Are all Yorkies so dog aggressive?
 

As anyone who knows me knows, we rescued Barley from a rescue group almost 6 months ago and my vet says he between 1 and 2 years old. He was in bad shape when we got him from the rescue and they couldn't tell me anything about him except that they pulled him from a high kill shelter somewhere in the south.

Barley showed me the second day that I had him how aggressive he is towards other dogs that are not in my house. We were out walking (he was leashed) and he jumped onto a full grown German Shepard's head attacking it. Lucky it was a gentle giant and no one got injured.

I have two other dogs, a large male Great Pyrenees and a female toy poodle. Barley is great with them. My father came down to visit from out of state and brought his male pom, Bo. Barley and Bo were great together from day one. They played and shared toys without incident. But Bo is very confident and thinks he owns whatever land he's walking on :D

Well, today I took a mommy and Barley trip to two pet stores. At one of them a gentleman had his year old teeny tiny chihuahua on the floor trying to greet Barley. So I let Barley have enough leash to go sniff without being pulled back any, but Barley instantly bites the poor little thing on the nose (no sniffing at all, just straight to bite). Luckily, no skin damage at all to the little one, but his feels were hurt. I felt so bad for him.

I've had many people say that it's just a Yorkie thing. Is that so? Do many of you have doggy bullies? I was told by an animal control officer that the more I take him out around other dogs the better behaved he will be, but it's been six months and he's still so mean. I just don't get it. The other dogs will wag their tails and approach him, but he goes right to bite everytime.

Should I give up on taking him around other dogs and just know that in my house he's ok, but once out on walks or to the petstore he's holly terror?

It saddens me to not take him, but it scares me that he may hurt another doggie who just wants to be friends.

What would you do?

I would not give up and I would not ever trust him to behave himself with other dogs. I think I would take him to a professional dog trainer (very carefully, there are a lot of training methods that I do not like!).

You mentioned he is from a rescue group. He more than likely did not have any socialing interaction and probably a negative experience there. Can you look into some training? No all yorkies aren't aggressive. Alot of factors can be involved, environment, the way he was treated and his experiences with other dogs.

Niyah loves every person, every dog and every cat she sees. I have no problems with her. She won't even bark much. I heard 2 barks from her the whole time I have had her and they were to cats because she wanted them to play with her.

you can just take him places and expect that eventually he'll not try to bite another dog. You need someone a trainer to guide you along and show you how to properly introduce him to other dogs. Your right to be scared of his reaction. If i were the owner of that chihuahua i'd be pissed that you just let your dog walk up to him fully knowing that he might bite the little one. I strongly suggest you get a professional trainer to help you. There is hope for Barley, he just needs a lot of help.

Harley is 2 and often does not take to other dogs when he is on a leash,he barks like crazy at them and i am sure would nip if he had the chance..i have recently been taking him to the doggy park and off leash he is a different dog he plays with all of the other dogs and is no problem,i believe that if you are able to socialize Barley more with other dogs it will get better,often when a dog is leashed it is you they are protecting..it is therefore important to ensure that your dog knows you are alpha not them.

Maxwell is the same way. At puppy socialization class, we had so many time-outs I quit going. What good was it going to do if Maxwell and I had to stay out on the porch while class was going on?

Off leash Maxwell better - but there are not many opportunities to let your dog socialize off leash.

He has no odd background to act like that, I got him when he was 12 weeks.

None of mine are aggressive to other dogs but my Pom was and she was a petshop dog so I didn't know her background so I never let her near other dogs. She was fine with all of my Yorkies though. Hope you can work towards getting him use to other dogs.

Jackson is not dog aggressive one bit. He loves nearly every dog he meets. He doesn't like hyper larger dogs though. He likes the first meeting to just be calm, sniffing, etc. He hates when dogs run up to him all hyper but he never does anything, lol.

I'm sorry you're having this issue. I would recommend hiring a trainer.

First, let me say thank you to everyone for their advice and opinions! It's great to know that it's not a breed thing!! As I'm a Yorkie addict now. Because Barley's the sweetest guy at home. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with him. Maybe I should rename him LOL.

