Does your Yorkie eat off the floor?

[Lovetodream88]

Callie doesn't eat a lot off the floor there are a few things that she likes that she will eat if dropped but she has never been really fond of all the bad for dog foods but I have had to tell her no before and she walks away from it. When guest are over I always watch her and other people VERY close because I do worry about them dropping something she shouldn't have and that she might go for it. I found Callie eats her dog food better off of a small paper plate well she has decided she likes to grab the plate and dump the food on the floor and then eat it. Callie will also not take "candy" from "strangers". He go to the pet expo and Sammy takes treats from the people but Callie will not take it. She only take treats from me, my dad, and my mom. I never taught her that but its kind of nice she is like that.

[KazzyK810]

ZoE will look at me when anything drops on the floor to see what she should do. If I tell her it's ok to eat it, she will. If it's not ok to eat I say, "yucky! yucky!" and she backs away. This works for anything I drop that I don't want her near. I've knocked glasses off the counter and yelled, "yucky! yucky!" and she backs away from the shards of glass too. I didn't mean to train it to mean back off everything, but she's taken it to mean that & it works for us.

[Britster]

Unfortunately, Jackson is definitely a snack vacuum. He sees food on the floor and it's fair game him. We've been working on it though and he does have a pretty good leave it, but once it's already IN his mouth, all bets are off if it's something yummy.

[Britster]

Oh, but he typically does not take treats from strangers, unless it's something really good.

[sumamatt]

Scribble doesn't eat anything off the floor either. The only time, he did was when we first brought him home, and he was a little hesitant to eat, I made a little trail of kibbles from where I was sitting to his bowl.

[Princess10]

If I drop something I immediately say 'wait or ockey' and she'll stay put (usually). If it's tissue or something of the hygiene family she could care less what I say. If I say drop it she gulps it. She pooped a q-tip tip just yesterday.

One thing that makes me weird, I'm sure, is I don't like to throw food on the floor to her 'like a dog'. I just don't feel right about it. I feel like a loon just typing that, lol. She has several extra plates & bowls for special things or at the very least I use the placemat her dishes are on.

[DvlshAngel985]

Youre not a loon. I don't throw stuff at Kaji either. He has bowls for his food or treats, or I can take it from my hand.

[concretegurl]

Definitely not a loon.

For several many reasons I make my dogs take things from my hand or from the kids' hands directly, they pay more attention they learn to take things nicely, they focus on who is feeding them etc.

In the same breath Elvis has been know to lick stuff-even the floor under the breakfast table-he's super OCD about licking himself clean and cleaning stuff with his tongue, he's a little loon himself.

[Tessa327]

No, you're not alone at all. I feel the same way with my 2 except I haven't successfully trained them to do so. Care to share how you manged to have them wait for your command?

Letting dogs do whatever they please isn't really loving them. They need protection and guidance from their owners as we should know what's best for them. That lady is crazy IMO. Nobody tells me how to train my girls, needless to raise my children. She's implorable and I find her ignorance laughable.

[jerryray]

Originally Posted by DBlain

where in the USA do you live, oh I how I wish you lived near me and could give me the help I need. Lola grabs anything that drops on the floor regardless if it is a food, it could be anything a pin, a button, a dryer sheet, a christmas tree ornament etc. Yesterday I kept finding her with tiny tiny red foam buds, something that could have been from a fake floral decoration, I have no idea where she was getting it from. This worries me since I am a klutz and drop things often. I am constantly chasing after her saying no drop it, but she thinks this is a game, so I distract her by throwing a toy, but a toy is not alway handy. So please tell me how you trained them on this issue. Actually now that I remember my first yorkie could be made to leave things, we could put a treat in front of him and make him leave it, but I also trained him to sit, stay, etc fairly easily. Lola thinks everything I do is a game, I use my hand to say down, and she mimics me and puts her paws out then goes down, then comes up and goes down again, if I say down three of four times she keeps doing it till finally I almost have to scream DOWN, it is funny but frustrating at the same time.

