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08-10-2006, 05:33 AM | #1 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: BIRMINGHAM
Posts: 15
| Hello im new I hope that someone can please help me here. I have a gorgeous 3 year old Yorkie who i adopted 2 years ago. He normally has a super temperament but is very over protective with me and my daughter.The last 2 weeks, he has bitten me on my leg when someone rings the door bell and last night, he bit my nose while i was watching tv, he hung on to my nose and wouldnt let go and i have a gash which pored with blood. I calmly put him in the kitchen and i havnt talked to him today. Its breaking my heart as i am both shocked, in pain and dont know what to do about him. Please help if you can |
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08-10-2006, 05:36 AM | #2 |
My furkids Donating Member | Sadie nipped at me ONCE! I was trying to take something away from her she wasn't supposed to have...My Mom called a dog trainer (my parents watch her while I work) and she told my Mom to have me pick her up, look her straight in the eye and say forcefully....NO! DON'T DO THAT TO ME! then put her down and walk away...It WORKED!!
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08-10-2006, 05:43 AM | #3 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: BIRMINGHAM
Posts: 15
| Thank you, im just so upset and shocked and everyone has told me to have him put to sleep but i could never do that as i dont know what sort of a life he had before i had him.I know he was abused and thrown out and i adore him so much and he is so very loved. What do you think ? We always had Yorkies when i was a child (41 now) and i only ever saw one of them bite my mother and he cut her hand so bad she needed stitches. I am afraid to go to the ER incase they tell me to have him put to sleep under the dangerous dogs act. He is a tiny little chap and is no dangerous dog. Also, he pees everywhere and he is very time consuming, i have to follow him around where he leaves teaspoons of pee all over the place. Any help would be very much appreciated. |
08-10-2006, 05:48 AM | #4 | |
My furkids Donating Member | Quote:
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08-10-2006, 05:49 AM | #5 |
Crazy about Kacee! Donating Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Kansas
Posts: 21,173
| You can use belly bands if you can't watch him. Also, please do not even consider putting him to sleep. If you decide you no longer can keep him, please contact a yorkie rescue organization. They are prepared to handle yorkies with problem behavior.
__________________ Karen Kacee Muffin 1991-2005 Rest in Peace My Little Angel |
08-10-2006, 06:09 AM | #6 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: BIRMINGHAM
Posts: 15
| Thanks, im afraid they would have to put me to sleep before i would get rid of him. He is a little star and i adore him but i do know that he had a bad start and so far has had 4 homes ours being his most secure and longest. I can understand his snappy but its so unexpected and quite blooming painfull too. He is currently creeping around me and crying to be picked up. I carry him around all day and he follows me everywhere. Its like having a toddler some days lol. I think he knows he has done wrong as he is looking at me and crying bless him. |
08-10-2006, 06:16 AM | #7 |
Gina, (Lexi's Mommy) Donating Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: LONG ISLAND,NY
Posts: 10,455
| ooh no my all means, do not put him to sleep , thats just plain assanine. gotta be very strick, try to be anyway,,, i really cant help you, but alot of members here will.. good luck,, hope ya feel better.
__________________ Gina & Lexi CLICK HERE for our Photo Album ... |
08-10-2006, 06:23 AM | #8 |
Crazy about Kacee! Donating Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Kansas
Posts: 21,173
| I don't know if this would be considered fear biting or not. I do know that biting problems can be dealt with and you need to find a trainer who can tell you how to deal with it. I know there are people who frequent this site who may be able to help if you just keep this thread bumped up to the top so that it doesn't get lost. I know you love him. It shows!
