That's why he's panting, all that pulling on the leash. Stop walking every so often, let him rest, kinda catch his breath, then continue the walk.

When Cody pulls like that I give him command STOP, SIT, WAIT, I keep him in the sit position for a few minutes, then we continue. We do a LOT of stop, sit, wait, he gets the idea when he pulls we are going to stop, sit, wait lol.

Duchess is 9.5 and is still very hyper energetic. She can run (because she doesn't actually walk anywhere) in any weather. In an extreme cold or hot weather, never more than 5-15 minutes. But for everything in between isn't off limits to Duchess. She would go for a walk in a hurricane or a tornado if I let her:p. She is such an outdoor dog.

OMG Duchess is the same way....she doesn't walk.....she runs......everywhere. The leash is the only thing keeping her from taking off full speed at every little critter she sees.

Another concern is the large dogs we have in the neighborhood. A few houses down there were two dogs loose sitting on the porch.
For some reason, one dog charged at us. I got Dexter behind me and yelled stop to the dog.
About that time, the owner called it back
We were walking in the street to avoid confrontation like this.
Sigh

I have the same situation, loose dogs that are "supposed" to be trained to stay on their property. Thing is, Cody is not dog friendly so I am constantly looking all around for signs of loose dogs. Cody is ready to take any size animal on, he would be seriously injured or killed. This is due to his prev. owner not socializing him as a puppy, now it's a dangerous situation. I have dogs dashing out of houses when ppl open their front doors, I quickly pick up Cujo, owner calls out, he's friendly, I call back, mine is not. Walking in my community is always an adventure.

I do it because Cody needs to know where he lives should he ever get out of the house.

I quickly pick up Cujo, owner calls out, he's friendly, I call back, mine is not

Ohmygosh, right on! And I don't trust any dog to be "friendly." Plus, the friendliest dog can do a lot of damage by being too hyper, too big, too aggressive. Keep your dog away from mine; if there is any approaching to be done we will do it, thank you very much!

:thumbup:

I'd like to share a story about walking with our Bella when she was about a year old. She's almost 3 yrs old next month. She wears an XS harness that fits perfectly. When we were travelling in the USA on vacation, I bought her a pretty pink size S harness thinking she would grow into it. Anyways I used it on our walk and while walking, she stopped and didn't want to go in my direction. I was ahead of her and tried to tug at her leash and when I looked back the harness went over her head and it was off. In that moment I was in shocked that it went off and said to myself Oops, and at the same time I think Bella was surprised and she probably thought oh gosh, wow, freedom, no more leash on myself, yay! The chase started and I was running after Bella, (I have arthritis and can't run but I did my best, of course she's a lot faster) and I ran behind her on to the road begging her to stay, stop loudly. A couple of cars were behind me and we could've got killed or me anyways. It was a real scare talk about protecting your life for your furbaby. Even though she went to puppy training, intermediate etc. but she thought we were playing a game and kept running and I was behind her. I quickly used my cell phone to call for help at home (screaming into the phone, Bella off leash, help, and out of breath) and thank goodness my adult son was home on a Sat. and he came running out. I was so grateful he found us in the distance. Otherwise he wouldn't have known which street we were on in our neighborhood since Bella was leading the direction. He chased after her and only got to her when she was out of breath and stopped at a neighbour's house, he caught her. This was a real lesson and the biggest scare for me. No more Size S Harness for a 6 pound yorkie, although this past year she's gained weight about 1.5 pounds more. We walk slowly now on a XS harness and she sniffs and stops and smells the roses, lol.

We also don't go near big strange dogs no matter how friendly the owner says of their dog. We stay in the distance with Bella or turn directions. A lot of times I can see the big dog staring at Bella nearby, like she's a small prey in the distance. You never know what can happen.

I can imagine what you felt.

Dexter got loose from me before, it’s a terrifying feeling

I had a similar incident years ago with a now passed girl. No harness on her, she was 8 months old, ran faster then the speed of light. She was not a tiny wee lil thing, but small enough to fit through lattice fencing (who knew) I had on flip flops, she managed to get through the fencing, I was talking with a friend who said to me, is that your puppy, there she was running through the woods with a major highway at the end of the woods, I am as you, breathless and crying, trotting in my flip flops through the woods behind her calling and calling her, she like yours, thought it was a game, I grabbed a small branch, yelled Schnae FETCH, she stopped, looked, I tossed it behind me, as she was about to pass me I snatched that lil body soooo fast. All I could do was hold her tight crying, I was so lucky fetch was her favorite game. Lesson learned, never turn your back on these lil monkeys when outdoors.

Yes you're so right, Captainzing and Matese, it's certainly a terrifying experience! I agree never to turn your back on your furbabies. I'm so glad my tears of sadness while chasing after Bella turned into tears of joy, when I saw my son in the distance running, so he could take over chasing her, because my arthritic pains in my knees were giving in for me to stop and she would've been lost from me. I always make sure I have my cell phone when walking to call for help and very careful when putting any kind of harness on her that it fits correctly and not loosely. I hope every yorkie owner who's reading this thread will learn from our experience and tips here. Thanks for sharing with me.

Teaching Commands
 

When I started off with toy dogs (Poodles) I never taught them any commands, my (foolish) thoughts were they, they are small dogs and didn't need training. After that incident of escaping and running through the woods, her knowing no commands other then fetch, I realized how so very important it was to teach any size dog basic commands. When this incident happened, I had a pack of 3, all 3 years apart, the escape artist was the baby. Training all 3 basic commands started that day. The first command word was STOP lol.

Cody is my master piece, only because he is food motivated and learns fast just to get that tiny morsel of a treat. I can say teaching him a variety of commands such as leave it, drop it has saved his life or saved him severe injury when he caught a possum and a young cat.

I never have to raise my voice or shout at him, he's such a good dog.
When he caught these two animals, he was so focused on the kill, I was screaming to leave it, and drop it, I truly think my screaming broke that kill focus because he never heard the momma screaming at him that way.
So, in a nut shell, no matter what size your pup may be, training basic commands is an absolute MUST for the safety of these precious babies.