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Curious Yorkie My wife and I have an 8 month old Yorkie (Nash) who is playful, has a gentle and friendly character and is intelligent. I suspect that this description fits your dog as well. Training and socialization with both people and other dogs has progressed well but he has an annoying habit when we take him on walks. Like many terrier breeds, and being a puppy, he is very curious and he walks with his mouth on the ground and a desire to mouth everything that catches his attention. Small pebbles, pieces of wood mulch, bird droppings, leaves, and the list is endless. Somewhere along the way we have missed the training class where we should have learned how to properly walk him and at the same time keep his attention on what lies ahead and not the stuff under his feet. Suggestions as to how we might prevent this curious pup from taking all these various things into his mouth would be greatly appreciated. |
Welcome to YorkieTalk! I have one Yorkie that looks ahead and one with a nose to the ground, so I am not the person to give training advice. However, your pup sounds adorable. |
I would go for the training lessons, 8 months old is not late to start. I would also train basic word commands, sit, stay, wait, come and most important "leave it". If your puppy is food motivated he will learn fast to get that tiny morsel of treat when he does what you're training him to do. High value treat even if it's just his kibble and lots of happy praise when he gets it right. Yep, puppies are very curious about this wonderful world before them when outdoors. Like toddlers, everything goes in their mouth, that's where the command "leave it" comes into play. Professional training classes gives you the tools to work with your pup, training must be consistent, training should be no longer than 5 to 7 minutes. Terriers have short concentration span, longer than 7 minutes they are no longer focusing on you. |
I have no helpful ideas. But I can relate. I have 3 yorkies. 2 are 8 year old males. One of them walks pretty good. Pulls a little when excited. But overall stays beside me. The other one is a jerk on leash. Love him to pieces. But he has to stop and pee every time he smells another dog. 8 other dogs live on the road we walk so you can imagine. The other is the baby girl, 17 weeks. She walks perfectly on a leash. I have no idea why. She just does. However she has a nasty habit of humping my arm when she’s tired. She’s actually doing it now. 😩. If I could trade annoying behaviors, I probably would. |
When we take pups for a walk we should be doing it for them so we should be letting them check everything out instead of just going for the walk. Unfortunately where toddlers put their hands on everything the only way puppies have to do that is with their mouth. The best thing is teaching leave it. Keep some treats in your pocket and when he goes to mess with something you don’t want him to, say a firm leave it and then really excitedly say his name like calling him to you and give him the treat when he leaves it and comes to you. |
Also, maybe try to hustle up his walk; don't give him time to "graze!" Keep him moving...LEAVE IT, too, is excellent and part of Piper's limited vocabulary. |
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