Rescue Advice Please!!

[Jennxling]

Hey, as many of you may know, I had rescued a little yorkie recently. Well, I need help because she's my first rescue. How do you train a rescued dog??
What I need to teach:
-to play with toys
-potty training
-walking (she's walking like she's never been out and stuck in a cage for ages)
*this is a little funny because it's her in front of ALL of us (Carmel, Emma and me; Carmel does walk in front sometimes though)
-not to be so scared/snarling occasionally at my dogs (she's in her own area)

Here's the dilemma:
-she doesn't eat treats (is it possible to teach them what treats are?) as she's not interested AT ALL

For my babies, we trained by using treats...I really want to take her out when she goes potty in the right area, but she pees again outside (on the carpet) so I can't take her out until she's showing some progress on potty training.

Please help with your advices!! Thanks in advance!!

[zelah]

Hi! Congrats on your new baby and bless your heart for rescuing her! I had the same problems with sophie. To teach her to walk we first let her wear the harness all of the time except for bedtime. When we first walked her it was always by her self so she didn't have quite so many distractions and we only walked around our very large yard on a regular leash (not retractable). Sophie didn't know what treats were either! I bought about 70 bucks in treats before we found one she liked. She may not like the harness so keep extra on hand(sophie chewed thru 4 the first week I had her). A temporary treat you could ry is cheese. We used it til we found one. Most importantly your new baby is going to respond to all of the love you will lavish on them. These are just some helpful hints. There are many helpful people on yorkietalk that will be thrilled to help you! Congratulations!!

[Jennxling]

Originally Posted by zelah

Hi! Congrats on your new baby and bless your heart for rescuing her! I had the same problems with sophie. To teach her to walk we first let her wear the harness all of the time except for bedtime. When we first walked her it was always by her self so she didn't have quite so many distractions and we only walked around our very large yard on a regular leash (not retractable). Sophie didn't know what treats were either! I bought about 70 bucks in treats before we found one she liked. She may not like the harness so keep extra on hand(sophie chewed thru 4 the first week I had her). A temporary treat you could ry is cheese. We used it til we found one. Most importantly your new baby is going to respond to all of the love you will lavish on them. These are just some helpful hints. There are many helpful people on yorkietalk that will be thrilled to help you! Congratulations!!

Thanks for your advice!! I will try other treats. She's definitely more into attention and love than treats.

[RustysMom]

Hi,
I will answer based on my rescues. Each doggie is different, each with their own hurts, bad memories, etc. First, I learned the dog. I learned it's personality, it's needs. I asked nothing and didn't expect to teach it anything. I was learning from them. Building trust is key. You can tell a "kennel dog" from a home raised doggie. A kennel or cage dog has a fear of people. After the trust was built then I started slowly teaching a little bit at a time.
Journaling is very good. You can look back and see what you tried, what didn't work, what did.
For a harness, what the previous poster said was great. Put it on, leave it on, let them get used to it being there. Have extras in case they bite through them. They will.
Always speak in a calm, reassuring voice, never looking them in the eye. Do not laugh or show your teeth. Sit beside their crate or X-pen and read outloud etc., so they will become familiar with you and your smell.

For outside walks, take them alone, walk slowly, go to the same place. They will buck like a bronco trying to make that harness go away and try to get free. Speak calmly and keep moving forward.

It will take months. It takes quite awhile to build trust between you and them. But you will find that taking the time to build the trust will make then close to you and they will try so hard to perform things you want them to do, and then they will accept treats, enjoy walks, etc.

Love them. Never show anger with them.
They will learn your ways in their own time. You can't rush it. I never could anyway. I once kept a pair of maltese sisters almost a year. They were "kennel dogs". Had never been outside their cage.

[DvlshAngel985]

I think the best advice is to be persistent and never stop trying! My pup wasn't a rescue, but he didn't seem to know what to do with toys. It took months for him to want to play with me (like chase), and a few more months for him to play with toys. A total of a year for him to play fetch correctly; and I have yet to figure out how to teach him tug. He just doesn't seem to understand the concept.

[concretegurl]

Biggest advice is to realize it is all on her time not yours...forcing training on a rescue is not going to work ...well it might...but you might just regress any little progress made

She probably does eat treats or will...but is confused by what it is right now...mine did that...now I can't walk in the kitchen next to them on the sink without turning around and almost tripping over three furballs with wagging tails...

She needs space foremost to get her confidence up in your home, first she has to establish her safety then her place there...Scoobers was a shadow on the wall for 8 days, running under tables to behind the couch slinking here and then a flash of a dog from there to there!

Does she allow you to touch her, does she only snarl at the other dogs and try to get away or does she snarl and proceed forward?

What do you mean walking like she's been in a cage? Is she scared of open large areas, grass, ducks at normal sounds and potties herself...or she's really excited to be out and running ahead on the leash...are you walking her separately? You should try, see if it changes her demeanor...is she running ahead like she's in a hurry to try and hide somewhere but bewildered where to go so she just go go goes? It's great to walk them all together, wish I could walk all mine together...but she might need her own walks to figure it out un-distracted and since you are not offering her a forever home she'll need to be confident walking on her own with a person...not used to walking with others dogs there.

Scoobers is my pup mill rescue he loved toys, well first week they were just on his bed, but tug of war was what got him unafraid of hands, being handles, built his confidence which was really important and later he learned to get a ball instead of excited nipping and to chew his rope to relax so I could slowly introduce grooming...

