First message, Dog introduction
 

Good morning to all on the Yorkie Forum!
I have just taken in two rescue Yorkie Females aged 4 and 5 years of age. There were in pretty bad shape when the shelter (in Ohio) obtained them but they are cleaned up, immunized, spayed, and microchipped. We had a 350 mile drive to our home in PA from the shelter in Ohio. The dogs slept almost the entire way. They are underweight and need a lot of affection. I am taking them to my vet in the next day or two.
I own two 18 month old boxer females. Although they are both good dogs and well trained they still act like new puppies sometimes. They are very curious about the newbies in the house and I am having some difficulty with the interaction. The boxers tend to overwhelm the little guys and bark a lot at them. We use crates and have the crates connected to a pet door and an outside two acre fenced dog run. I need to get the boxers to accept these small dogs so we can have one set up for crates and pet door.
I have read Victoria's and Cesar's books regarding introducing new pets to the household but it is still is a chaotic time in our house. Any suggestions or referrals to a FAQ on the site would be appreciated.
I am retired and try to spend as much time as possible training my dogs. These Yorkies have had little or no formal training as evidenced by their behavior. I will have my hands full!
Thanks!
Michael Olmstead
Elliottsburg, PA

Welcome to our large and growing YorkieTalk family, Michael. How wonderful it was of you to rescue those two little ones in need. All of the fur members of your family need time to adjust. The Boxers are still pups and the Yorkies came from who knows what kind of environment.

Take it slow and let the Yorkie girls settle in. Several members of this forum have (or had) Boxers with their yorkies. Sadly, we lost our 15 year old Boxer last summer. Boo was the best baby sitter and loved her Yorkie siblings.

Good luck and please post pics of both your Yorkie girls and the Boxers when you have time.

welcome to yt and thank you for saving two yorkie babies.. as stated above time is the best medicine for getting comfortable. my lola is a rescue and i have had her since may...she is still adjusting and had very lil training. i dont even think she was ever walked. cant wait to see pics of all your furr kids.

First Welcome to YT. It certainly sounds like you have your hands full at the moment.

It sounds like your Boxers as the breed usually is, are high energy dogs. I think for some time maybe as long as two years you will need to crate and rotate like you are doing now.

I would make sure that your Boxers are well exercised, and of course trained. Sometimes it is helpful to have a weekly structued obedience class that you attend. I would do one night/day with the Boxers, and another night/day with the Yorkies. The most number of dogs I tried to train with in the same obedience class is three, and that is a lot of work!! Plus you need two crates set up to place the two dogs you are not working with into.

You didn't mention if you have a human partner you can work with; if so I would start exercising one Boxer and one Yorkie together. That is once the Yorkies have adjusted to their wonderful new home. I would also walk the two Yorkies together daily.

Pack dynamics are going to take awhile to sort out, and during that process you need to keep all dogs safe from each other. Particularly the smaller Yorkies.

For myself, I've never trusted my high prey large dog to play with my Yorkie. The only time they were off lead together outside was when we were swimming. It took about 2years within the home before I allowed my Yorkie and my high prey gal to roam together in house, and only when I am at home. At night I always crate my Yorkie, and leave the big dogs free.

If you do a "search" here on this forum, you may find some older "threads" that have more info for you on training multiple dogs. :)

Hello and welcome, thank you for rescuing....

Thanks all! I do not know how to post photos yet. Advice please.
Mike

Hi Mike...Welcome! Thank you for rescueing two little ones in need.

Welcome to YT. Thank You for adopting rescues. I am not really familiar with Boxers because I basically work with puppies and toy dogs.
I would strongly recommend that you read YT library threads about rescue dogs. Talk to Boxer Club members and your Vet. Sift through the ideas and advice and use what works for your family.
It will take time for your family to adjust to new members. Even playful bouncing and barking in larger dogs can result a much smaller dog getting injured. So stay on top of all interactions. Best wishes and again Welcome to Yorkie Talk.

Hi, Mike...and welcome! It is thrilling that you are helping these two (2) Yorkie babies leave the rescue to a loving home. Things will likely eventually work out, but expect the chaos to gradually subside as everyone gets used to everyone else. Keep in mind that the Boxers and the Yorkies will 'feed' off your emotions, so if you can stay 'aloof' emotionally and treat the whole situation 'matter-of-factly' you may well see them all settle more quickly than if you allow yourself 'emotional involvement' outside of loving and cuddling them all.

My only experience with Boxers was a neighbor's dogs, and when two (2) dug under their backyard fence and showed up in my kitchen through my open back door. :p However, my experience with those two (2), which we had for over a week while searching for the owner, was that they are wonderful dogs...lap dogs who love to sleep in bed with people...and they were kind and gentle with all our other pets. They were, however, older than 18 months, so likely, the young age of the Boxers may be playing into keeping the 'excitement' alive along with the 'newness' of the Yorkies' arrival and their 'intrepidation' as they adjust to so much new stuff so quickly.

I personally have never had an issue bringing new fur babies of any age, size, or breed...feline and/or canine...together. But I have always been cautious and allowed things to progress at the animals' rate rather than my own.

Good luck...and Congratulations! If you have never had Yorkies before, you are in for so much fun.

There is a sticky about posting photos, but usually the reason photos do not post is because they are too large...either resolution or file size. If that is the case, just re-size them and they will do fine. We are anxious to see...:D

photos
 

Attached are two photos (I hope).
Mike

Mike they are gorgeous!!!!

Mike,

That is so great that you took them in and are giving them the love they deserve:) Congrats to you! They are doll babies:D

I just read that you have 2 Boxers as well. They are amazing too! We had our sweet girl Coco for 13 years she was the best girl! Her and our Yorkie Georgie were best buds. She was so sweet and gentle with him. Please post pics of all your babies.

Well, you have two totally different breeds and personalities going there. If you do not have obedience training experience I would suggest you get your boxers in some classes right away. You should probably gate the boxers away from the Yorkies until the Boxers are well behaved enough to be around the little ones. Many larger dogs see these little furry dogs as something to chase or step on.

My very first dog as a child was a Boxer. She was a wonderful pet but we never had another dog with her. I know they can be very gentle when properly trained and exercised. A boxer is going to need several long swift walks a day plus some vigorous games of fetch. Yorkies need a lot of exercise, too but you may not want to work them very hard until or unless their health improves.

I hope things go well for you. You are going to have your hands full there for quite a while. I hope you have someone to help you.

Welcome to YorkieTalk! It sounds like you have received a ton of great advice.

Thanks
 

Thanks everyone! I do have quite a bit of training experience over thirty years so I use crates rotate the use of the fenced in dog run and my wife is getting up early to help. A few weeks of craziness and it should all level out. Fortunately, we have 135 acres of wooded land to get the boxers lots of exercise. I am more hopful they will all get along after some of the comments. We had a boxer who died one year ago. At the same time we had a Frenchie and two Jack Russells. They all got along and used the run together. I think eventually calm will arrive.
Thanks again for all the comments. I am glad I found this forum.
Mike