As for a trainer, I think that's going to have to be my next step. Don't worry...I'm not into the whole alpha roll your dog attitude so I wouldn't hire someone like that. Seems I'll have to interview the trainer before hiring one...Can you do that? Well, I'll just have to.

Again, I'm super glad to know it's not a Yorkie thing!! Someday I'll add another dog to our family and I'll want that to be another Yorkie.

Kalina, do you mean you can't just? I'm assuming that's what you mean. Please, understand that I was told by the head of my local animal control (as I've reached out to them for guidance), she told me that he just needed socializing and explained that meant getting him out and around other dogs. Which I've been doing for six months and he still bites. I can totally understand what your saying about the p'd thing. Which is exactly why I put Barley behind me and check his dog out with him. I explained Barley's history and apologized over and over. He was very understanding and chatted for sometime w/me about them. I double checked the baby again before we parted ways and it had no marks. Maybe Barley just tired biting and I pulled him back before connecting, but it was enough to scare the baby into a quick cry, which it was one quick cry out. And the dog was trying to greet Barley again before we parted ways. I assumed he's instincts would tell him not to bite at such a small dog as it's like a baby. Again, he didn't try to greet (or smell) the other dog, he just walked right up to it and looked like he tried to bite so I pulled him back and picked him up. How is one to know he'll do that when there's no growl, no bark, no tenseness, just bite? How can someone teach him to greet another dog when he does this?

Dog parks were suggested, but I haven't try them as off leash I wouldn't be able to grab him as quickly as on leash. The AC lady told me to muzzle him and take him into a dog park. That seems kind of like the alpha roll attitude though so I haven't done that.

Again, Thank you everyone for encouragement and guidance!

yeah sorry, i meant you can't just take him places....etc

The fact that he doesn't give off warnings is what makes him so dangerous. You have no "tell" as to when he's going to snap at another dog so you should just assume that for right now in his life he will always do it. I agree that you should NOT take him to an off leash dog park because you will have no control over him if he is no better off leash then he is on. its just too big of a liability. You can get a basket muzzle but if you don't do the training with it properly you can further mess with his head. i think the only thing you can do with this situation is to get him a trainer using positive re-enforcement.

You can interview trainers. :)

He may have a "tell" that you haven't picked up on. It's not common for a dog to be completely relaxed and then bite unless he is in pain. A trainer could probably help with this.

I actually think a muzzle might not be a bad idea, if he can be around other dogs with one on. Some of them are just a few straps, it's not like an umpire mask. But yeah, a trainer is a good idea. Please keep us updated. :)

Are all Yorkies so dog aggressive?
 

Hi,
I am so glad to read this post. I was just going to post about this very same problem I am having. We got a 6 month old yorkie about 4 months ago and about a month ago we noticed that when we are out ( stopping at Starbucks on break from our walks) he would go into seizure barking at big dogs, now he is also barking at people. he is only 3.5 lbs and he is sooo vicious. It's kind of funny but it's not as I know it is not safe for him. He too was lucky that most of the big dogs are mellow and calm. So this last time, my husband that took him to another area and away from us.

I got some tips here about giving him treats before he sees the dog, well, that didn't work. Also, he seems to go into convulsions when he barks as his body is shaking from too much barking.

I wanted to see if there's anybody here who can recommend a good dog trainer. I am in the Sacramento, CA area.

Someone posted here about the alpha thing for dog trainer, can you explain that please? what kind or type of training should I look for in a trainer and why?

Thanks,

So far Niyah has not barked at the big dogs in our neighbor's yard and they bark at her all the time when I take her for a walk. I just keep telling her she is a big girl for not barking at them. She sort of looks at them as if they are crazy and as if to say,
"what the heck are you barking at"...lol

My dogs are always submissive to other dogs. They only bark (playfully) at one another and rough each other up. As far as being aggressive Marley is the furthest thing from it. She has never barked( angrily) or snapped at me or kids or strangers. She is so loving. The groomers always tell me how loving she is. She even gave the new groomer I took her to kisses within 5 seconds of her holding her and she was wagging her tail like crazy. And Colt is just a big teddy bear. I took him outside the other day and a pug( who is way bigger than him) was sniffing him like crazy and Colt batted his face with his wittle paw and gave a little puppy bark and rolled over on his back LoL it was so cute.