Large Dogs + Yorkies =?
 

Hi, I am pretty new to this community, and I was just wondering how many of you have large dogs, and how you deal with the way they interact with each other, because I do have two other large dogs, and I let them play because Noah my yorkie, loves to roll around with them and chase them, which I supervise closely but there are times I do worry about an accidental incident. Has anyone had anything intense happen? :aimeeyork

I don't have large dogs, but my friends dog is a lab mix and him and Nala play together, we just have to supervise them closely, because even though Oscar (the Lab) is really gentle with her he uses his paws sometimes. They play together great, but we def need to supervise them very closely.

I'm sure people who have large dogs can give you much better advice than I can:)

I have had Black Russain terriers think 75 to 120 pounds up next and playing with both my yorkie and new pup no problem but my dogs are well soicalized and I with them.

I have had them with 120 pound GSD cross and I can leave him with my old girl.
I have had them with 80 nephy border cross and watch more close as he is bouncy.
I have had them up next to a portie with no problem after I educated her on being a little more gentle.
I have had them with a BRT landed himself in time out for grabing my old girl and he never did it again.

So it depends on the dogs and if they get along and I never leave my dogs alone together unless it with the GSD cross he great at dog speak and moves slow.

JL

I have a border collie husky mix . She is good with the little dogs but I always am with them. Just because she could accidently paw or play a little to rough. But supervised they do great together. I just would never leave them alone with her. She is a great dog we rescued from the shelter years ago and has always been so well mannered.

That's great that they play well together! I have a Great Dane Mastiff, who is older and very very gentle with Noah, since they grew up together they are best friends, and I recently rescued a Pitbull/German Shepherd who is a princess, she is so sweet, however since she is a puppy I watch them closely, Noah loves to get her riled up and she is learning to not use her paws with him.

Noah seems to do better with bigger dogs than smaller ones, when I take him to the dog parks he THINKS he can run wild with the huge ones, and runs right past the small ones. haha

Thanks for replying!!

I have an 80 lb Aussie/Shep (?) mix who is honestly the best dog I have ever owned. He is gentle and well trained and extremely patient. He and my 5 lb Yorkie and 12 lb shih tzu get along wonderfully. He lays down on the floor and lets them jump all over him. I leave them all home alone together and never worry. The dogs get free run of the house, but I do lock the cats in the basement when we leave - I'm much more worried that something would happen with my Yorkie and the cats unsupervised!

We always keep an eye on them to make sure the Yorkies do not beat up too badly on the Mastiff.

When we go out, we alway put the Yorkies in their X-pens just to be safe. He would not hurt them on purpose, but why risk it. This way if a bad guy tries to break in the Mastiff can go at him without worrying about stepping on the little dogs.

OMG, Steve--I love the picture of the "kids"! Did you take it or is it a "pro" portrait? And how is Basil?

Yes, we were at the Pro's studio for over 3 hours. Took Individual pics, and a group. It was not easy, not easy at all.

Basil is doing fine. It has now been 2 weeks, and he got the stitches out last THursday. NExt week he goes in for a check and a new wrap on the splint. It is very hard on him as he kust wants his freedom, so to show he is not happy, he now wakes us up at 4 am to play!

Many of us have dogs that are not Yorkies too. My advice is, Supervise like you would a 5 year old child and an infant. Lily our Lab is around 70 pounds. We adopted her at 8 weeks so she has always been around a house full of Yorkies. I don't think she would hurt any of them with malice. She is a sweet girl. BUT when she is excited and playing, she can tromp on them. She has accidently knocked me down when doing zoomies and I am no feather weight. And when still a puppy she left bloody scratches on my legs and arms.( I admit we have old people skin, tissue thin sigh..) So I repeat Supervision is required.

I have a jack russell that's pretty hyper and rough. He's my husband's baby and has been man handled since a pup. LOL....He's very good with Chloe but I do supervise them during play time. Other times he's alseep and doesn't even act like she's in the room. If I have to shower, I take her in the bathroom with me along with a chew toy and shut him out. If I have to leave to go out, I crate her and he stays out like always.

