"Zoomies"
 

My husband and I actually wait for the times our Yorkie gets the bionic urge to zoom around the house following the same path back and forth for a few times. She does it to some extent every night regardless of the amount of exercise she has gotten during the day.

I know from reading here that other Yorkies do the same thing. My question is whether anyone has ever heard any explanation or reasoning for this?

We find it highly amusing and it never gets old. In fact, if one of us is out of the room when it happens, we tease that the other one missed the excitement for the night...LOL (Honestly, we could sell tickets...NASCAR has nothing on our girl when she's in her racing mode.)

The very first time it happened, I had just given her a bath and (mistakenly...LOL) thought she was trying to air dry herself and/or protesting the bath even though she had seemed to enjoy it. That was several months ago and very early in our relationship with her. Little did I know that this would become one of our favorite quirky things she does.

It's one of the times I wish she could speak words I could understand because I'd really like in on the secret spurt of energy she gets that causes her to suddently accelerate to the speed of light...

One has to wonder if those researching energy sources have ever studied a Yorkie's "zoomies" ... LOL

I think Yorkies invented the "Zoomies":D I've read in the past many
of them do this also. Buddy does his and it's hysterical. He goes
from the living room full speed, down the hall and under the bed,
comes out the other side and back down the hall around the coffee
table in the LR and back down the hall.
I laugh but I get nervous that one day he's going to hit the side
board on the bed and knock himself out. He knows just when to duck
and squirm his way from one side to the other and comes out
full speed. Amazing :p

P.S. Bud's not little either.

Oh that is so cute!! You should do a video of her in 'zoomie' mode! LOL We get our Karlee tomorrow and our breeder told us she loves to run with the pack so I'm excited to see her 'zoomie' moments!!

I believe it's because they're part cat. My cat has always done this. Yorkies seem to share too many traits with the cat family to be a coincidence. :p

Stella looks like a cat when she plays (she even has a cat toy or two), so why not? She does this too when I leave the bedroom doors open because they're normally closed to prevent accidents on the carpet. It's so funny when she comes flying off the carpet onto the tile and completely spins out, but keeps running (and getting no where) on the tile!

Ooooh...interesting thought! I have commented several times to my husband that Taffy has some mannerisms of a cat (I don't dwell on it too much because I don't like cats...it's a childhood thing). She bats at things with her paws and sometimes her stretches remind me of a cat's.

She also loves to amuse herself lying on her back and "juggling" one of those stuffingless toys around with her four paws. This is a hoot to watch but if we forget and chuckle aloud, she stops and gives us one of her "disgusted" teenage looks...LOL

However, one thing totally unlike a cat is that she is NOT light on her feet. She only weighs around 5 pounds but honestly she can sound like a herd of elephants when she's bouncing around on the carpet. It is amazing that a little fluff of fur can make that much noise!

The craziest thing she has begun to do would scare us to death if we didn't know what was going on... When she sees a housefly, she jerks and twists in the directions of its movements and actually looks like she is convulsing. If we hadn't happened to catch her "first" encounter with the monster housefly, we would have been racing to the vet's office for sure!

If we could capture some of this on video, it could probably outsell the best Vegas comedian, I think. She is the most entertaining pet I have ever encountered but if she catches us laughing "at" her, we get a huff of displeasure (which of course makes us laugh even harder)...LOL

Zena will zoom around the back yard sometimes and now I know the term for her behaviour, zooming! Thanks for your post! :D

I've thought the same thing!! Tobie extends his claws to grab things like a cat and swats at things with his front paws like a cat.

He definitely has the zoomies and it's hilarious. He usually does it with a toy in his mouth though. Just the thought of them running full speed with their hair blowing back from the wind makes me laugh :D. Oh these Yorkies are too funny!!

I wish we could make some kind of complilation video of our Yorkies in their zoomies mode. That would be soooo funny!

We also enjoy watching Milo when he has the zoomies and we often call him our little cat-dog. He also does many little cat-like things including rubbing his head and body on us and swatting at things with his little paws. I am a bit afraid of cats but love our quirky little cat-dog so much!

I found this video on You Tube. Check it out!


~CD

It's truly a Yorkie thing...

Haha, that's how Hot Rod got his name! That was one possible name and then he got the zoomies, hubby and I looked at each other and nodded, "Hot Rod". lol.

Mixed Breed
 

My sister-in-law says I have a mixed breed because I said Zekie was part cat and part mountain goat. He is a climber and will eat anything he can get his mouth around. He also acts like a cat in a lot of things he does. He even has a toy that I attached to a fish pole that he likes to chase like a cat would. He also gets the "Zoomies". That is the Yorkie part. He is also very vocal.

When there are two, three or more doing zoomies it is hilarious..all running around and in the same pattern each time they go around.. I love watching it also.. makes me laugh.. Majik is really beginning to relax with our traveling life.. and gets doing zoomies.. I cannot wait to get the renovations done for him to have such a large space..
I have tried to video these times.. but it is hard and I am surely no pro...
anne

YES! I always tell my husband we should have named Shilo "Kitty" beacuse she always acts like a cat, she sits on the back of the sofa and licks her paws and her play with me growl sounds like she is purring! I thought we just had a crazy dog haha!

That would have been funny to have your dog named "Kitty". Imagine the stares you'd get whenever you're overheard calling out "Come here, Kitty Kitty Kitty!" :laugh:

Oh Taffy! Can I have front row tickets to see you in action?

Chachi does it too its so cute to see him when he gets going

The term is certainly not original with me. I picked it up here on the board and was glad to have a term, too....LOL (Also, glad to realize that our Yorkie was not trying to outrun a ghost or something. The first time it happened, I had no idea what was wrong with her!)

Now we just enjoy the antics and hope we're in the room to see it. It's quite a highlight of the day...LOL

You know you can! Any night between 9 and 10 pm ... LOL


Chili Dawg, loved the video. Taffy does that rolling thingey, too, after a bath and someone said they do it to get their scent back. Sounds about right to me... Taffy does all kinds of gymnastics trying to rub her fur all around on her beds and the carpet, etc. after a bath. She doesn't take the time to bark though. She generally gives the silent treatment and cold shoulder to something she doesn't like too much...like a bath.

As for the zoomies, I'm not sure she even takes time to breathe very much. She certainly doesn't pause to bark and I'm sure the world becomes a muddled blur.

I'm especially interested in others' comments about the catlike behavior of their Yorkie. I have noticed these cute mannerisms and half the time they remind me of a playful kitten and at other times, a baby discovering its environment. I think that's one of the reasons I find Yorkies so interesting and fun to watch. They are never boring!

Even the way Taffy sprawls out after her playtime is amusing because it totally fits the description of "road kill." Anyone who's ever grown up in the country (esp. the South) will immediately know what I mean. She sprawls out just like a wild animal...like a possum, etc...looks on pavement after their demise. (By the way, I don't mean to offend anyone by the terminology...it's just a common term in a rural, Southern area. I realize that PETA, etc. might not consider it "politically" correct but the descriptive word image is an exact fit to the way she sprawls out.)

I had to laugh ...
 

at "road kill". I used to call it Samantha being a rug. Zoomies! Some of my best laughs were her zoomies. She always had to go under the screen and length-wise under the bar on the bottom of the coffee table. At almost six, she'd never get under either one now!

I love to see them run. Mine always have their ears back..So cute...

I tried to video Baxter one time when he had the zoomies out in the back yard. There was no way I could keep up with him. Just when I thought he was turning right, he would go left and I was videoing a bush lol. But it is so much fun to get him to do it. I found out that in the evenint if I made a certain noise, it would get him going. I Love it!