I have a Border Collie who is abit older and she keeps an eye on all 3 of my yorkie's. She acts like its her job to watch them. She has been taught to be easy with them and she lets them just about do anything to her. I think with proper trainning they can get along, however I'm sceptical of Pits.

I don't think you would have any problem with a pitt and yorkie getting along together. Especially if you get the yorkie first. Yorkies tend to take over as the dominate dog. The few pitts I have known were very sweet dogs. One in particular was everybodys darling and never a threat to anyone. However, once it got into a tussle with another friends lab and blood was shed (the labs). Nothing tragic happened but scary just the same. In any case I don't think you would have any problem getting the two dogs to get along.

However, I would never own a pitt anyway. There are too many issues to consider. Do you own or rent? If you rent you will forever have problems getting landlords to accept your choice of dog. If you own you will have problems with insurance coverage. If there is ever an altercation between your pitt and another persons dog your pitt will be blamed. People won't want your dog near their children. People will stear clear of you when you walk your dog especially if they have a little dog. And a final thought. Go to the local dog shelter and take a look around. The huge majority are pitts and pitt mixes. Too many people decide they can't keep them for one reason or another and they are very difficult to rehome so they end up with a death sentence. Definitey not cool. Tell hubby he can have a lab.

AT this point I wouldn't get any dog. I'd wait till the son was older and wait till your husband gets the macho image out of his head. I see these dogs all the time being led around town by the Hispanic males strutting their stuff and acting all cocky. Makes my blood boil. I have nothing against Pit bulls if they are raised properly. My son has a Pit/Lab and another son use to have a Pit till she was stolen out of a fenced back yard. Anyway, I'd just let the notion of getting a dog go for now.

At this point I wouldn't get a dog at all. Your reaction and concerns should be enough for your husband to give up the idea of a pit bull whether a Yorkie comes into the picture or not. If you're scared a dog will know and you'll have no control over it and if you're concerned for the safety of your son and yourself that should be enough reason for him to not get one.

:goodpost: :coolpics:
I will chime in here and agree with you Fran42478...
We also own a pit and she is probably the best and most well behaved dog I've ever owned. We got her as a puppy and did obedience training with her. She is mostly an outside dog but comes in once in while but only on her mat - she gets antsy and would rather be outside. Let me say that she shares her dog run with my 12 pound Maltese and they are great friends!!!
Bottom line is a big dog is much stronger than a small dog and IMO ANY big breed can easily hurt a small breed animal if not supervised. I do not trust that our pit, Sheeba, would NOT run up on a dog she did not know but to all our animals that she is familiar with, she is great. With that said, I also do not let my yorkies run with Sheeba because she tramples them given her size :( I believe supervision and training are key. I am babysitting a tiny yorkie right now and my younger puppy is a lot bigger than her and if I don't watch them, she hurts the little girl! She doesn't realize how strong and how much bigger she is. Another example is a female yorkie bit my Vixxen's dad on the heat when trying to mate and he died!!! ANYTHING can happen if dogs are not "used" to each other and/or supervised.
Also...IF you are to get both....personally, i would get the pitbull first, as a puppy, train him and let him grow out of the puppy stage before getting a smaller dog. A) the dog has manners and is trained now, B) puppies are so full of energy and don't realize their strength and size and a big puppy of this size with a small puppy of yorkie size would not be safe playing - IMO.
Here are some pics we have too!

Oh I should add that Sheeba is about 10 years old now...so our sons were 5, 7, and 10 when we got her as a puppy.

