Yorkie goes to room when certain person comes over

[Jaada]

Hi there- I am a bit perplexed by my dog’s behaviour with one particular person that has been by a few times since I first got him.

Whenever he comes by my dog greets him but then will eventually go to his room never to be seen again unless i go look for him.

When others come over, male or female he inspects them and tries to play. If he settles down he will either do so on his bed in the room or come back and forth periodically between my (well now his!) bedroom and the living area.

He has never growled at this person (which he does to people he does not like and all children) and doesn’t seem especially frightened.

Should I take it that he just doesn’t like him? Anyone else had this experience?

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by Jaada

Hi there- I am a bit perplexed by my dog’s behaviour with one particular person that has been by a few times since I first got him.

Whenever he comes by my dog greets him but then will eventually go to his room never to be seen again unless i go look for him.

When others come over, male or female he inspects them and tries to play. If he settles down he will either do so on his bed in the room or come back and forth periodically between my (well now his!) bedroom and the living area.

He has never growled at this person (which he does to people he does not like and all children) and doesn’t seem especially frightened.

Should I take it that he just doesn’t like him? Anyone else had this experience?

Is your dog a rescue? How old is he? Has he been neutured?

Likely there is some smell or mannerism about this person that worries your dog and he just prefers to absent himself from his presence. The guy might harbor a secret fear or dislike of dogs that your dog is reading, doesn't understand. You might try explaining that to the guy and get him to take up a supply of high-value treats you've left by the front door, offering one to your little guy any time your dog looks at him or even takes a step in his direction, whether he full on approaches or not. You will likely have to watch your dog yourself for the high-signs that he's looking, took a step toward & alert the guy to "treat time". Or, if your dog is not food driven, you might leave a couple of new squeaky toys or tugowar toys by the door for your visitor to use to bait your dog with.

If the guy is really into trying to help, he could sit or lie down on the floor, placing a few of those choice treats very near him and even on his chest, legs, etc., to encourage your dog to come near him and partake in his favorite treats. Should be a good ice-breaker unless this guy just doesn't like dogs. If that's the case, or he has a latent fear of dogs, it likely won't work out unless he's more determined to overcome it than live with it.

[Lovetodream88]

When we have a lot of people over Callie will disappear to my office if it gets rowdy. I don’t really think it’s a big deal. If he doesn’t like the person he is just fixing the issue himself.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

When we have a lot of people over Callie will disappear to my office if it gets rowdy. I don’t really think it’s a big deal. If he doesn’t like the person he is just fixing the issue himself.

You almost can't blame a Yorkie for absenting themselves from a roomful of people due to their small size, big, careless feet and the careless way some people handle small dogs, especially if any of them are kids. But singling out one person is a bit odd and probably can be remedied with some behavior modification, if the guy is really, truly willing to try to help change the situation. But if he's not, due to a bad history w/dogs, fear or whatever, despite what he might say to you, your dog can read that and will likely react accordingly.

[matese]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Is your dog a rescue? How old is he? Has he been neutured?

Likely there is some smell or mannerism about this person that worries your dog and he just prefers to absent himself from his presence. The guy might harbor a secret fear or dislike of dogs that your dog is reading, doesn't understand. You might try explaining that to the guy and get him to take up a supply of high-value treats you've left by the front door, offering one to your little guy any time your dog looks at him or even takes a step in his direction, whether he full on approaches or not. You will likely have to watch your dog yourself for the high-signs that he's looking, took a step toward & alert the guy to "treat time". Or, if your dog is not food driven, you might leave a couple of new squeaky toys or tugowar toys by the door for your visitor to use to bait your dog with.

If the guy is really into trying to help, he could sit or lie down on the floor, placing a few of those choice treats very near him and even on his chest, legs, etc., to encourage your dog to come near him and partake in his favorite treats. Should be a good ice-breaker unless this guy just doesn't like dogs. If that's the case, or he has a latent fear of dogs, it likely won't work out unless he's more determined to overcome it than live with it.

Great advise. your furbaby senses something that he is not comfortable with. I would definitely try the treats, frozen green cut beans or Cheerios if you are watching your furbaby's weight.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by matese

Great advise. your furbaby senses something that he is not comfortable with. I would definitely try the treats, frozen green cut beans or Cheerios if you are watching your furbaby's weight.

Apologize for the length but for those working w/hard cases, who really need to try to make a break-through with a dog's unwanted behaviors, can read this for what it's worth. It's always worked for me with various bad boy or shut down dogs!

