Anyone heard of this before?
 

Hello all...

My girlfriend moved in with me and brought her two yorkies. Ever since I have known them they have always wee'd and poo'd in her house, always slept on the bottom (and inside)of the bed, always barked to be picked up to be put on the bed (even though they could jump on). The female dog (who has not been spayed) regularly gets on to hump her leg. The male dog has been fixed, but some time ago started to hump my girlfriends arm (which I find very disturbing, since she allows it, and now her daughter is doing it). Anyway, they moved in with me with the dogs, and it was pretty much business as usual with the weeing, humping etc..

We decided to try and get the dogs to wee and poo outside, so when ever we found we or poo, I would smack them with a newspaper, show them the wee, and put them outside. We did this for several weeks, and nothing changed (after reading the info on this site I can see why). My girlfriend and daughter needed to go away for 10 days, and they left the dogs with me. During the time they were away, the dogs did not pee once inside the house, although there was the occasional poo. The dogs also jumped onto the bed on their own without whining or barking to be picked up.

As soon as my girlfriend got home, the dogs began weeing in the house again and barking to get on the bed. I do not let the dogs hump my leg or arm.

I bath the dogs every week and I think they love me. I am good to them. the girl dog runs around frantically in the morning when I get up, throwing herself on her back, waiting for a tummy tickle.

I have also taught the dogs to wait outside, and let me enter the house first. then they come when I call them.

Is there a heirachy problem here? What does she need to do? She loves her dogs very much. What do I need to do? She doesn't believe that they did not wee in the house when she was away. I would love to be able to print an answer out for her so that we can fix the issues.

Many thanks for listening.

Im sure that there will be some answers from several people with training experience to come along with some help.
Humping: IMO this is not ok. Socially it can be disturbing if you have a visitor in your home.
Jumping: It is not good for a small dog to jump up and down from furniture that is high,like a bed. The jumping up can cause knee damage over a period of time and the impact of landing when jumping down can cause bad spinal damage,which can cost alot of money. It is like you jumping off of the roof of a truck daily. I have trained my dogs to not jump onto or off of my bed. I didnt know this for a long time and have a 13lb poodle with back issues because he was allowed to jump.
The pottieing in the house thing does kind of sound like a pack issue. Whatever the advice is that others may have for you,it wont be fixed over night.

Smaking the dogs with newspaper will not train them to do anything except be afraid. I don't think them peeing outside while the girlfriend is away is a pack issue. With consistant and timely training they will learn, and I would suspect maybe you are providing them with the consistency they need that maybe the girlfriend and daughter are not giving while they are there. It does take time for them to get on a schedule and learn.

As for the bed, I agree that jumping can be harmful to their joints so lifting them on and off is ok. You can provide stairs for them.

Please don't hit the dogs....ever!

Stop hitting them with a newspaper that is old school training and it doesnt work. You need to get some crates leave only enough room for them to get up and turn around in them. Take them out every 2 hours and when they go treat them and make a big fuss. This is not to say they cant be out of the crate but you have to be watching them continuously you dont want them to have any accidents in the house that form habits. The new habit should be going outside. Humping when they do it say no and remove them from your leg and arm they will get that is not allowed behavior. I do believe one person can arouse bad behavior in dogs. It is time for you and your girlfriend to be united in stopping these bad behaviors

Also dont free feed, feed scheduled feedings and take the dogs out to go potty after they have ate,

I was thinking the same exact thing...

Please read the original post carefully. The OP has already figured out that smacking a dog is so NOT going to work and is asking what to do.
Lets all step up with some good training ideas.
Not being the polite police,just trying to keep it on topic of what to do to give this guy some good advice.

I think alot of people, that don't know a lot about training and about yorkies, first instinct is to punish the dog by smacking or rubbing their nose in it. I myself was taught that by my parnets with our dogs growing up. Yes it is "old school" but lots don't even think about any other way. I think it is great that you found this site and learned about the right approach. And that it worked.

I'm glad you see after reading things on hear that the newspaper idea doesn't work. You are right, as a few have said that's an old school method that is thankfully disappearing.

Keep consistency, and I think crate training is the way to go. If you get them each a crate, they should not use the bathroom in there, cause it's like their bed. It should be just big enough for them to stand, turn, and lay down.

When you take them outside and they go where they are supposed to, throw a praise party, cheer, cuddle, pat, treat, whatever gets the dogs going. If you catch them going in the house (in the act, not after the fact) clap and say no (the clap will startle them), then grab them and run outside and then when they finish going outside praise them the same as if you take them out. They will learn that outside is a happy place to use the bathroom, and inside they get a loud noise and carried outside (never hit them). If you find a mistake in the house, you cannot punish them after the fact, most dogs have a 30 second to 1 minute short term memory when it comes to training, that's why we have to repeat things over and over, so if you do not react within 30 seconds of the accident, they wont know why you are punishing them.

As long as everyone is consistent with this they should start going outside for everyone.

As for the humping, it should be stopped immediately when it happens, a deep voiced "no" should do the trick. Stop interacting with them immediately when it happens, if its no fun (ie interacting with them) they'll loose interest, the "no" reinforces that it's not appropriate.

Best of luck .

Some great advice!!

I agree!

OMg.... it sounds like someone needs some tough love. . . and I'm not referring to the dogs!!

It's apparent that you are doing something right and the dogs listen to you. They know who is the pack leader when it comes to you and your relationship with them. Now, if you could only get your gf and her daughter to do the same. Finding the right method is easy but keeping up with it isn't so easy. Butm Consistency and adequate training methods are the key to fixing any problems you are experiencing.

Most importantly everyone has to be on board with the training not just you or it wont work. As you quickly found out!

I am in no way an expert but I have found what works for our family and have included my way of training on my web site for others to try as well. One method that I would suggest useing is cage training. It will help with potty training and help put a stop to other bad habits as well. If it works than great if not research more and find something that does.

Best of luck with the tough love. :D

Dawn's Yorkies / Yorkie Puppies / For Sale, Ohio

Thanks everyone, this is a great start for me. I did some more investigating regarding the male dog wanting to hump the arm. He has been 'done', so this is not a sexual thing, but more a dominance thing. He wants to show his dominance by getting her to do this. Makes sense.

Regarding the crates, you are saying that the dogs must be put into crates for a couple of hours each day? Are the supposed to be able to get out, or are they supposed to be trapped in there? What does this achieve? I know that the female dog will be frantic and will bark incessantly while in the crate, and my gf will take the dog out after a few minutes.

Also, no answers as to why the weeing stopped and then started again.

and please, I don't hit the dogs with the newspaper anymore. It was never a hard smack, and I know now that method will not work. I'm not cruel to animals.

Again, thanks to all for your valuable feedback.

With your girlfriend letting the dog out after a few minutes, definitely tell her not to do that. It makes the dog see that it can get it's way by crying and barking. It's hard to listen to but if she can't handle it then ask her to take a walk or step out of the apartment. The dog has to get used to it and the only way it will is if you leave her in there. I would leave mine in the crate for an hour or two while I stepped out and it helped with not having to listen to him whine and cry and also he eventually got used to it. You can try that.