What can Yorkies be trained to do?
 

I am a new Yorkie owner. I love our little girl Lily but I bought her on impulse and did not know much about the breed. Now that I am looking more into the Yorkie breed I am reading that they are very difficult to train. Lily barks all the time, not entirely potty trained, and has all the other typical puppy bad habits. What can I realistically train her to do? Can I do it on my own or is it better to take her to a class? I want to treat her well but I don't have time to spoil her with all my attention for training. I have three cats, a two-year-old, a five-month-old, oh and a husband to look after ;).

you have come to the right place!

you have to be consistent.
one thing i've learned to do is not pet Edgar right away until he plants his booty firmly on the floor or he'll get excited and jump on me (or visitors). i had to bite my pride and when people come over i have to tell them, "please don't greet him until he is sitting on the floor." but most of the time they think he's so cute they can't wait to put their hands all over him.

now he's learned to sit pretty well when we have visitors, but he can only take it for a minute. if you walk past him and don't greet him, he'll follow you to the next place and sit again. kinda cute!

it is seeming to me also that now he is past baby stage (he was 2 in march) that he seems to be settling down and his intelligence is starting to show more.

good luck with your baby and furbaby and big baby!! (haha!)

welcome to YT
my Kodi Dances and rolls over sits stays and is great at staying right with me off the leash.
if you are consistent you should do well.
Puppy classes are a great idea and are great to get them use to more people and dogs.

What to see what you can train a Yorkie to do?

Take a look at these videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKMphI_3KQo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VO7zw3aAz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwb-k_8mj-0

Yorkies are very smart and learn fast.
They can be trained to learn almost anything.
Puppy classes are a good way to start. Bud and I work each morning
for 1/2 hour and have been doing this for sometime.
He can:
sit, sit and stay, laydown, come, sit up, crawl, give me five, give me your
paw and the other one, play dead (this is new) roll over, get my slippers,
go to bed, get the ball, get the bone, get the hedgehog, he knows his
different toys.
You'll have fun teaching your baby because they love the attention
and are eager to learn.
We have been working on show me your teeth! He won't do this.
I never get to see his pearly whites unless I'm brushing them.:D
Good luck and enjoy your little one. (pup I mean):p

one more...must watch this one....
 

Give more information pleae
 

how are you doing this? i really want to teach emmy and oscar some things! so far all emmy can do is sit!!!! Oscar has mastered dance, but not great at sit!:)

Hey I missed that one! Thanks! Love the AAhhhhhh-choo! Trick!

terriers can be harder to train because they are smart -- they like to know what's in it for them! You need to work out what will motivate your dog: treats, toys, praise. All dogs are different. I use a mixture.

You don't have to take a lot of time to train. May be just during the ads on tv a couple of times in a night.

Classes are good because you can always learn something from the trainer or other people training their dogs.

I love clicker training and would recommend it to any terrier owner -- others don't like it -- but I find that it works for really smart dogs like yorkies because when you're "shaping" a behaviour you're really asking the dog to think and work out what you want.

My two do agility and so they go through tunnels and chutes and over jumps and weave in and out of poles. They can touch a little mat with their nose or chin. they go up all sorts of ramps (some really steep) and do the dog walk. They're just learning to do the teeter. Dixie was terrified by it but we're working on it.

There are a few people that do obedience with their yorkie but I found that Dougal got bored and wandered off half way through the two minute down stay, so I figured it wasn't for us. Even now if there are other more exciting smells I have trouble keeping him focused at agility.

On top of the basic commands Dixie does the cutest little wave and Dougal shakes paws with you. I taught Dougal to walk on his hind legs and Dixie to dance but I've given those up to save their little backs. I'm also teaching Dixie "quiet" to stop her barking like a loon at every dog she meets -- so far mixed results.

Don't forget you are "training" your dog everytime you interact with them. So be consistent. Try to use the same word all the time if you want them to do something.

I realized a few weeks after I got him that Paddington was ready to be trained. I actually found it easy to potty train him (not as easy as it was with my cats, but easier than I had expected with everyone telling me how hard it is!) I taught him to do a few simple tricks with clicker training (sit, sit pretty, roll over, you're dead etc) and signed him up for classes. At first I thought classes would be a waste of money because I was able to train him so easily, but as things progressed I wanted to make sure that I was making the most of our training time. I also wanted him to be socialized and learn how to behave even with other distractions. Our trainer is wonderful and helps us with just about any problem that arises. I recommend them. I take classes at Petsmart because they were the most convenient for me. I also highly recommend the clicker training!
-O

I would definatly recommend a dog training class in your area. You can learn so much from a book but a good trainor will look at you technique and make sure you are doing it correctly. Yorkies are very quick learners and just love the praise and attention they get in return. Even try a class for a few months to learn the basics and once your yorkie sees them treats he will do anything for you! Well almost!

Thanks Archie
 

"Archie" sent me great tips on training Emmy and Oscar. Got my pm today and Emmy has already mastered sit (she was already pretty good at this one) and down (where she lays down flat on the floor). These were just TODAY!!!!!! Oscar is still a bit confused, but is working hard for treats (which just happen to be a sample pack of kibble from Canidae). He is learning sit and dance--he always jumps up on his back legs to beg, so we started calling it dance--now he does it on command. *Sit* is still a little iffy with him.

I am going to work on these some more today (we have already worked on them about 5 times today--about 10 minutes per time) and tomorrow are going to try something new. This is EASIER than I thought!

Thanks again "Archie.":D

Your very welcome. Keep up the good work Emmy and Oscar.:thumbup:
See how smart you are? I knew you could do it.
Feel free to pm me anytime. I am only too glad to help you.
Your babies seem to love showing you how smart they really are.:D

Hugs,

WOW! The viedos are amazing!

Lily2207 - It sounds like you have a normal young yorkie puppy! It took us a good year and then some to get our baby potty trained - and I still say that loosely, because if she comes and tells us and we don't drop what we are doing and take her out right away, she'll still have an accident and she is two!
Definitely like everyone suggests, do the puppy classes. Nomi learned the basics like sit, lay down, leave it, stay, and come by the end of the 6 week class. The key to being successful is taking the time to practice the commands several times each day that they teach you in the class.

Hang in there and best of luck!

I second that! I love watching little Jilly play basketball! I go back to that video all the time! I'm planning on training Paddington to "dunk hoops" as soon as we get this training thing down pat. It's still a little bumpy (sometimes he'll just start doing every trick he knows until he gets to the one we want! It's a little kooky.) I can't figure out how to get him to understand verbal commands, and even the hand signals seem confusing to him at times. But then there are other times that he does everything right on cue!
-O