Yorkie thinks she is a big, bad , dog !
 

Whenever someone approaches our apt. complex, even when they are just getting out of their car, Suzi goes crazy. She hears them coming before they are even at our door. Her bark is very loud, and mean sounding. To make matters worse she runs after them off our balcony, she falls short from ever going down the stairs .
She is so loud nobody can talk , or hear over her barking. It is a little funny, because of her size , she thinks she is one tough little thing ! It happens more often when someone in uniform stops by. I have a screen door , that people have to slip through packages , so she can't get out the door. She use to know the mail lady too, but now , she is extremely protective . It is amazing how she hears people before she can even see them or know they are coming upstairs.
Anyone else have this problem? A lot of times I just pick her up, but, she can sometimes wiggle out of my arms. Are their any teaching tech. that I can help her with?

Kikopup on YouTube has some good videos on barking :)


Here's another channel that is good...

Door dashing;

I don't have any advice because both of mine do the same thing! They are ferocious at the door and I need to figure out a way to get them to get out of the way and stop barking when I have guests coming over.

Yorkies ARE big, bad dogs. Just ask any of them!

Tallulah takes this duty very seriously. When she starts barking I thank her very seriously for alerting me and tell her I'll take it from there. Then as soon as she's quiet, even for a second, I give her lots of praise and love. She's beginning to get the idea.

I think the trick is training them they will be rewarded for being quiet when told.

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My 2 goes nuts when the door bell rings or they hear knocking. We don't help as we do both in hopes of trying to get them used to it. But they have gotten good about quieting down when I tell them to.

I was shocked, Hot Rod can hear when someone pulls into our driveway and starts the low grow-ley thing. I was shocked, he's done it several times. They both are on my desk whenever I'm on the computer so they stare out the windows which face the front of the house. Hot Rod will bark at anything that moves, lol. He sees people walking by and will woof. He does settle down after I shush him.

Still training Tibbe on the trying to get out the door when a delivery person comes so until he is completely trustworthy, I open a very large umbrella and lay it on its side behind me B4 I open the door. That is working for the present as Tibbe is currently stymied by it. It is hard to train a dog all by yourself not to get superexcited by the person at the door and dash out to them while you are opening the door to take in or give items, as you are distracted at this time and the dog knows it. When no one is at the door, Tibbe is perfectly obeyed, lying down in his appointed spot and not approaching it until he is released, etc. He waits at the open storm door for me to tell him okay to come out onto the porch, etc., but when a person is at the door, he is too excited to retain his training for long. He's done it but not if the person stays there in the open door for long. We are working on that.

Give the command for quite: a shush , no barking etc...twice...then doggy time out-a minute or two away from sight of ppl like in another room..then repeat.

Can someone come over and be the "intruder? Helping you "set her up for failure" to practice practice practice...then when that works move on to recall commad thesame way...
Still working on both here I got lazy...they got naughty...was working great I do "no barking in the house" command mine are allowed to growl to alert me after two barks of warning...2 out of three obey...we moved on to "neighbors" command for the yard where they get two barks and are suppose to settle 1 out of 3 on that one...

Minnie only barks at people she does not know. She soon then gets comfortable with them and will go up to them and play.

I don't suppress this type activity.
(but there's a lot of things I do differently from other Owners)

In fact, I encourage our new (puppy) Becca, to join my Male
Sneakers, in his "alarm" activities...she's learning very well !

I can't afford to differentiate between a Policeman with a Gun
and a Burglar with a Gun, or
A UPS guy with a Package, from someone who us using a
Package to mask his approach to break in.

I want mine "hot on it" immediately, and keep it up.
It's possible I may not be in a position to "settle" them,
and if I am, I'll just move them into another room, and
close the door.

Their (eyes/ears/noses) alertness, gives me a great comfort
zone. HA, many people are surprised at how loud Yorkie's are :D

I've always told people my Yorkie is the greatest guard dog you can have...well except for size...suppose they could be deemed strictly "allerters", but wow for their size they sure stand up to defend their people!

LOL!

I have always found it amazing of dogs we bark stuff at them they can't possibly understand and expect them to obey...and yet eventually they do...but they bark at us and we don't even try to understand we just shush them...:rolleyes:

I've always allowed Jackson to bark at the door. When he hears someone walking up onto our porch, he shoots up and gives a few high pitched alert barks. I don't mind him doing that at all... if it WERE an intruder of some kind, I think most dogs scare them away, no matter how big or little, because dogs are LOUD and will wake up people in the house, so most burglars or whatever wouldn't risk it. Once my mom or someone he knows walks in, he shuts up right away. If it's a stranger to him, he will bark until I tell him hush. I won't put up with nonstop barking at a stranger- he has learned to shut it up after about 20 seconds.

But there's certain things I'd def. not allow- door dashing! That's a big one. That could save their life teaching them not to door dash. I can have a door wide open and Jackson won't go out of it if I tell him not to... of course I am always supervising him and wouldn't leave him unattended in a room with a door open. Barking at people outdoors, like if we're on a walk or something, barking at others (people/dogs) walking by has always been a no-no in my book, attacking vacuums, brooms, etc, I wouldn't put up with and would train out of. But alert barking doesn't bother me so much as long as he's not obsessive about it...

My dogs have scared away someone who was not supposed to be on our property. A few weeks ago my neighbor's house got broken in to in the middle of the night. 3 nights later all of the dogs started barking in unison & we could hear foot steps running across our porch and down the steps. By the time we made it to the front door, we could see someone ducking out in to the woods behind my other neighbors house.

Unfortunately, now they have learned to bark at everyone who walks up on the porch, even my youngest daughter's friends. I need to work on a way to get them to hush when I tell them.

CGurl,

Your comment on Yorkies ability to Guard is very interesting, though I have a different viewpoint on that as well (of course :rolleyes: )

Think of it this way...
Just how big and bad of a Dog, would you have to have where it couldn't be overcome by a Human ?

We can throw things at them, hit them with sticks, shoot them with Guns, throw covers over them...
there's just NO WAY that we can't come up with some method, where the Dog looses. Unfortunate, but, true !

So, why even try, don't put them in that position, when the Dog comes in contact with a Human.
If the Human is prepared to deal with an aggressive animal, the Dog is going to loose BIG TIME! so...

Why not teach/train the Dog NOT to do that..
to keep back, and use it's agility and tenacity, to make the biggest ruckus it can, and evade being captured. THEN, it's on and on and on, until the Bad Guy will just gives up and goes away !

That's what I do with mine...
If anyone (including me) tries to reach down and grab one, it dodges and retreats, and will not allow anyone to pick it up.

HA, sound crazy...I can just hear this...
"WHAT, you mean you can't pick up your own Dog !!! :eek:"

I can, BUT, I have to give it a "recall" command first.
And, it's not anything that is normally used by the average Dog owner, or that another person would use, to get a Dog to come to them.

So, mine are free, staying well back, barking like hell, and will hang in there till the "threat" retreats.

This approach make Yorkie, Chihuahua, and other small Dogs, a bit more attractive when it comes to "Guarding" ?.

So, the a, b, c of this is...
a) Don't put them in a position to make complicated decisions.
b) Take advantage of what they're good at, Barking and Running.
c) Use their tenacity to continue till the threat is gone (territorial).

Just IMHO

Have a good Day ! :)
S.W.

They are terriers. Be glad they do not weigh 135 pounds