Trying to figure out Libby Foo-Foo Hi everyone! First time post for me. I have a wonderful female Yorkie! She is a rescue that rescued me right back! Libby has been with me for about four years and she is a very sweet and loving little one who I adore. But for the life of me, I cant figure her out. When she is indoors she is the sweetest! She is attentive to me. But when we go outside to play, I don't seem to exist. She isn't mean or anything. She will run around and smell everything. Typical puppy chores. But, if I try to play with her, I'm not even there. When we go in doors, its all about me. You don't think Libby is ashamed to be with me in public do you? |
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You could Google the Nothing In Life Is Free method of dealing with dogs with leadership acknowledgement issues. This trains the dog to have to look to you for everything in life. Along with a good positive-reinforcement training program where she can learn to listen to and obey you, you can become more of a leadership figure in her eyes. Extending the NILIF treatment and her obedience training to outside after she's gotten the basics down cold indoors can further reinforce your leader role but keep the sessions short and frequent. Work a lot with her on "Watch Me" training, not using a treat near your eyes to get her to look but your fingers at first, truly training her to focus on your eyes and not the treat near them. Once she learns that and to keep looking at and focusing on your eyes, then you produce a treat and praise as a reward. That way when she is ignoring you, you can tell her to "Watch Me" and she will focus on you like a laser beam, waiting to see what you want. Also, Tamar Geller's The Loved Dog is a good training book to read and gives you good theory behind how dog's learn, the proper way to train without harsh techniques and how to become a dog's leader the loving, gentle, fun way and in the process, the dog learns to respect and love you in equal parts. |
Oh you seriously made me laugh out loud with your last line! =D Welcome to YT! I like Jilly's advice! |
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I promise that Libby isn't ashamed of you in public, though. LOL! cute |
I think some Yorkies think they have a job to do when they are outside. Many of them are still very prey oriented. Yorkies were bred to kill vermin so when they start smelling the outside animals they get very focused on those scents. Gracie is kind of like that. When we are on the walk she is so consumed with smelling everything. In the backyard she loves checking out all the scents. She does respond if I call her but she would prefer if I just ignore her and let her do her thing for a while. I guess she likes to pretend she is a real hunter for a while. I don't think your girl is ashamed of you. She probably thinks she is protecting you!:) |
Thanks Jeanne for advise. I will check out the additional reading. Libby does stay quite busy when outdoors. There must be a lot of smells in my backyard. Thanks everyone:p |
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Little bitty Tibbe has a very strong prey drive and it took me a long, long time but he looks to me and stays around me mostly when outside now but used to, all he wanted was to run off and go bark at squirrels and things, look for activity, other people & dogs. He still runs off to the edge of the property or across the field but he checks with me pretty frequently, looking back over his shoulder expecting direction. If he's gone too far, I'll give a "tik tik" kind of noise with my tongue or say "stop" and he slows down, stops, tail, head & ears up. He's so happy and okay with it, comes bounding to me so thrilled with life when I do recall him, I don't think he minds the change. If he acted depressed or sad, unhappy, I'd have to rethink the whole concept. I want a happy, fulfilled dog outside not a cowed or overdisciplined one that acts scared to make a move! I hate dogs trained like that! But obviously dogs don't mind hierarchy as they are still pack animals and apparently love a leader directing them - the happier dogs do seem to be those that have a strong, loving leader and far less of those seem to wind up in shelters and AC. And Tibbe is praised OT when he comes running from afar! Maybe that's one reason he's happy to do it. Every thing I teach him is made fun, kept loving and he's always set up to win. So he's proud and happy to be on my team outside. |
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