Introducing my first dog and some questions
 

At the end of last year my wife surprised me with Chewie! He is a Yorkie or possibly a Chorkie?! There's been much debate.

Anyway, my wife has had dogs all her life but this is my first. The one thing I'm a little surprised is our dog is loud. The smallest noise will set him off into a barking frenzy, and I am a little embarrassed when taking him out as he will constantly bark around other dogs (he is not aggressive though) our even just when going for a wee in the garden, if he hears an unfamiliar noise, he will bark the garden down.

Is this a normal Yorkie trait? I have read they are one of the noiser dogs. However my concern is we're not doing anything to help him get more comfortable around noise. My wife thinks he will grow out of it (he is only 8 months old), but shouldn't we be doing something to make sure he doesn't stay like his forever?

Here is a video of him barking at the camera for you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6wQB6630Ys

No replies :(

Welcome to YT! He is adorable. I have 3. I've had Barney the longest. He's the most gentle quiet soul. Only mean enough to tear up his toys, but super gentle with other animals. Then, we added Anna. She was around 6 at the time. She barks at everything. Barney just stares at her. A few years later, we added Willie. He was 3 at the time---the same age as Barney. He wasn't a barker, but after hanging out with Anna for a while, he is a holy terror now.

So, I guess, yes some dogs are just more vocal than others. You can do some things to make it better. They have bark collars at amazon that are humane--just a gentle vibration to stop then, not a shock. Also, I have read that some people use a spray bottle and give a spray when loud barking starts.

Anna is pretty old now and I just don't care enough about her barking to correct it. But I have a nice, big back yard that is fenced in. So she really only annoys us. As for Willie, I will probably work on correcting him this summer when I have some time off work. He's kind of a stinker to Barney. He will run up behind him and start barking and scare the begeebers out of poor old Barn.

He's very cute! Love the video!

I can sympathize with you on the noisy dog walks because my two also bark at all the other dogs. It's very embarrassing. It should have been something I trained them out of, but despite all my efforts, they're quite fearful and never stopped barking at dogs during our walks. I try my best to avoid dogs during my walks.

If you can, try your best to train them out of it. They don't grow out of it. ;)
I found this post very helpful when I trained them to stop barking at noises at home: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...h-barking.html

My Zeus hears "boogers" and "intruders" all the time, and no one can come near the house without him barking. He will bark at flies, mosquitoes, butterflies, dogs, cats, squirrels, armadillos -- heck, just about anything. We live right beside an Air Force base, and he barks at the planes. Our house is within the direct line for the medical helicopters that are traveling between my city and the next big city -- heaven forbid when a helicopter flies over. He doesn't typically bark at people, thank goodness. My Perseus will only join in and bark with his brother (I think he feels he's being left out of something), but if he ever barks first, we really do pay attention. Good luck. Your baby sure is adorable, barking and all!

Oliver barks. At everything. A leaf blowing in the neighbors yard, a loud noise on tv, a car door closing. But most especially he must protect me from the very terrible, evil vacuum cleaner. Even when it's not turned on, The only time he didn't bark was when someone was trying to steal my sons scooter off the patio. He didn't make a sound until the neighbor knocked on the door.
I tried to teach him not to bark. I failed.

haha are you sure Oliver isn't really my Teddy? Everything you said here is the same for us!

I can sympathize whole - heartedly. Teddy never shuts up and barks at everything and nothing. We have had a trainer and even behavior training at a specialist university and nothing has broken him from barking. He's embarrassing, shrill and stubborn with it so I don't know what the answer is apart from accepting him as he is cuz we can't change it!

For what it's worth, I do think it's a yorkie trait. I met a lab owner who told me that she avoids yorkies when walking her dog because they bark at her dog excessively. Can't just be ours!

Hahaha.. I often try to comfort myself too with the notion that it's a Yorkie trait. Sad thing is, the many other Yorkies I've seen in my neighborhood are very well behaved and don't bark at other dogs! :D go figure...

I avoid people all the time. And those who know me in the area, try to avoid me too. The worst is I try to avoid some, but they keep following me...lol (well, not really lol, it's very frustrating! :p) because I happen to be on their dog route.

The worst is when people give me dirty looks, like I haven't tried to train my dogs. :( But believe me, I have...

Haha! It's a Yorkie thing. But Oliver rarely barks when we're away from home. He's good as gold. But when we're home.....
LOL

Hello and welcome to YT

Jackson is good in public. He very rarely barks at a dog etc. We can be walking by a fence full of barking dogs and he just walks by. I also trained him a lot and socialized the hell out of him when he was younger.

At home is another story though! He is definitely our little alert-er! Door knock, doorbell, strange noise outside, Fedex truck... he will definitely let you know. And it's loud and obnoxious!

Chester has never been a big barker, so I have been lucky, he is now losing some of his hearing at almost 14.5, so it would have to be loud for him to bark

Chester has never been a big barker so I have been lucky. He is losing some of his hearing at almost 14.5 so it has to be loud for him to bark

I've had a girl yorkie growing up that was actually very quiet but yea, I'd say my current girl is fairly noisy. ^^; She wasn't when she was a baby and I take her out often to get her used to things but she somehow developed a more barky attitude when going out. I've found that training the quiet command is one way to help, which I'm currently working on lol. I'm bit rusty on doing it but essentially, believe it or not, it helps to train them to speak on command and then train them to be quiet ^^;;
Once they learn to speak on command, I start using another (maybe with gesture or not, it's what you choose to use) and I start by gesturing a countdown with my fingers (on the other hand, if I'm using the "shh" gesture). It's easier once they get the idea they should be quiet for the countdown and eventually I start using the command without it and treat them for how long they stay quiet. You can go ahead start without the visual countdown, but sometimes I find it helps give them something to focus on. Either way you're goal is to extend the time they are quiet. Eventually they'll do it on command. Good to keep treats on hand at times to keep giving them incentives to be quiet ^^.