Theirs no way I would own a Pitt with a child or a small dog

Pit Bulls *really* get a bad rap. Yes, they can be a mean dog, so can Huskies, Labs, and even a Chi. My Rottie would have gotten hit by a truck before she let anything happen to one of the babies or me. ANY dog can be mean if not trained properly. A little Yorkie could end up being a vicious biter if not taken care of properly. (yes, I know a Yorkie bite is different from a Pit bite)

What I am trying to say is this. If you were to get them, get them as very young puppies, at the same time, and train immediately. A properly trained dog will listen to you above all else, and a happy well adjusted animal isn't going to haul off and kill someone. I would be more concerned about how your son would re-act. Has he been around animals and pets before? If not, I would wait until he was a few years older. A yorkie or a pit wouldn't be good around a child who was not used to animals.

im more scared of chis than anything else. Evrey time i see one its barking, growling or bitting and nipping some1. id rather have a pitt than a chihuahua lol

I am going to have to kinda agree with you there. My neighbors Chi is the most vicious dog I have ever met. AND they just let him roam the yard. He barks and runs after everything and everyone that passes the yard. He has even run up to my kids and nipped while they were playing in our yard. But, the odd things is, when people are walking by and they Chi runs up growling and barking and yipping like crazy, people go "awwwwwww what a little dog!!!" :confused: Meanwhile, when I had my Rottie, and was out walking her on a leash, people would cross the road.

Its really unfair. The sweetest big dogs are discriminated against because of their breed or size but when little dogs actually are vicious its "cute". Think about some episodes of the dog whisperer, which dogs were the most vicious and hard to control.. the small breeds, the small tiny dogs that when they misbehaved and bit it was "cute"

it's all in how you raise the dogs i will get a pit bull one day as of right now i have a rottie and shes not vicious towards my yorkies i have 2 i thought she would be at 1st but shes not . actually i think my male yorkie thinks shes his girlfreind!! i see nothing wrong with having big & small dogs and kids also i have a daughter almost 4 it has a lot to do with the responsibilty of the guardian as how things turn out!

on myspace
under babypeters i have a pic of them under my pics

Before you think about a Pit you should check your
homeowners policy. If we have one of the
"at risk" breeds they surcharge our premiums
or they don't cover any incidents where the
dog is involved. ((We have Nationwide)).
That is how we kept my sons from getting
a pitbull :D


Kasey & Annie

Thanks for the advice and pics. I'm not out to Bash the breed. I think pits are nice looking dogs. The question had alot to do with the Yorkie but also with my son. All dogs snap just like people do but if the Yorkie was to snap and bite my son he couldn't do that much damage and if he didn't it probably wouldn't be life threatening but if the pit was to snap and lose it on my son, then it could be fatal. I just don't wanna take that chance with my child. If I didn't have a small child then maybe I'd get a pit and be perfectly fine with it. But I'd never forgive myself if Kylan got hurt b/c of the dog that we purchased.

Hmmm well it sounds like you already made up your mind and answered your own questions then...:confused:

I guess I will throw a different loop in here then. You mentioned in another post that your DH poppped up with "if you get a Yorkie then I am getting a Pitt Bull". You stated he was doing that just to discourage you getting a Yorkie. So, this is has NOTHING to do with dogs and everything to do with your marriage. LOL. Pretty simple huh.

It's not the family and the family dogs you have to worry about, Pits HATE other dogs outside of the family home. So you may need to worry about him possibley (the pit) getting out and hurting another animal. But, if he is raised with the yorkie there should be no problem just supervise their play (because pit's play rough and may hurt them but NOT intentionally, that is pets inside the home). I think they will be fine I have kids (9, 10 years old) and had a pit and a yorkie at the same time and NEVER had a problem, as a matter of fact my yorkie weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces and she ruled the pit litterally..

Oh, yea I forgot to add if you do get a pit get it from a REPUTABLE *spelling* breeder. One that has been breeding MANY years and breeds to better the temperment. I know a lady that breeds for that if you PM me I can give you her information as a matter of fact when you go to her site you will see pictures of her grand kids all around the dogs all the time and she has NEVER had an incident with them and she's been breeding almost 30 years now..

Pitbulls are very iffy to have around. I am a volunteer firefighter in my community and we just reciently ran a call on a small child whom was atacked by a pit bull. She was in pretty bad shape. Come to find out her brother was attacked a few weeks earlier from the same dog. They finally took the dog in and euthanized (sp) it. The mothers are very aggresive from what I understand. There have been several attacks from pit bulls around here. :confused: JMO.