To stretch a point to breaking, no offense intended, truly but, if you are really trying to modify a dog's undesirable behavior and I've worked with plenty angry/aggressive/fierce, upset, shakingly nervous or shut-down, closed off dogs, if you really intend to try to break down all his barriers of fear, self-protection intuition, innate long inbred senses screaming in his insides that drive his unwanted behavior, you need a bait or treat the dog cannot EVER resist, usually meat or something that smells very like it, to make him want to come near enough to work up to eventually sharing food with him, a true bonding experience to a dog. If green beans work to do that, wonderful, but I've never broken through a dog's sense of protective nature using them. Or any regular treats. But if your dog highly, irresistibly values green beans to the point of drooling for them, use them. But it usually takes something far more seductive to get through to a worried or fearful, reticent dog, bring him forward, go against his nature.

And it still usually won't come easy, overcoming that dog's barriers. But use something that overrides that dog's better judgment by enlivening his glorious sense of smell, his atavistic desire to exist, starts him drooling, breaks his will for the moment, i.e., that is usually some type of very special treat of high scent or meat, usually warm, boiled, unseasoned chicken or even warm turkey dog bits. Talk about high stink! High-meat scented lures take a dog back to canine basics. Things that smell to high heaven to that dog's wonderfully scent-loving nose are what can cut through his barriers and get to his desire to eat, to live another day, as a dog's see it.

You know they laughingly say if you ever want to temp a vegan to the point of breaking, be sure they are very hungry, fry bacon with them in the kitchen and eat it in front of the poor thing! Unfair but that kind of tempting, luscious lure is what it take to break through to a dog acting on what ALL his senses are telling him. Only three things usually can overcome that strong sense of intuitive self-protective behavior in a canine: fear, sex and food, in what order depends on the dog's DNA and life-experience.

In the case of our overfed, usually pampered, never hungry pets, the food better be high-value, HIGH-SCENT food, meat or something that really smells like or better than meat - something he CRAVES with all his being. When you seriously want to modify a dog's behavior, don't worry about his weight during the re-training sessions, you can cut down on dinner or whatever but you have got to overcome his better judgment during behavior modification efforts with your bait. And with many dogs, the lure needs to be food-seductive high-scented or forget it. They won't try.

Of course, if your dog isn't food-driven, he's likely a very high-energy go-getter, very prey driven and is always driving you to play, work him, endlessly. I mean he's obsessed with getting the ball, bringing it back, getting it again and again - all day! Those type working dogs react very differently and usually take a whole different strategy to modify unwanted behavior. High-value food or treats, even if very hungry, means less to them than the obsessive joy of working, working, working. But thankfully for most of us lazy trainers, our Yorkies are lovers of food! Try something your dog cannot EVER resist if you want to modify behavior. And only ever use that fabulous, special bait/lure/treat for behavior modification training, and green beans or whatever his regular treats are for the rest of his rewards.

Once you eventually break through, get him moving forward, taking the food from the guy, then use all the behavior modification techniques you can read about(plentiful on YT and the net) to continue to get him to work for your praise and the good oxytocins he will feel once he bonds with you or the guy during that training. Then, you transition to regular treats, given generously at first during training, then sparingly once his learned, but always, always, always, always, always, with genuine happy, heartfelt, look-him-in-the-eyes praise once he gets it right! Than he'll do anything to gain your happy praise alone, enjoy that great feeling of job well- done with you!
Happy training!

[chattiesmom]

I know my girls and trust their instincts. My two yorkies are very friendly and they love everyone. I think I would be cautious around someone they didn't like.

I want to share a story about our boxer, Boo (RIP). Boo loved everyone, too. She was truly a family member with a different relationship with everyone in the family. Every year she would spend a week with me at the school library where I worked. She had free reign of the library and she always picked at least one kid and stuck with them. Knowing the backstory of the kids she picked made me understand her choice(s). She always picked the kid who needed her most.

One year she picked a sweet little girl - one we knew had a bad home life and stuck to her like glue. Boo was very protective of this sweet child. Skip forward - we always bought our horse feed from a neighborhood feed store. Boo liked to go and "supervise". On one occasion, she reacted very badly to the man loading the grain. Had the window not been rolled up, I believe she would have hurt him. The ONLY person Boo ever acted aggressively towards, EVER. Found out later that this man was the father of that little girl. Soon after, he was sent to prison for abusing her. Boo was a hero in my eyes.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Way to go, Boo! He likely sensed fear in that child so he wanted to comfort, guard her, most likely could smell her father’s scent on her & later, when he met the owner of that scent, connected him to that horribly distressed child. Trust a dog to react strongly when he’s made a scent connection! They can be fooled but more likely, like Boo did, they strongly react to smell associations in a heartbeat.

But dogs can associate smells on a person or certain mannerisms with unpleasant things that have happened in their lives totally unrelated to that person that cause them to avoid him/her until they get more information. If they get subsequent good input, they begin to form new, more pleasant associations with that person, as long as that person truly has good intentions toward the dog, wants to effect positive change. But fear, innate weakness toward dogs or animals in a person just cannot be faked and the dog will almost always react to that negatively, until and if the two can work together, with lots of supervision by a good dog handler, to help ease that person’s fears of, past bad experiences with dogs.

