How does your yorkie act around children? And food possessiveness??

[fransmith1111]

our two 6-month old puppies are extremely gentle around kids and babies. my sister brought her 6-month old baby to our home (they're just a day apart) and they were so cautious and sweet around her! they tiptoed around and even lied down next to her to give her enough space when normally with an adult they'll jump all over you in excitement. they love running up to kids on the beach and at the dog park, probably because they're closer in size than adults.

they were/are being socialized very well since they were very young, which i think explains a lot of the natural tendency to react appropriately to different ages.

[Rachael1983]

Troy loves children. He allows you to take things out his mouth without nibbling, growling or aggressiveness. He does well with "stranger" children also as long as they take it slow and let him give a good sniff.

[Wigfur]

Athena was wonderful with the kids, though she did act a lil nuts with her food.. she would bark at our cat if it came near her. lol

[Monika]

My two yorkies are very good with kids. My niece and nephew are over a lot and they play and sleep together. My niece is not allowed to pick them up tho. The kids even hand feed them. Its the cutest thing to see the four of them sleeping on the bed together.

[Ahis_Mama]

Originally Posted by Britster

I have no idea what you mean by that. Why would you want to take the love away?

Love, patience, positive reinforcement, mutual respect created this:

Jackson, Worlds Smartest Yorkie - YouTube

OMG!!! I love your video! It made me tear and the music didn't help either. lol He is such a smart dog. Please give him hugs n kisses from me and Ahi.

[capt_noonie]

Uni loves kids. But if one doesn't know their boundaries and tries to pick up Uni wrong, or pulls her hair, she will growl or snarl at them. Then when she can get, she is outta there the first chance she gets, and will wait in her bed until they leave.

As for food, she can get aggressive around bf and BIL who purposely tease her, and she's been trained now She is not food aggressive around me at all, and will allow me to take a bully stick or similar away from her, where as on one else would be able to. However, I agree with LJ, leave them alone when the dog is eating. Heck, I get food aggressive when I'm bothered while eating. And if someone touches my food while I'm eating? OMG look out. LOL

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Uni loves kids. But if one doesn't know their boundaries and tries to pick up Uni wrong, or pulls her hair, she will growl or snarl at them. Then when she can get, she is outta there the first chance she gets, and will wait in her bed until they leave.

As for food, she can get aggressive around bf and BIL who purposely tease her, and she's been trained now She is not food aggressive around me at all, and will allow me to take a bully stick or similar away from her, where as on one else would be able to. However, I agree with LJ, leave them alone when the dog is eating. Heck, I get food aggressive when I'm bothered while eating. And if someone touches my food while I'm eating? OMG look out. LOL

I just hope the Detroit pound never picks you up, you'll be put to sleep!

[yorkietalkjilly]

Tibbe's a little stand-offish around kids as he's never around them much. I think given a chance to be with one or two, he would warm up in a heartbeat, if they didn't hurt him.

You can take Tibbe's food from his mouth or from his bowl but he's been trained that way, to totally back off if my hand approaches his bowl.

[concretegurl]

I sooooo shouldn't say this because way too many people get Yorkies with kids for the wrong reasons.
But when looking at breeds for my family I chose Yorkies because despite them not being the greatest for most children, we needed hypoallergenic dogs that are extremely intelligent as in trainable...and then again I have well trained children; well when it comes to being around animals

I'm pleasantly surprised so many others here have kid friendly Yorkshires too! There are way too many people out there that fail to "train" child friendly socialization their small dogs around children.

[gumbysuz]

Recently, in Dori's puppy training class, we learned to desensitize our pooch to food aggression. We learned to demand sit before the food was produced and to approach the meal with our hands and ADD food to the bowl. Thus, the pooch relates hands to more food! Genius!

[celstu1]

Hi,
First off, I would not let your baby call the shots with what he can and can't eat. My mom did this with her dog and now you can't go near her when she's eating a treat, she FREAKS! To me, what if that "treat" was something that was harmful to her, like a dead animal she picked up or even worse rat poison (which all animals love the taste of and is fatal)? If I did anything right with my boys it was that at any given time, I could take anything out of their mouths and away from them. They are not treat possessive or food possessive at all. They eat out of the same bowl with no problems... they can both eat a treat together and not fight or growl at each other or anyone else who comes near them. Even better, when I feel a chew treat gets too small but they will keep eating it, I can go over and take it right out of their mouth without so much as a slight whine from them. This gives me so much peace of mind.
In order to do this I started giving treats and every 30 seconds or so, I took it away and said "Drop it". I made them sit before I gave it back. Repeatedly I did this with them. Now I can say Drop it and they will drop the treat on their own.

As for kids, if I am not around they are good with them. If I am around, they get possessive of me and seem to be afraid of being taken away from me. If Fletcher is sitting on my lap and my nephew comes up near me, he'll lunge and growl. This is new, he's never done this before with another kid. I will actually pull him back and put him in another room by himself when he does this. I won't risk my 2 year old nephew getting bit. If a kid does pick them up to hold them, they mainly just sit there nice and calm and still and stare longingly me at me as if they are being tortured. When the kid lets them go, they beeline back to me! LOL