IMO this is more the PARENTS fault then the pit! And the pit gets the bad rap...The brother was just attacked by the same dog??? Hello? :confused:

I do agree with you. Did not mean to offend you or blame the dog in any way. It's just like with children, all in the way their parents raise them. And the owner should have done something about the first attack. The children were supposedly getting off the school bus both times and the dog chased them so they ran and the dog attacked. Have no clue if something was left out of the story or not. Just a scary situation. The children were about 6 or 7 yrs. I hope nothing like that happens again.

No, YOU did not offend me ;) Just hearing the story I think of so many things that could have prevented at least the second attack. Some the pit owner could have and should have done and some the childrens parents could have and should have done...
I hope it wasn't "too" bad? The kids that is....

It put them in the hospital and they have been going back and forth to have everything checked out for a few weeks. The children are taking rabies shots as well. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Pitts get a bad wrap from the idiots who breed them to fight and all the dog fighting rings. I personaly love them almost as much as i love yorkies. I was living with a friend and he bought a pit as a puppy i watched him grow up and he was the most beautiful loving dog i had ever seen. He wasn't an everyone dog he mainly favored me and my friend they are very loyal animals and will protect you with their lives. when i got pregnant and had my baby i had gone over to my friends mom's house they had cujo(the pitt lol don't judge him by his name lol) and a cat and a new kitten over there my baby was sleeping so i left him in his carrier on the floor and cujo went an laid in front of him to gaurd him lol the cat kept trying to get to the bottle so cujo would run it off and then the kitten had jumped ou in with my baby and cujo sat up and ever so gently picked the kitten up and carried her away from the baby and then he came back to gaurd him. It was the sweetest thing ever!Now with me telling you my experiance i also want to say i have 2 children ages 6 and 1 1/2 would i get a pitt No do i think they are bad No but they do play rough sometimes and they are very protective so if they think you are in danger they will protect you at any cost i think they are a great breed and yes they can be great with children but i wouldn't recommend them with small kids or small dogs not because they are mean but because of what the are capable of. I would talk to your hubby and tell him that you respect him and his choices but your family is not ready for a dog of that power just yet and trust me if you get one and you feel uncomfotable they will pick up on that and also your child and they have been know to dominate weaker things.

JMO but I think if you get both as puppys and let them bond and grow together it would be ok. Pitt bulls get a bad rap. But I think its all on how they are raised. any dog can be mean, Its all in how they are raised. I have had a pittbull most of my life. They was raised with my children, and Not one of them have ever turned mean. I do agree with them having strong powerful jaws and they can hurt even if they are playing. My pitts have grown up with chi, pekenese and cats and they all did fine. The pitt I have now is older, I also have a Boxer and 2 Yorkies. I never let my bigger dogs eat or play together. I know my Male Yorkie who thinks hes boss would start a fight. and with my pitts strong jaws I will not take that chance, But they was not raised together.

My yorkies was not raised with children either and My Mickey is afraid of small children, If a child comes at him he will snap at them, Now see If a Pitt did this , he/ she would be put down, but when a yorkie does this the owner tries to correct his/ her behavior. Its all because the jaws of these dogs that they can do the same as a small dog and yet because of their strongness and jaws they can do some damage. I was just thinking about this the other day. how the smaller dogs can do this same thing and yet more or less get away with it, while a pitt would be put down.

i agree w/ her...if you get them both as puppy they will grow to love eachother and will not hurt eachother. But i do knoe that pitbulls do have what they call "locked jaws" they will not let go for the life of them. :eek:
which to me it means no-no for me since i have young children. If you plan to get a yorkie get a pit @ the same time if not then my answer to the question would be no i wouldn't.

I am sorry your information is incorrect, pitbulls do not have "locking jaws" It is one of those "urban Myth" spread all over...Regardless wheter you like/dislike the breed, YOU as a responsible dog owner need to go with your gut...You (not meaning YOU personally) :) dont like the breed, dont intermingle it within your household...Before I brought another dog (pit, rott, even lab) I would really have to sit down and think about EVERYTHING...Pros/Cons et al...

Please see below regarding the Lock Jaw...