[Jaada]

Thank you everyone for your responses. Actually answers another question I had another someone he growls at in my office who is irrationally afraid of dogs (my 1 year old yorkie is 5 pounds and 8 inches high of bouncy happiness most of the time). I don’t think I will be able to fix that one!

As for the person, he has tried to treat him but he won’t let him lick his hands, which is how Toto shows affection, and recoils when he tries. He had a dog as a teenager that he cared for so I don’t think he dislikes dogs... just thinks the fact that they will lick nearly anything is not for sharing.

I’ll see if I can work on it. The guest is not so frequent so it may take some time... Or I can just trade them in for someone Toto likes instead!

[chattiesmom]

Jeannie, you are so right, and intuitive. I absolutely agree with you. I want to add, that dogs communicate on levels that most humans don't really understand. Body language, scent, and visual are vital to dog communication which I believe gives them a "one-up" on humans who primarily use verbal communication.

I got a better understanding of non verbal communication through training the wild mustangs we adoped. They were very tuned in to their environment and a change in body posture and eye contact communicated volumes. I believe the same holds true for our canine friends, except on a slightly different level since horses are prey and dogs are predators.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by Jaada

Thank you everyone for your responses. Actually answers another question I had another someone he growls at in my office who is irrationally afraid of dogs (my 1 year old yorkie is 5 pounds and 8 inches high of bouncy happiness most of the time). I don’t think I will be able to fix that one!

As for the person, he has tried to treat him but he won’t let him lick his hands, which is how Toto shows affection, and recoils when he tries. He had a dog as a teenager that he cared for so I don’t think he dislikes dogs... just thinks the fact that they will lick nearly anything is not for sharing.

I’ll see if I can work on it. The guest is not so frequent so it may take some time... Or I can just trade them in for someone Toto likes instead!

Your coworker's fear of dogs is seen as weakness, a basic instability, by any canine near that person. Dogs, most animals, fowl, whatever, distrust weakness, try to kill it out of their gene pool, so are instinctively driven to react negatively to it, all these generations of domesticity later.

As for the guy who recoils when your baby wants to lick his hands, that rejection sends out loud signals that your dog's affection is not truly appreciated or wanted so your baby made the quick association that this person basically fears or dislikes him - or the guy would welcome the licking. (I'm not overjoyed by dogs licking, licking, licking my hands either and I totally adore them so I welcome it, yucky as it can be having a dog totally into licking my hands, and lovingly tolerate it as any dog can walk all over my heart anytime he wants! And lick as long as he likes.)

Your little guy senses what in his world is a weakness in big guy so it makes perfect sense your little guy wants to absent his proud self from anyone who generates those kinds of weird vibes. And if big guy hasn't had a dog since he was a teenager, when likely his parents brought the dog into the family, perhaps he's not really very comfortable around dogs, whether he owns up to it or not. (Most doglovers get a dog as soon as they can once they are living on their own.) And maybe that started with his own dog back then or he developed due to bad encounters with dogs, lives w/someone else who doesn't want dogs around or just "born that way". At some point in my young life, maybe born that way, for all I know, I became petrified, phobic of snakes, lizard-y things, and I hate them so badly I don't even want to change that fear - some things are just not our thing and we're good with way things are.

Only work on it if it is important to you, your dog and/or big guy. As for big guy, since he's not there very often and unless he is really into wanting to fix the way he reacts, it's hardly worth the effort. And little guy can deal with big guy in the way he has of dealing with this situation, make his excuses, gather his reading glasses, pipe and book and gallantly bow out of the scene. Dogs can be quite elegant and eloquent in their behavior at times.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by chattiesmom

Jeannie, you are so right, and intuitive. I absolutely agree with you. I want to add, that dogs communicate on levels that most humans don't really understand. Body language, scent, and visual are vital to dog communication which I believe gives them a "one-up" on humans who primarily use verbal communication.

I got a better understanding of non verbal communication through training the wild mustangs we adoped. They were very tuned in to their environment and a change in body posture and eye contact communicated volumes. I believe the same holds true for our canine friends, except on a slightly different level since horses are prey and dogs are predators.

Thanks. Just passing on what I've read and experienced for anyone who wants to consider it; but you are absolutely right about dogs communicating on levels we humans only try to understand and they most often read situations correctly, as they use far more senses than we do when encountering other humans or animals. Their powerful sense of smell is so potent it alone can sense vital information coming from any other dog, size it up for what it really is inside, its weakness, prowess, leadership/subservience, sexual history, state of health, libido, etc. They also can use that same sense, along with others, to read us down to before our last thought, it seems! Sometimes Tibbe seems to know what I'm thinking before I do, already in the act of reacting as I think of it! Spooky and wonderful, all at once, the analytics these little guys we love have. And they study/analyze us endlessly, like Einstein did mathematical theory, so they often know us better than we know ourselves and often correctly predict what we are about to do next. Makes dogs such fun to have around!