__________________ Karen Kacee Muffin 1991-2005 Rest in Peace My Little Angel |
08-10-2006, 06:45 AM | #9 | |
Crazy about Kacee! Donating Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Kansas
Posts: 21,173
| Quote:
I found the following. I'll look to see if I can find anything else until someone can come on here to help and it does stress NOT TO PUNISH. Aggression A dog's bark may be worse than his bite, but most of us would rather not find out one way or the other. Growling, baring teeth, snarling, snapping, and biting are all aggressive behaviors—but dog aggression includes any behavior meant to intimidate or harm a person or another animal. Although these messages are among the handful of communication tools available to dogs, they're generally unacceptable to humans. Because humans and dogs have different communication systems, misunderstandings can occur between the two species. But from a dog's perspective, there's always a reason for aggressive behavior. A person may intend to be friendly, but a dog may perceive that person's behavior as threatening or intimidating. Dogs aren't being schizophrenic, psychotic, crazy, or necessarily "vicious" when displaying aggressive behavior. Because aggression is so complex, and because the potential consequences are so serious, we recommend that you get professional in-home help from an animal behavior specialist if your dog is displaying aggressive behavior. Types of Aggression Dominance Aggression: Dominance aggression is motivated by a challenge to a dog's social status or to his control of a social interaction. Dogs are social animals and view their human families as their social group or "pack." Based on the outcomes of social challenges among group members, a dominance hierarchy or "pecking order" is established. If your dog perceives his own ranking in the hierarchy to be higher than yours, he'll probably challenge you in certain situations. Because people don't always understand canine communication, you may inadvertently challenge your dog's social position. A dominantly aggressive dog may growl if he is disturbed when resting or sleeping or if he is asked to give up a favorite spot, such as the couch or the bed. Physical restraint, even when done in a friendly manner (like hugging), may also cause your dog to respond aggressively. Reaching for your dog's collar, or reaching over his head to pet him, could also be interpreted as a challenge for dominance. Dominantly aggressive dogs are often described as "Jekyll and Hydes" because they can be very friendly when not challenged. Dominance aggression may be directed at people or at other animals. The most common reason for fights among dogs in the same family is instability in the dominance hierarchy. Fear-Motivated Aggression: Fear-motivated aggression is a defensive reaction and occurs when a dog believes he is in danger of being harmed. Remember that it's your dog's perception of the situation, not your actual intent, which determines your dog's response. For example, you may raise your arm to throw a ball, but your dog may bite you because he believes he's protecting himself from being hit. A dog may also be fearfully aggressive when approached by other dogs. Protective, Territorial, and Possessive Aggression: Protective, territorial, and possessive aggression are all very similar, and involve the defense of valuable resources. Territorial aggression is usually associated with defense of property, and that "territory" may extend well past the boundaries of your yard. For example, if you regularly walk your dog around the neighborhood and allow him to urine-mark, he may think his territory includes the entire block. Protective aggression usually refers to aggression directed toward people or animals whom a dog perceives as threats to his family, or pack. Dogs become possessively aggressive when defending their food, toys, or other valued objects, including items as peculiar as tissues stolen from the trash. Redirected Aggression: This is a relatively common type of aggression but one that is often misunderstood by pet owners. If a dog is somehow provoked by a person or animal he is unable to attack, he may redirect this aggression onto someone else. For example, two family dogs may become excited, and bark and growl in response to another dog passing through the front yard; or two dogs confined behind a fence may turn and attack each other because they can't attack an intruder. Predation is usually considered to be a unique kind of aggressive behavior because it's motivated by the intent to obtain food, and not primarily by the intent to harm or intimidate. Individual Variation The likelihood of a dog to show aggressive behavior in any particular situation varies markedly from dog to dog. Some dogs tend to respond aggressively with very little stimulation. Others may be subjected to all kinds