Neurotic yorkie fears
 

I have 2 yorkies, Marylinn and Melvin, and have become concerned from my female's behavior. Recently she has started barking incessantly at the neighbor dogs, whether they are out or not. She is fixated on catching birds and squirels to the point all she does is pace the yard, running, in a figure 8 (fence, tree, other fence), she does this so much she is frequently exhausted, but refuses to give up. As soon as I get home from work, she waits at the back door like a horse at the gate waiting to run, and she would rather be outside hunting than inside. Her fur is even showing signs of stress. I have tried distracting her, but I feel she is becoming anti-social.
This worries me because when we got her 4 months ago, she was a perfect angel, always wanting to be around my fiance or I, in our laps, arms, ect.. Now all she wants is to look (unsuccessfully most of the time) for birds and squirels.
Please if anyone has encountered this problem, or if it is just a phase let me know. I would like to nip this in the bud before it is ingrained in her personality. I want my sweet baby back!

~Laura

It sounds like you have a Yorkie in dire need of lots of exercise and a "job". When bored and "jobless" dogs (not just yorkies) can develop neurotic behavior.

Welcome to YT

You will find a wonderful family here with folks coming together from all over the world united through our love for Yorkies. I am sure you will find lots of suggestions to help your situation.

Thanks for the welcome! What types of "jobs" do you suggest for a yorkie? She is so small and fragile (3.5lbs @ almost 9 months), I don't know what would happen if she ever caught anything! She abhors the idea of fetch, and really only likes chew bones, but can never finish because our male takes them. Any ideas on curring her of this would be great. Thanks again.

~Laura

Hi there anything that can stimulate her mind can be a job. Do you train her? Teach her tricks and stuff like that? I clicker train my babies - both are starting agility and I'm teaching my wee nervous yorkie to push a big soccer ball around to help her with her confidence. You could teach Marilyn to ride a skateboard! How cute would that be? If I want to ramp up the excitement levels for Dougal I break out the squeaky toy he just goes ballistic and puts his happy yorkie smile on. Take your baby for lots of walks so she can experience lots of other people and places. I find taking my two to Animates (the only store we can take our pets to in NZ) is always really stimulating for them.

what is clicker training

Jewel was like your Marylinn had very strong ratting/mousing instinct. So to stimulate her and to make her feel like she did her "job" we tied a string on one of her toys that looked like a hedge hog and dragged the "vermin" around to make her chase and catch it. Some times I would tie it on my other Yorkie, Jazzie who likes to play catch. It was pretty funny watching Jazzie run & drag the "vermin" with Jewel running after them.

Also while in the house I would use the same toy and instead of throwing it, I would pitch it accross the floor (like bowling) and let her chase & fetch it. The look of pride on her face when she "catches the vermin" was precious.

I did the same thing with her kibbles too. I would put it on the floor and flick it with my finger. Bounce it off the wall to change directions. It's amazing how she learned to anticipate where the kibble would go. It's even more fun for her if you flick it into a bunched up towel so she really had to "hunt" for it.

Jewel never fully stopped the "hunt" but it did curb it quite a bit. I know you can get creative and find ways for her to "Do her Job".

Let us know how she does. I want to hear all about it!

Hi AddysMomma. Clicking is a really positive way to train your yorkie. Cos all you do is reward the behaviour you want. There's no yelling, no yanking on a lead. It's all about making the dog think for itself.

When your dog does what you want you "click" it with a clicker (you can get clickers from most pet stores) and give a reward - usually a tasty dog treat cut into really small pieces.

It's a little contract you make with the dog, everytime you click you reward. The website http://www.clickertraining.com has lots of useful info and you can buy clickers.

Try Cesar's Book
 

He talks about dogs that become fixated on things and how to help them. The book is called Cesar's way.

Thanks for the advice, I will try the string trick after work.
I was wondering how to get her more involved with playing as she does not do much with toys. She does love her chew bones though.
And now it seems as though we have a new "problem" we had wanted to breed and it looks as though we will get our wish. Saturday moring I noticed a little blood (the first time she's slept in bed with us in a while) on the WHITE sheets, however now I haven't noticed any at all. Do they spot for the first time? Anyone know the "normal" tendancies of a first heat?