I think as they get used to each other it will never be an issue. But given a large dogs size, even when they are being gentle, it could be too much for a fragile puppy.

We have 5 dogs two basset hounds a shorkie, a yorkie and a shih tzu. We have no problems with the big dogs playing with the little ones but we do supervise their play time just in case.

I have a Doberman pup that we have to supervise with our Yorkies. He can get overzealous with his play and doesn't realize his own strength, he still tries to sit on my lap! We also make sure the little dogs have quiet spaces where the big guy can't harrass them and vice versa.

I personally wouldn't do it but then I'm somewhat afraid of big dogs myself. Except for my friends that have Goldens and Labs - and I grew up with a Lab so not afraid of them.

Many people have large and small dogs together - I would recommend close supervision.

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I LOVE that picture! Please tell me you have it framed.

I want an English Mastiff one day.

I have a blue heeler and he is better behaved than he normaly is when Dixie is around. He lets her chew on his ears and bite his tail and they play awesome together! When they play outside the heeler in him kicks into full gear and he never lets her get further away than what he thinks is best. They have the full yard to play in but if she leaves her spot that he makes hers for the day he is on her hearding her back to "her" spot. It cracks me up to watch but he is amazing with her.

Thanks Brit. We have a 24"x30" oil Canvas hanging on the wall. We piked it up a few days ago.

Although Wendell is unaware that other dogs are bigger than he is, luckily the bigger dogs understand the size difference. I love it when our 25 lb JRT mix plays with 5 lb Wendell by lying down on the ground - he seems to be trying to get down to Wendell's level. He plays totally differently with dogs who are smaller than he is than he does with bigger dogs. The 105 lb Bernese Mountain Dog down the street does the same thing.

The only problems we've had were with Boxers. Both of them that we've encountered play by using their big paws alot, and ended up almost "squashing" our little dog. The first time it happened I thought it was just an isolated behavior, but since the second Boxer did the same thing some weeks later, I have kept our dog away from that breed. I love them, but they just play too rough for our little guy.

I have 2 GSD's and 2 yorkies. They get along great. The older GSD mothers the little ones like they are her own. Yes, definitely watch them when together, although that didn't keep my Kasey from losing his eye! The two bigguns were playing and he got between them. There was nothing I could do but rush Kasey to the vet with his eyeball hanging out. Nothing else has ever happened, but I am much more careful about roughhousing.

I would say it depends on the dog! But whether or not they grew up around lil dogs does matter somewhat. I have a lab mix and a pit bull terrier. McKenzie, my yorkie, loves both of them and both love her. It took my lab a while to warm up to McKenzie because he had never been around small dogs before (we have all big dogs in our family McKenzie is the first small dog) and he is an senior dog but, he came around. We actually got the pit after we got McKenzie and she was still a puppy, they get along great. Also, McKenzie's bestfriend and favorite cousin is an 90 lb lab name Jordyn. McKenzie actually prefers bigger dogs over dogs her size.

We separate them when no one is home but, when someone is home all of them have free reign. We also let them outside together. I don't necessarily supervise but, I check up on them from time to time.

Sorry it's so long!!

I have one big dog and now two smaller dogs.

Ginger is about 90 pounds and a Golden Retriever.
Ta-Tudie is about 15 pounds and a Rat Terrier.
Ferg's is 11 pounds and a Yorkie (or Silky).

Ginger and Ta-Tudie have shared a crate since Tudie was a puppy (Ginger is about two years older). They get along great and have never had an issue.

Right now I let them play mostly unsupervised as it's been a couple of weeks. Tudie has come around in the last week with Ferg's presence while Ferg's and Ginger really started rolling with their playing this past weekend. Ferg's seems to be like most other Yorkies I read about on here...no fear an thinks she's as big as Ginger is. Although, when I say unsupervised what I mean is the dogs have free roam around the house while we are home although I do keep them crated while we are gone. I've gotten comfortable enough that they are getting along well to begin letting them go outside for potty breaks unsupervised, but just started that recently.