of threatening stimuli and events and yet never attempt to bite. The difference in the threshold prompting aggressive behavior is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. If this threshold is low, a dog will be more likely to bite. Raising the threshold makes a dog less likely to respond aggressively. This threshold can be raised using behavior modification techniques, but the potential for change is influenced by a dog's gender, age, breed, general temperament, and the way in which the behavior modification techniques are chosen and implemented. Because working with aggressive dogs can be potentially dangerous, behavior modification techniques should only be attempted by, or under the guidance of, an experienced animal behavior professional who understands animal learning theory and behavior. What You Can Do: First, check with your veterinarian to rule out medical causes for the aggressive behavior. Seek professional advice. An aggression problem will not go away by itself. Working with aggression problems requires in-home help from an animal behavior specialist. Take precautions. Your first priority is to keep people and other animals safe. Supervise, confine, and/or restrict your dog's activities until you can obtain professional guidance. You are liable for your dog's behavior. If you must take your dog out in public, consider a cage-type muzzle as a temporary precaution, and remember that some dogs are clever enough to get a muzzle off. Avoid exposing your dog to situations where he is more likely to show aggression. You may need to keep him confined to a safe room and limit his contact with people. If your dog is possessive of toys or treats, or territorial in certain locations, prevent access and you'll prevent the problem. In an emergency, bribe him with something better than what he has. For example, if he steals your shoe, trade him the shoe for a piece of chicken. Spay or neuter your dog. Intact dogs are more likely to display dominance, territorial, and protective aggressive behavior. What NOT to Do: Punishment won't help and, in fact, will often make the problem worse. If the aggression is motivated by fear, punishment will make your dog more fearful, and therefore more aggressive. Attempting to punish or dominate a dominantly aggressive dog may actually lead him to escalate his behavior to retain his dominant position. This is likely to result in a bite or a severe attack. Punishing territorial, possessive, or protective aggression is likely to elicit additional defensive aggression. http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/ou...ggression.html
__________________ Karen Kacee Muffin 1991-2005 Rest in Peace My Little Angel | |
08-10-2006, 07:12 AM | #10 |
Crazy about Kacee! Donating Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Kansas
Posts: 21,173
| I don't know if any of this will help you, but: The Life of the Potty. Because I expected Tug to live in a house, I decided to teach him to eliminate outdoors. The tools for good housetraining are: 1) Food treats for correct elimination 2) Limited confinement to a crate, laundry room or bathroom when you can't watch the pup 3) Regular trips outdoors 4) Scheduled/regulated meals and snacks 5) Restrict playtime to outdoor areas as much as possible. 6) No Punishment for accident and biting: Stop!! In the name of love! While much of a puppy's early learning can be taught with positive reinforcement, there are some very natural canine behaviors that need to be controlled or eliminated. High on my list of objectionable behaviors were biting, jumping and wandering out the front door. Australian Cattle Dogs are wonderfully adapted as herding dogs, and are notorious for nipping at the heels of people when cows are unavailable. Since we have no cows, and being herded while sprinting to answer the phone can be awkward, I needed to discourage that behavior immediately. The secret of using firm, but safe punishment is to make sure your methods are very precise and cannot injure your pup, even accidentally. In order to correctly apply such methods, we must give some further attention to the process of eliminating behaviors. To show you how safe punishment works, imagine that your Great Aunt Martha, is coming to visit you. When she walks in the front door, your puppy starts leaping up and biting at the hem of Martha's dress. This is plainly unacceptable behavior that you need to control, quickly. Instead of making a big deal of the experience, you pick up the puppy and slip him in his crate for awhile. With a little preparation, you set up a repeat greeting by asking Martha to stand outside the front door and ring the bell. This time, the sequence changes considerably. When the puppy darts forward to leap for the hem, you say the word NO! and toss a small throw pillow at the puppy - coincidentally this procedure is similar