Potential Yorkie Owner - question on temperament
 

Hi, I am very interested in getting a yorkie. I know they are spunky and full of life. I have seen yorkies which are calm and trained well but still full of life and spunk, but have also seen videos/tv of ones who are bad stereotypes for yorkies and are over protective/insecure/nip at owners etc.

If you have a moment please glance at the following videos:

possesive over bone
angry about food being gone?
threatening to nip boy, protective of puppy?


I am curious to your expertise, if you see the above videos, if this dog fits into the one of the following categories, or maybe another one I didnt think of?

A) This dog shows typical yorkie personality
B) This dogs behavior is not typica, and is it the result of bad owners who do not practice discipline/boundaries
C) This dog is genetically wired this way, where some yorkies like this are more aggressive than others regardless of its owners.

I appreciate your help, particularly from your personal experience, to gather what I can expect from a yorkie (knowing personalities may differ of course)

Biting and possessiveness are not typical Yorkie traits. They can occur in dogs who are poorly trained, poorly treated, or poorly bred.

The only way to guarantee personality when looking for a dog is to adopt an adult either from a rescue or a good breeder (sometimes they have adults they have held back for various reasons including size or show potential that didn't pan out).

The second best way to get the ideal temperament is to research good breeders who selectively breed for good disposition, and who know how to give puppies a good start. Then it is up to you to train and socialize.

Yorkies do vary in energy levels, but tend toward needing activity. They are not docile lap sitters, although they will sit on your lap. They do require more attention, in my opinion, than the average dog. They like to be with their humans.

Those are clearly Yorkies that are being teased, harassed, and spoiled. The videos tell me more about the owners than they do about the dogs, especially the guy who was feeding his Yorkie milkshakes--milkshakes are NOT good for Yorkies. So I choose "B" from your list--those dogs are not exhibiting typical Yorkie behavior, and their bad behavior is the result of bad owners who do not practice discipline/boundaries.

Ditto to the above replies. This behavior is found in every single breed when they are not trained and/or treated correctly.

My Yorkie...and her bigger 72 lb brother...both know who is boss a the end of the day. Neither food guards and better never act that way towards me or my husband. I say they better never, but they never will. Why? Because of the way we trained and raised them.

Yorkies are "tell it like it is" kind of dogs. They are not mild mannered lap dogs. They will give you the stink eye in a heart beat. And, they are the most loving, entertaining, and kissingest breeds around. :)

Thanks for the replies, this below video which i did not post was the most alarming to me. What kind of behavior do you call this? Is this just a dog who does not respect its owners and things he owns everything?

Wow those were a little scary. Jess has never even growled, not once. As Mandies mom said about hers.."she knows better"
we can play, take things from her, etc and she has never growled or shown teeth..

those dogs seem like they are either spoiled rotten (um a porterhouse steak bone? Maybe the dog was barking because of the pancreatitis it most likely has), or because they have been mistreated. That's not the yorkie behavior I have read about or witnessed thank goodness

No way do I believe this is typical Yorkie behavior.

I first became acquainted with (and fell in love with) this breed when I took care of my friend's Yorkie. Later, I became acquainted with two other Yorkies in my neighborhood (owned by different neighbors). In March of this year, I adopted my own Yorkie. He is 3 yrs old & an absolute angel. None of these dogs have ever exhibited any behavior like this.

It seems very likely to me that the dog in all 3 of these videos may be the same dog. Like some of the others people here, I believe this dog is incredibly spoiled.

This board is new to me but your post really caught my eye. I have four Yorkies and I love them all like children and they can act that way at times. To me this is the best breed hands down. And I agree they are not lap dogs. I only have one that comes close to that and she is a primadonna.

i also dont understand why the dog was getting angry in the milkshake video? was the owner teasing him there? I dont see it. Yes its the same dog in all videos.

Yes I saw it as teh owner teasing the dog in that Video. Also they are plain down right worng to be driving a car and having the yorkie on the floor where the drivers feet are. WTH !!!!!!

