First time pet owner with a 6 yr old kid-Yorkie a good choice?

[matese]

Congratulations (I think). the first few days this pup will be adjusting to a new human (you), home, smells, schedule. Is he house broken meaning does he pee and poop out doors or is he pad trained, if he makes out doors see if where ever he is has a schedule for him, if they do you will have to stick to that schedule, if he's not you will have to take him out every few hours to make. If he is pad trained make sure he knows where the pad is, you may have an accident or two until he gets settled in. Make sure you keep him on the same food he's been eating. Do not give him free roam to your home until you know if he does his business inside or out side, so block off all rooms and keep him in one room only. Do you have toys for him, a ball or two, soft rubber squeaky toys, a tug of war toy, an old sock knotted in the middle would work well.

He "could" have some Chihuahua in him, he has that kind of face. He looks like a tiny lil guy. When your family comes home, make sure your daughter does not grab him, let her sit on the floor and have this boy go to her, let him sniff her, then have your "gently" pet him. This boy is going to be used to just you and him, so introducing him to your 6 year old daughter has to be a gentle introduction.

I will pray everything goes well and this little boy has finely found his forever home. I hate to see these dogs go from one foster home to another. Good luck and please keep us updated when you get him.

[ramaka]

Thank you, Matese! I have set up a play pen with day bed and food and water bowls in my home office and planning to keep him there for the first couple of days. He will be sleeping in a crate in the bedroom during the nights. The rescue said he is house and crate trained, but still planning on taking him out every hour until I get a feel of his schedule. Once he and I are comfortable then I will introduce him to rest of the house. Hoping it works out for the best as well . Excited and nervous about Saturday. I will definitely keep you updated.

[ramaka]

Oh, the rescue said he is not too keen on squeaky toy so have a nyla bone, ball, kong and a couple of other toys.

[matese]

Fantastic that you got a play pen for confinement and crating him in the bedroom with you at night, also knowing what toys he is not too fond of. Sounds like you're off to a good start and committed to this dog.

Lol, I bet you are nervous being a first time pet owner, and being on your own while family is on holiday. Every thing will be just fine, he's 5 yo, not a puppy that will be chewing at furniture. You guys are gonna bond fast I just feel it in my bones. Just speak in gentle tones to him, he has to get use to you, your home, the smells, he will be just fine. Now I am excited for Saturday to come lol.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by ramaka

Hi All:
Thanks for everyone's reply. I will be fostering this 5 year old Terrier mix till my family comes back from vacation, see how he does with them and go for adoption if all goes well. The rescue said he was awesome with kids during their kids summer camp, house and crate trained and no resource guarding. Hoping for the best. I will be picking him up this Saturday. To my novice eyes, he looks more like a Chihuahua...What do you think and any pointers for the first few days I get him home?
https://ibb.co/dSwFRa
https://ibb.co/nA0Wzv
https://ibb.co/gJE26a

He is adorable! I think he is more terrier than anything. Hope it goes well for all.

[ramaka]

Thanks again Matese and Lady Jane, I will keep you updated!!

[matese]

Any update on the little fur butt?

[ramaka]

Hi Matese:
Thanks for asking and sorry for the delayed reply. Chaka has been good so far, laid back, well behaved and not much barking. Hoping he will like wifey and kiddo as well once they come back on Monday.
He barks loudly when he sees someone walking or running on the road and if they say hi to him, his tail starts going crazy and he wants to be petted by them.
He whines a bit when I put him in his crate in the night but settles in and sleeps through the night. I take him for a mile walk once in the morning after his breakfast/lunch and again in the evening right after his dinner. The way he says he wants to go out for potty is come to my left side and see me with his puppy eyes, during other times he comes o be petted on the right hand side ! Right now, he is laying on his back with his legs up and snoring away!
One things I am not sure, being a first time pet owner, maybe you could let me know-
1.) He does not have any interest in any of the toys. If I try to play with him, say with a ball attached to a rope he just takes it and keeps it near the bed. He lets me get the toy back and takes it right back once I place it on the ground to play. Is this normal behavior OR starting stages of resource guarding? How do I safely check for resource guarding before the kiddo comes home and I know she will be safe?

[matese]

Sounds like a fantastic start. I have a rescue yorkie, he was 2 1/2 yo when I got him. He wasn't an abused dog he was a surrender, he didn't know how to pay with toys. I bought a huge selection of various toys because I didn't know what he had or what he liked. He didn't play with anything not even a ball and all dogs love balls. Every day, throughout the day I would take a different toy and tease, entice him into play, nothing. I had him about 2 1/2, 3 months when one morning he just grabbed a toy and started flinging it around the room lol, same with the ball, now he loves all his toys. With some dogs that have never known toy playing it just takes some time and encouragement from their humans. As far as resource guarding, if he lets you take the toy and doesn't growl or show teeth I don't think that's what he's doing. Do you take the toy and entice him to play with it or do you just take the toy and lay it on the floor? How is he with food, when his food is in his bowl and he is eating, can you pet him, touch him, go near him while he is eating?