Our Dexter does the same. I can tell when he gets something because he takes off running. The last thing he had was a plastic tie used on the end of a bread loaf. Of course we run after him and drop it does not work, I have to reach in and get whatever he has.

We would love to stop this if we only could.

[concretegurl]

Originally Posted by Tessa327

No, you're not alone at all. I feel the same way with my 2 except I haven't successfully trained them to do so. Care to share how you manged to have them wait for your command?

Letting dogs do whatever they please isn't really loving them. They need protection and guidance from their owners as we should know what's best for them. That lady is crazy IMO. Nobody tells me how to train my girls, needless to raise my children. She's implorable and I find her ignorance laughable.

To do the training I only give treats from my hand.
I set them up a few times (Elvis was the hardest actually he was older when I got him and he's a food sneaker) I would put treats on the floor and people foods, then I made them sit and see it look at it and had a treat in my hand.
If they moved toward the treat on the floor big bad mom voice stern No. of they sat and waited soft baby talk mom chatter and a treat from me-it took a lot of time.

Once they understand what you mean it's just a matter of repeat and treat, repeat and treat-practice btw treat is reward...make sure you can snatch the treat or food off floor before they can get it.

Again as with anything time is the big key-I'm retraining mine to sit and wait at the door to come in and go out-it is so stinking hard right now with three of them, baby and our crazy schedule etc. Time patients practice practice practice.

If you stick with anything eventually it will click for them and it's a matter of just encouraging it and reminding them.

Oh at one point Princess was leashed to me for this training she would just bulldoze to get the food on the floor-it;s especially hard right now to remind them no eating off floor since baby is getting Gerber graduate puff-they are like catnip to cats only for babies and dogs!

Oh and don't let anyone interrupt your training-having interference is the most unproductive. For some things I often have to train my dogs one at a time and then slowly trying bringing the two who get it them most together before adding the third...I still cannot walk all three of mine together at a time, they all just go naughty not listening wild dogs on me.

[Mom to Hot Rod]

Mine do eat of the floor but I'm a nut case when I'm cooking and if anything drops, I pick it up immediately. Mine do know "drop it", "leave it" and my fav, "ah, ah". They listen to any one of those both in the house as well as outside. We have a lot of critters in my neighborhood who leave deposits all over the yard and road so it's something that they definitely needed to learn and heed.

[navillusc]

I teach my dogs not to eat anything regardless of where it is located...including their food bowl...until they are told it is "all yours"...but, since I got the Yorkies last summer at 14-17 months old...I start training much younger, normally, we are not there yet and have a lot of training to do still.

I started that training because I had young children and I didn't want food competition or the dog snatching food out of a toddler's hands because it was at tongue level. I like "all yours" because then anyone can give anything to the dog, as long as the appropriate command is given...and I don't tell strangers, but rather give the command myself in a sentence that sounds like 'conversation' but ends in the command.

[celstu1]

Oh my boys LOVE LOVE big black crickets! they chase and play with them and then eventually Dexter just eats them! Soooo gross!!!!! LOL I have hawk eyes on my boys and I never give little kids at my house food that could hurt my babies, I don't serve raisins or things with onions, plus we don't give my boys much people food so most prepared foods like pasta salad or potato salad they won't even eat because its weird to them. I hardly ever drop chopped foods on the floor because of the dogs. I am just super careful. I mean if it's carrots Im less careful, if it's onions I'm SUPER careful. I have taught them to drop it also... mostly they make me take it from them, but at least they don't practice the whole 'swallow it as quickly as possible' method! haha

[navillusc]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

... "drop it" just means "swallow it as fast as you can." ...

We (and by that I mean DH ) had a Rott/Pit who was the biggest baby even though he looked 'vicious' to people who didn't know him because of his brindle coloring. Any food that was near enough to be 'snacked' was 'snacked' and any human voice heard after the 'snacking' happened merely increased the suction velocity of the swallowing! We are convinced the dog passed without ever knowing what most of his 'snacked treats' tasted like!