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

That is very dangerous! Mine is always strapped into her seat or a carrier, never on the floor walking around. The guy has to be teasing the yorkie- it's always mad at him!:eek:

The dog seems scared of the guy in that video so the guy could have scared the yorkie in the past we don't know there past. The yorkie also could be having a stomach ache from dairy because dogs are not supposed to have milk or he could be having very high sugar which as a diabetic and my mom being a diabetic with both get rather nasty if our sugar is high. Many many people have untrained dogs if you don't want your dog to bark you can train it not to, if you do is showing food aggression you can train them not to, if you dog bites you can train them not to. Most dogs who bite and have issues where just no trained so how your dog is gonna be depends a lot of you and if you are willing to train them or let them get away with things. My dog is extremely spoiled but when she nipped as a puppy I trained her it was not ok, she does not bite, she does not growl when someone messes with her chew, bone or food, she does not bark she is well trained. What every one should be more concerned about in that video is that the yorkies could cause an accident and should be belted in. With all these videos you don't know the history of these dogs and the people for all you know they are given very little food maybe sometimes none or maybe they are beat you really don't know.

I could find videos on just about every breed behaving badly but I bet I could find thousands on each breed behaving very well and doing tricks and such. Many of us on here have dogs that do a lot of tricks or agility or are trained to be therapy dogs some even service dogs so I doubt those of us that do that training and stuff have dogs that behave poorly like that.

Definitely B. Pups are like children...it's 99% how they're raised.

Bad owners!
 

:eek: I choose B- Hands down. I feel bad for the dog(s).

Big B from me! The owners are morons!

Thanks guys, i think we agree its poor parenting at the very least. Post #5 in this thread just got approved and showed up, can you tell me what you think of the video in post #5? The dog acts like he owns the puppy and his owners, awful behavior. But is this ultimately again the owners fault?

These videos are ridiculous, quite frankly. The owners have the fault here and as seen in the video are encouraging such behavior. These are poorly trained pups. I'm sorry but I've got 3 and that would be the day any of them would behave like this.

The anklebiting stereotype is just that...

This is one of the strangest threads I've seen, what is the actual intent here? With the thousands of Yorkie Videos (most of them good well behaved scenarios) did you elect to pull and post these? Surely you looked at the good ones too? I'm just curious as to why you went looking for these and then post and ask us to give an opinion?

All breeds of pet dogs aggress and behave badly at times and it's almost always related to lack of strong leadership, training and boundaries and not the dog's temperament per se.

Maybe the OP is the owner and is seeking advice...?

:rolleyes: Makes ya wonder ya know? lol

It sounds like the same owner and dog in all 3 videos. They obviously haven't trained this dog well and think it's funny when it acts aggressive. That's disturbing. I've never had a yorkie act like that. As puppies I would get them used to me touching them and their food while they were eating and I also would take toys away that they were playing with or chewing on. I've never had one growl at me, if I did I sure wouldn't find it funny.

wow- this poor yorkie! I have to say B hands down.
Any dog can get possessive over things (or other animals) if you let them or if they were treated in a way that allowed for it. A dog (especially if gotten as a puppy) is mostly a reflection of the time and effort put in by it's owner. Are my dogs the best behaved in the world? No, but they would never act like this and if they did I would seek expert training advice for positive reinforcement training to help fix this before it got worse.

on a side note if a dog is doing a behavior (biting, growling ect) and you laugh, smile, and pet the dog after the behavior you are telling the dog that the behavior is acceptable and good. Dogs don't understand the words you are saying as much as they understand the tone and facial expressions you use when saying them

The video in post #5 is the same dog, too. So you are pulling all the videos of this one, badly behaved, dog. Why so?

Yes, all of that is because he was never given boundaries. Wouldn't matter what breed he was.

If you want more examples of yorkie behavior and temperament, try these:



or even...



*Note* I purposely included some well known Yorkies from Yorkie Talk :D

Ok, those videos that you found are extremes caused by bad owners.
I will admit these vids make the breed look pretty bad, but if you take the time to properly train the pup it will pay off. It isn't easy, I struggled with Henri a few times but now he is a well behaved boy. All it takes is time and patience, don't let these extremes scare you off:) If you truly feel that Yorkies aren't for you then look into other breeds, but remember that any dog can turn into a little monster when not properly cared for and trained.

I will have to say B for me also

Thanks all for the reassuring responses. I watch too many tv shows (cesar milan)and see bad stereotypes examples of breeds. There is no ulterior motive here, was genuinely curious if some of this behavior is common or if it all falls on the owner. I don't have a ton of first hand experience with yorkies which is why I asked. I am also interested in dog psychology and am beginning to realize it is mostly how they are raised.