I think it boils down to your own comfort level in watching them interact. I've always said that while Ginger and Tudie share an extra large crate and have for years I have kept Ferg's separate just for safety sake since she came home. However, I know dogs are social creatures and want to be around the rest of their pack and in the last week when I put them to bed, she's gone into the other dogs crate and laid down where there was room for her. I don't let her stay but it shows me that (a) the other dogs make room for her and (b) she wants to be with the other dogs. At some point I will combine two large crates or get an x-pen (or something) to give all three dogs enough room for them to sprawl out together. My comfort level just isn't there quite yet.

I have a 120lb GSD and a 7lb Biewer. They get along just fine.

The only time I watch them carefully is when the little one gets really hyper and wants to play with the big one and he goes along with it. Then they are just nuts, but this only happens once a week or so.

I had the GSD first and he is super mellow and relaxed. If I did it the other way around, I'd probably be a little more concerned.

My Biewer also plays with my husband's parent's Chessie and my sister's Husky with no problems and when at daycare spends the day in the big dog pen, where they have an Irish wolfhound, great Danes, labs, etc. There is also another little yorkie that spends the day in the big dog pen as she has a big dog sibling.

Just make sure to know the temperament of the big dog and I think you'd be fine.

(my parent's neighbors also have a Chinese crested, 2 mastiffs, and a great Dane and they all seem to get along fine)

Hello,
We have a 40-45 lb pit bull named Deja and a year old Yorkie named Kai. Deja is my boyfriends dog, but she was raised with small dogs as well. Kai and deja are best friends, they just love each other. They play all the time unsupervised. Deja is so good with him. they do play rough sometimes and sometimes kai tries to act all tough when he gets stepped on.
Deja will run up behind him and grab one of his back legs and just toss him. Now I know a lot of you might think that she is being mean by doing it, but shes not. they run and bite at each others heels, I think Deja started doing it just to get back at kai for biting her heels as she ran! haha

My boyfriend has two British Bulldogs and they play with my Yorkie Poppy all of the time. They get on very well together and we have never had any problems.

It depends on the 2 dogs. My golden raised many fur babies in his day. I trusted him to be around Cozy's newborn puppies. He was a 120 pound push over with any baby/ animal smaller than himself. He only animal he did not like were groundhogs- those critters can be mean.

I haven't seen that picture. I just love it. They are all beautiful together.:)

While I don't own any big dogs, my two have been around my family's large dogs. They've been around a black lab, golden retriever, and two large lab mixes without any trouble. That said, I do watch closely and my family members' dogs are all full grown, respectful dogs. I have thought about adopting a chocolate lab once my skin kid moves out of the house (he's only a high school sophomore), but I think my selection would have to be very careful.

Actually, Mojo seems to enjoy large dogs much more than small ones, with the exception of Maci, of course. :p

My friend's 75lbs Irish Setter is very gentle and plays well with my 10lbs Yorkie. You can sort of tell the temperament of a big dog and if they are okay with smaller creatures, they generally are okay with small dogs. My friend's Irish Setter does not harm even a squirrel or a bunny and with my Yorkie, my Yorkie is the boss and they get along well. Even if my Yorkie snaps, she doesn't. The only time I have to be careful is when we hike and she can be running fast and can't stop in time and might step on my little guy or body bash in to him.

What great picture, reminds me of my daughter's brindle pitbull Shasha who lived with us several years ago. She was such a love and thought she was a lap dog.

Oh, this is too cute!

Good question too! Thanks for asking about this. My husband wants a dog in the future and I wondered too how a bigger dog would be around our soon to be Yorkie. I still am not sold on the idea, but we will see in the future....far far away future! LOL