I had my boy about 6 months or so before I bought him a bully stick, at first he didn't know what to do with it, when he realized he could chew it, he went at it lol, I would tell him good booooyyyy. I noticed if I went within 3 feet of him he would stop chewing, his body would tense up, I realized then he had never had anything like that so I just let him be and kept telling him "Cody's bully stick what a good boy" . When I wanted to take his chew away I would go in another room, call him in to give him a treat, then I would sneak in the other room and remove the chew. I never took it away from him while he was chewing it. Over a period of a month when he had his chew I could tell by his body languish he was comfortable and knew I was not going to take it from him, then I started to pet him a little while he was chewing always telling him what a good boy he was. It took time for him to know I wouldn't take that chew away. We are a team for a bit over 3 years now, I can ask him to drop it and he will, he knows he will get it back.

With these rescues every thing is done in "baby steps". We don't know what their past was like, what they went threw, how they were treated, how many homes they lived in. The greatest thing we have to do is to have them trust us, gain confidence in us and bond with us. This may take some time depending on the dogs past experience with humans. Every thing is done in baby steps, slow and gradual.

Chaka sounds like a smart lil pup, and has started to bond with you, and that's a good sign. I would start some basic commands before the family returns home, sit, come, down, stay, most important command is "drop it" and "leave it". Short training sessions 5 to 7 minutes 3 or 4 times throughout the day. High value treat rewards, praise like crazy when he gets his command right. Teach only one command at a time, when he knows that, then teach a 2nd command, always give treat and happy praise when he gets it right. When he knows 2 command teach a 3rd, then you can incorporate all 3 commands.

When the family comes home, please, make sure your daughter does not lunge, grab, runs at the dog. Young children move very fast and this may / can scare some dogs. Please keep us updated on Chaka's progress.

[JadeD]

Good luck with the new pup!!!! He does look like a terrier and a lot of terriers are very intelligent. Some of my best trick dogs were terriers. I have always wanted a therapy dog and I always end up with a trick dog instead. LOL. It is okay though, I love to teach my dogs how to do things.

Does he know sit? Lay down (down command). Off command (not to jump on people). A lot of people use down for both, I use down for lay down and off for not jumping on people so they are different. Also, teach him a come type command but most trainers recommend you use a word like "touch" or "recall" I personally hate recall because I am not going out on the street and yelling "Recall" to my dog. LOL. I will tell them to "touch" with 2 fingers pointed straight down at my side and my dog needs to come up to me (taller dogs need to touch your finger tips) and I get down on the ground and grab their collar slowly and give them a treat. This is an important command because if he runs off he will know to come back and you will grab his collar. Then praise praise and praise him for coming back, never yell at him for running out the door in the first place. Give him a treat even if it means going inside to get one and just keep telling him what a good boy he is. If you reward the dog for coming back you will get a lot farther than if you punish them because they ran out the door or whatever they did to get loose. I usually just yell the word "treat" and mine come running back inside the house. LOL

I also teach mine not to cross the door thresh hold without permission. A good skill to teach a dog. My new rescue got out 3 times the first week, but we have a gate on our porch so he couldn't go far (although given a chance she would fit through the gate) and so I worked with her and now she knows not to run out the door. I just say "inside" and they all know to stay in the house. It just take time though. I don't know what his behaviors are like or what you need to work on, but those are some ideas.

I highly recommend a training class either with a personal trainer or going to a class at Petsmart. A trained dog will make your life so much better. I am able to do basics with my dogs and teach tricks only because I have taken so many different dogs to training classes that I have a pretty good idea how to teach the basics. I have never not had a dog in my life, usually 2 of them (having 4 right now is crazy, but fun).

Good luck and I really hope he works out for your family! I have 3 rescues at my house. Almost every dog I get is a dog that someone else wanted to get rid of. The exception to that is my Yorkie puppy (he is 2 1/2 years old) whom I got at 10 weeks old from a friend. He know over 20 tricks and is very well trained. My other 2 yorkies were rescues I took in at 9 years old (he is almost 12) and 7 years old (I have had her a month) and then we have an almost 7 year old English Setter who we got when he was 15 months old off Craigslist. He is the dog we have currently had the longest even though he not the oldest. He is also very well trained, by me of course.

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