to the one Great Aunt Martha used to teach you to stay out of the cookie jar. The pillow startles the pup and causes him to reconsider the attractiveness of skirt hems. You ask Aunt Martha to humor you one more time and she steps outside to repeat the event. This time, as she enters the house, the puppy stands back and hesitates for a second. That's your cue to pour on the praise, affection and treats. You are positively reinforcing the puppy's new, sedate behavior. The goal is to make all hem biting disappear while retaining an overall pleasant relationship between Aunt Martha and the pup. Soon after the skirt experience, when you are at work, a letter carrier stops by to deliver a registered package. Aunt Martha is in the living room, dusting the furniture, while the puppy is still skeptically eyeing her skirts. At the sound of the doorbell, Martha opens the door. The puppy sees a means of getting to the real world and bolts forward. Aunt Martha notices the puppy trying to slip out the door and pitches a fit. She yells "NO!", exactly as you did, before the puppy gets to the door, thereby scaring the heck out of both the puppy and the letter carrier. As the puppy freezes, she pitches her dust cloth in the pup's general direction. The puppy remembers yesterday's throw pillow and quickly retreats into the hallway. Now the pup is about 15 feet away from the door and shows no signs of coming any closer. After signing for the package, Martha closes the door and pulls a treat from her apron pocket to reinforce the pup's new behavior. Once the pup believes that ALL people are capable of saying "NO" and that strange soft projectiles start flying whenever he hears that word, he will abandon behaviors even more rapidly. By the end of the week, the puppy is starting to automatically go to his place in the hall when he hears the door bell. Aunt Martha starts stashing a treat in her apron pocket to give to the puppy for successfully ignoring the open door. Within a few repetitions, the pup eagerly anticipated the treat at the end of the sequence rather than the initial opportunity to run out the door. While many people think that punishment will solve their problems, it is almost never appropriate to use punishment unless you are willing to follow it up with lots of positive reinforcement for correct behavior. My rule of thumb is "you aren't finished until the dog's tail is wagging again." The Long Haul Raising a puppy often requires a new examination of your lifestyle. If your puppy sleeps in your bed, you must be willing to live with dog hairs and warm bodies. Failing to teach your dog to walk on a leash may prevent you from taking your dog in public. Allowing your dog to run loose takes the chance of an auto accident or unexpected dog-fight. While many books, videos and articles offer valuable advice about puppy raising, ultimately your individual goals and desires will be the ruling force behind your pup's education. Whether you raise a puppy that you can be proud of, or a catastrophe waiting to happen, is largely dependent on how you control your pup's education. Whatever you decide in the way of canine learning, there is one thing that you cannot avoid - the time to start is now. SIDEBARS How to stop biting - There are any number of ways to get a puppy to stop biting. One fashionable technique requires that you yell "ouch" as the pup clamps down on your finger, ear lobe, cheek or ankle and then stop playing with the puppy for awhile. This is supposed to let the puppy know that he has injured you and allegedly imitates the way pups teach each other to bite softly. Having seen a few thousand pups go by, I think this is mostly wishful thinking. A closer look at the way pups REALLY play will set the record straight. Pretend that two puppies, Baby Fido and Baby Rover are romping and playing. In the middle of the frenzy, Baby Fido bites Baby Rover pretty hard. Baby Rover does indeed let out a whoop. However, Baby Rover's reaction is slightly more pointed than merely cutting off play-time for awhile. About a milisecond after the yip, Baby Rover will haul off and bite the heck out of Baby Fido. This effectively teaches Baby Fido that biting Baby Rover too hard has a very serious consequence. If Fido has a similar experience when he plays with Baby Fifi and Baby Spot, Baby Fido is likely to carry the lesson along for life. The most likely reason dogs learn to not bite each other is because when a dog bites another dog, the bitten dog bites back. The best way to imitate the natural way dogs learn is not to yell "ouch", but to metaphorically "bite back" in the form of a safe and effective punishment for biting. The particular type of punishment you use must be appropriate for the puppy. If you have a tiny Yorkie that weighs less than a pound, a spritz from a small squirt gun is probably all you will need. If you have a 20 pound, 12 week old Chesapeake Bay Retriever, you may need to use a standard size throw pillow. The purpose of the punisher is to teach the dog one simple statement -- biting people causes unpleasant consequences. In order to make the connection between the biting and the spritz or bonk, you must use a signal that connects the two together - a signal like "No." Here's the sequence to stop the biting - make sure you do it in exactly the order listed, or it won't work. 1) Place the spritzer of bonker in a place where it is not easily noticeable. If you make the "punisher" an obvious part of the environment, your pup will only be good when the spritzer or bonker is visible. 