway good luck since we have the same prob if you wanna chat just private message me :)