Elvis (I'm going with he is pretty much a rescue too) didn't play with toys until the last couple months! Had him a year and thought he was a funny lil lap dog who stuck his nose up at dog behavior...all of a sudden he chases a ball, pulls ropes and plays with the other dogs...it was always available, he was encouraged but did it on his own time, not ours. When introducing toys, just leave them out there, not smelling like anyone else that's important and let her explore them on her own...sleeping next to them etc and later when she shows interest slowly carefully make them interesting...even normal play is scary to many "rescues"

What's the problem with potty training? Just accidents...does she potty where she sleeps or does she try to do it away from her bed...on a pad already or you on house breaking?

Most of what you need to know is based on her & her responses, so learn to observe behavior in dogs-like you needed to know it yesterday, what their nonverbal responses mean and to adjust yourself to them, also again, it's all on their time not ours.

Originally Posted by Jennxling

Hey, as many of you may know, I had rescued a little yorkie recently. Well, I need help because she's my first rescue. How do you train a rescued dog??
What I need to teach:
-to play with toys
-potty training
-walking (she's walking like she's never been out and stuck in a cage for ages)
*this is a little funny because it's her in front of ALL of us (Carmel, Emma and me; Carmel does walk in front sometimes though)
-not to be so scared/snarling occasionally at my dogs (she's in her own area)

Here's the dilemma:
-she doesn't eat treats (is it possible to teach them what treats are?) as she's not interested AT ALL

For my babies, we trained by using treats...I really want to take her out when she goes potty in the right area, but she pees again outside (on the carpet) so I can't take her out until she's showing some progress on potty training.

Please help with your advices!! Thanks in advance!!

[concretegurl]

Do you do hand signals with verbal commands? That's a really important training method for some rescues...signs along with a verbal command dropping one or the other later in the process...Scoobers listens better with hand signs than verbal commands...

[YorkieAddiction]

Love, time and patience.

Best wishes,
Beth and Taylor

[Dzbabykel]

Aww I wish I had advice for you but BLESS YOU for taking in this poor little baby!! I hope you find success in training her!

[smyrfette]

My Savannah is a rescue as well and been with me 3 weeks today.

I am home with her all day so that helps me to keep an eye on her and she is pretty much potty pad trained very well.

She did make a habit after eating over the last week where she was pooping near the front door on the hall runner.

I've been drinking coffee in the mornings if she's still eating on the bottom stair and she's been going to her potty pad because she knows I don't want her going there.

Today we had that snow hoopla and I wanted to watch the news to see if my son had a delay and I put the swiffer there and she went on her pad again.

She was crated a lot so even the house was overwhelming to her and still is a bit she won't try the other levels without me carrying her.

she was sooooo fearful of outside she'd just freeze and I took her out a few times a day and each time she'd anchor her feet and this walking thing was NOT going to happen sorry for my luck and the poor little thing would just shake.

My sister bought me a doggie stroller for my birthday and I have to say that saved my life with her...I put her in it buckled her in and off we went for our neighborhood walks a few times a day for almost a solid week..she sure learned outside was not such a bad thing...and the strollers home is between my coffee table and couch...she constantly wants to go in it by herself and will make a fuss if that is not possible.

By thursday evening of that week I brought my leash along and when I got to the park of our walk that is sort of like courtyard with grass in the middle...I put on her leash and put her on the walk....she froze...and all the words of encouragement ..she was not moving.

I picked her up and had a brainstorm put her down near that tree where the dogs mark...sure enough that got her all curious she was sniffing and not even noticing she was walking around to sniff.

She then met up with my neighbors little poodle and another neighbors rescue sheltie.

she did bark at them prior to meeting them so I picked her up and knowing these dogs are nice with past experience ...she was able to greet them.

when we went our separate ways she started walking on tip toes but I think it was the terrier in her...she wasn't going to let those other dogs see she was a wuss and she tiptoed me home.

Now if I put on her harness she does well and gets super excited.

I am not sure if my file is too large but I will try to post the video of her walking when I do her update post

[smyrfette]

not sure if this will work to view the video

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=488527091886

[yorkietalkjilly]

Yes, first of all give her time and space. Try not to talk much at all to her and just let her be and take in all the new surroundings and people and dogs. Give her at least the weekend of just getting adjusted and then all your patience and love will be needed to start some behavior modification training. She's a lucky girl to have your home forever. You did a wonderful thing to give her a future.

[smyrfette]

I dropped the ball on this one have you tried giving her a cheerio or a honey nut cheerio as a treat. My daughter told me to try that and savannah seems to like them

[Jennxling]

I only leave her in her area and she's not allowed to come out because she's not potty trained...I put her in my lap occasionally so she isn't always in her little area. I also take her on walks, she loves them!! When I put harness on my babies, she starts whining...trying to tell me not to forget about her. She's fine with the harness -- no problem whatsoever. I tried putting a diaper on her today so she can roam around a little bit. She's fine with my dogs too, she doesn't mind them as she just does her own stuff.

I can't wait for her teeth to be taken care of and for her to be spayed. Once her medical cares are all taken care of, I will try and let her out. I will be trying to potty train her this spring break. We'll see how that goes. I need to first figure out if her peeing is a medical problem or personality problem. I will update once I find out everything.

Is it bad to do dental, spay, and blood work all in a month??? If so, I can probably hold off on the spay?

[DvlshAngel985]

Can you do the spay and the dental at the same time? Have you talked to the vet about that?
Blood work is a must before our babies are put under for any reason. Helps give us mommies peace of mind knowing their little bodies are functioning properly and are better equipped to handle the anesthesia.