2) Start playing with the puppy in a manner that would normally cause a bite. 3) At the instant you see the pup's mouth open, say "No!" with some emphasis. (It isn't necessary to scream it, merely to make it a little punchier than a normal conversational tone.) 4) Spritz or bonk the puppy. Whether you are using a spray bottle, water gun or throw pillow, hide the punisher behind your back before you start playing with the pup. 5) Wait for about 10 seconds and repeat steps 1-3 again. Repeat as necessary until the pup will still play, but completely stops trying to bite you. http://www.clickandtreat.com/pagedf1b.htm
__________________ Karen Kacee Muffin 1991-2005 Rest in Peace My Little Angel |
08-10-2006, 11:18 AM | #11 |
YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: El Paso, Texas
Posts: 3,065
| Lacy would bite at my pant leg when someone came to the door. She would hang on not wanting me to answer the door. This behavior started happening after the carjacking (she was with me in the car) so I saw it as trying to protect me, not harm me. She never actually bit my leg, but she did keep a tight grip on my jeans. Now my little boy, K.C. is doing the same thing, but I think it is because he doesn't want me to leave without him. So maybe the "aggression" is not directed to you at all and a few times I have had them get overly excited with the kisses and bite my nose. Don't even consider putting him to sleep. I understand your concern for your daugther so you might have to rehome him with someone who doesn't have small children and at least one partner that stays home to help rebuild his confidence. |
08-11-2006, 09:42 AM | #12 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: BIRMINGHAM
Posts: 15
| Thank you all I wont rehome him because he has been through enough in his little life and we have got a baby gate to keep him in the dining room where he can see us. My mom suggested i get a spritzer bottle and squirt him with water when he bites, a bit harsh i guess but worth a try. He has been very good today and i think with lots of hugs and love he will be ok but we just need to keep a check on his moods. A little bit like living with a man lol. |
08-18-2006, 05:07 AM | #13 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Kearny, NJ
Posts: 1,183
| If he's an adult dog, he shouldn't pee that often, maybe you can have him checked for urinary tract infection? I've been reading about it and small amounts of pee (like a few drops every time) often throughout the day might signal that.
__________________ Izabela ... and Pepper Rest in peace, Kora, you're always in my |
08-18-2006, 12:55 PM | #14 |
No Longer a Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: ENGLAND
Posts: 1,227
| Oh the poor little baby, he has had a bad start in life. I think like one of the other members mentioned, the aggression isn't towards you. I guess where he has been abused and had so many homes,he is scared you will leave him. Im so glad you are willing to keep him,as many others would return him to a shelter Im positive that with some training his behaviour and over protection of you,could be sorted, good luck |
08-19-2006, 04:07 AM | #15 |
Donating YT 10K Club Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Alabama
Posts: 17,674
| I am sorry you are having this trouble. Yorkie bites can be very serious. I was bitten trying to break up a dog fight between two Yorkies...... down to the bone in my hand. I am very lucky that I didn't require stitches or that it did not get infected 'cause I wasn't about to go to the hospital. In my city, maybe even in my state (??) doctors and hospital staff are required by law to report ALL dog bites to the authorities. There was no way that I would allow one of my babies to get a rap sheet and risk losing them so I suffered...... I would strongly suggest that you find a professional trainer who can give you some good hands on advice/training before you have a more serious incident. If it ever comes to the authorities getting involved, you might not have a choice in the matter. Sending hugs and well wishes to you, your family and your beloved furkid. |
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