The infamous locking jaw is a myth. The American Pit Bull Terrier and related breeds are physiologically no different from any other breed of dog. All dogs are from the same species and none have locking jaws. Dr. I Lehr Brisbin of the University of Georgia states, "To the best of our knowledge, there are no published scientific studies that would allow any meaningful comparison to be made of the biting power of various breeds of dogs. There are, moreover, compelling technical reasons why such data describing biting power in terms of 'pounds per square inch' can never be collected in a meaningful way. All figures describing biting power in such terms can be traced to either unfounded rumor or, in some cases, to newspaper articles with no foundation in factual data." Furthermore, Dr. Brisbin states, "The few studies which have been conducted of the structure of the skulls, mandibles and teeth of pit bulls show that, in proportion to their size, their jaw structure and thus its inferred functional morphology, is no different than that of any breed of dog. There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of any kind of 'locking mechanism' unique to the structure of the jaw and/or teeth of the American Pit Bull Terrier."

I am sorry your information is incorrect, pitbulls do not have "locking jaws" It is one of those "urban Myth"...Regardless wheter you like/dislike the breed, YOU (not meaning YOU personally) as a responsible dog owner need to go with your gut...You (again, not meaning YOU personally) :) dont like the breed, then dont intermingle it within your household, no matter what pressure there may be...Before I brought another dog (pit, rott, even lab) I would really have to sit down and think about EVERYTHING...Pros/Cons et al...

Please see below regarding the Lock Jaw...

The infamous locking jaw is a myth. The American Pit Bull Terrier and related breeds are physiologically no different from any other breed of dog. All dogs are from the same species and none have locking jaws. Dr. I Lehr Brisbin of the University of Georgia states, "To the best of our knowledge, there are no published scientific studies that would allow any meaningful comparison to be made of the biting power of various breeds of dogs. There are, moreover, compelling technical reasons why such data describing biting power in terms of 'pounds per square inch' can never be collected in a meaningful way. All figures describing biting power in such terms can be traced to either unfounded rumor or, in some cases, to newspaper articles with no foundation in factual data." Furthermore, Dr. Brisbin states, "The few studies which have been conducted of the structure of the skulls, mandibles and teeth of pit bulls show that, in proportion to their size, their jaw structure and thus its inferred functional morphology, is no different than that of any breed of dog. There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of any kind of 'locking mechanism' unique to the structure of the jaw and/or teeth of the American Pit Bull Terrier."

my husband has 3 pitbulls but they live outside in elaborate kennels that he had custom built for them! they are the best dogs and really do not deserve the sweeping statements that are given to the breed because of some that you hear about in the news or papers. as far as being concerned about it possibly harming your child is just part of the mass hysteria that people like to spread. my youngest son was just a toddler when we got the first one and loved to play with him but was kind of rough with him. so he would go run into his dog house to get away from my son so one day he was out in the yard with the dog and i was watching out the kitchen window and my son decided he would go stick his head into the dog house and try to pull him out!!:eek: he was going to play with him or else!! LOL he could have hurt him very badly but did not. they grew up together and our neighbor has two girls and 3 pit's and they play with their dogs,too. i agree it is the IDIOTS that breed them that should be locked up!:mad:






true!!

We also have a german shepherd (110 lbs !!!) and a Yorkie (4lb 2oz.) We also have a shih tzu. The shepherd is a big snuggle bunny and would protect his family (skin and fur both) with his life. He loves the shih tzu but basicaly tolerates the yorkie, but she is only 10 months old now and can be pretty bratty with him. I have noticed, however that when the Ivan (the shepherd) gets fiesty Adie (the yorkie) tends to run for cover. He has stepped on her once or twice and she is afraid he will do it again. Even though I know that Ivan would never hurt Adie or Cassie on purpose I still think he could do a lot of damage accidentally. He plays gently but he doesn't always see the little ones when he takes off. So long story short: I suggest you find a breed of dog you can agree on. Purina has a test you can take to see what breed suits you best. Sit down with your husband and go over it. Does anyone have that link? I waited a long time for a yorkie and finally got one. You may have to wait too but don't get one under these circumstances.
Good luck.