Yorkshire terrier, aggresive guarding..any advice?

ebaybaby

Hi all,
I have a 3yr old yorkie who guards things and becomes quite aggresive when doing so. It happens on the couch or if my bag or phone are near her, she will be up on the couch and all of a sudden if any of us go near her she will growl and bear her teeth, I am very firm with her, telling her to get down but as soon as i go to remove her she will bite. She is not my first yorkie so Im used to the breed but my others never had this problem.
I have just been in touch with a behavourist who says he can help........for £340.00!!! for a one off visit then telephone support afterwards. There is no way I can afford this, so wondered if anyone out there has any advice they can offer?
I know I have spoilt her, and I understand that she thinks she owns us rather than the other way around, but I dont know where to start.

margaretclare

Well, she's acting as a guard dog, isn't she? Yorkshire Terriers are feisty little dogs and I don't know why everyone has them written off as 'toys' or 'pets'. She is guarding your possessions and she sees that as her job in life! All dogs, however small, are wolves at heart. My late husband used to breed YTs. I've seen one that was small enough to be carried in his pocket, a puppy, stuck her head out of his pocket to have a go at a Rottweiler that was passing. She was defending him, you see! Something small enough to fit into the palm of his hand, but with the instincts of a fighter.

I would take up the animal behaviourist's offer.

DitaVonTee

You've got to stop letting her on the furniture and personally I would take anything away from her that she is guarding, toys, etc.
Headstrong little breed those Yorkies, go back to basics with her, teaching her some manners, remove every opportunity she has to get on your furniture.:)

ebaybaby

Thanks to both of you, but margaretclare, the behavouirist isnt an option, I can't afford it!

margaretclare

Well, in that case, watch those programmes on TV which deal with dog problems. Or maybe, there are books about it - try Amazon. I've just looked and found these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Does-Dog-John-Fisher/dp/028563481X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312457166&sr=1-4

I would agree - don't allow her on the furniture. Furniture is for humans. She is a dog. All the YTs we ever had, we never allowed any of them to get on the furniture, certainly wouldn't have allowed one of them to monopolise it. She should have her own bed - that's hers, you don't invade her space, she doesn't invade yours. Start treating her as a dog, not as a toy or a pet!

Behaviourism implies that she has acquired an undesirable behaviour, the job is to extinguish that behaviour and replace it with a desirable one. Maybe you are 'rewarding' that undesirable behaviour and need to stop. Is she attention-seeking, a bit like those toddlers who throw a tantrum if they don't get their own way? Ignoring is usually more effective than punishing. Then reward her every time she goes to her own bed and stays there when you say 'stay'.

ItchyFeet

Watch 'It's Me Or The Dog' - Saturday mornings. Love it and very helpful. (I don't have a dog by the way:D).

CFC

I understand your problem.

I would think you might want to try training in a desirable behaviour to start with, and training her to go to her bed or other designated place is an excellent place to start. How is her obedience in general?
I do think sometimes you need an aversive as well as positive training, a spray bottle of water can reinforce the ''no'' when needed with a spray in the face - no dog can be allowed to snap and get away with it.

I had a similar situation with my poochie at one point, he would growl and then if the growl was ignored he would snap. couldn't call it biting as bite inhibitoin was still working, but contact would be made by teeth and the most blood curdling sounds going with it.

I used a combination of a lot of normal obedience training for lie sit and wait, plus training other stuff that would help, like 'teaching him to swap' and making slow slow movements when I was about to do something that I knew would escalate for him to a snap (eg taking something from him or moving him from a comfy place -- not his bed--when he wouldnt move), so he really really had to consider whether he was going to bite me rather than it being on reflex. Given time to think it through after quite a short while he realised he did not actually want to snap or bite his nice people and the behaviour extinguished. Still get the quiet growling when he's tired and grumpy but now it's only a token protest and would not be followed through.

I didn't need to use aversives but I would have used the spray if I needed to take a further step.(though i did hurt him accidentally once when preventing him from making teeth contact and although we were both upset afterwards, to be honest I think though not meant it did make a point) But if it was an actual bite rather than just teeth contact shoutin no and an immediate spray would have been my first choice.

Personally I always let him on the sofa and he sleeps with us, this was even the case when he could be naughty about moving when asked, this is the kind of family interaction we enjoy with him. We have a 3 seater sofa, me one end, OH the other, and poochie on a special cushion in the middle that he knows he is allowed to sit on. Everyone treats their dogs differently, for some folk dogs shouldn't be on the furniture and i respect that, it's just a different way of looking at it.

I simply wanted the extinguish the difficult and potentially dangerous behaviour, I didn't need or want to change anything else about him. Just my personal experience and thoughts. HTH.

pulliptears

Yorkies are little swines for that lol. I had one as a child, my Mother can train a dog brilliantly and all our dogs have always been trained wonderfully....except for Tingo.

Tingo hated me, in fact Tingo hated anyone who wasn't my Mother, but when he had a bone etc he hated her too. I recall several occasions where Mum had given him the lamb bone on a sunday and to retrieve it I was forced to go and ring the front doorbell so he'd run off barking! He would guard them to within an inch of his life and that was the only way of getting it back.

We'd had German Shepherds that anyone could take anything off but this flipping Yorkie was truly a one off. Even now Mum has a little shih tzu thats so well trained he waits to have his feet wiped in wet weather before he comes through the door lol

Funny little dog he was, I still loved him despite his obvious dislike of me. I was heartbroken when he died at 7

suki1964

So dont allow the dog the opportunity to guard - so off the furniture and off the bed etc

if shes going for you when you are trying to get her off the furniture - put her lead on and remove her on lead. Let her stay on lead and just hold the lead in place with your foot so she cant get back up on the sofa.

You have to mean business here, you have to show her that you are perfectly capable of guarding your things and she doesnt have to. Once she realises that she will calm down and get on with the business of being a dog.

Dont forget - reward only behavior you want from her - sat on the floor - giving up prized possessions etc. Dont allow the bad behaviors - keep her on a long line for now if you have to but dont allow her on the sofa. You want to fuss and cuddle her - get on the floor

Google "nothing in life is free". Theres a lot of reading out there but the training does work

pulliptears

I think what made Tingo worse was he had a 'lair' which was a corner in the kitchen under the worksurface. It was exclusively his space and because it and he was small only he could get in there and thats where the bones/food went. None of our other dogs had that and now I think about it I can see where he'd think it was his corner where he was boss and would probably explain why he was so bloomin grumpy when he was in it!

Mum used to charge me with letting him out for a wee at lunchtimes as I came home from school for lunch. He wouldn't come from up that corner for love nor money. I recall one exasperating lunch hour where I was forced to wear one of those hideous padded 80's ski jackets back to front to retrieve this teacup sized dog from up his corner without being savaged.

Oh I paint him so horrible here dont I!? Yet out of his corner he did have his nice moments I promise.

gruffalo55

There is a good book on this subject by Jean Donaldson called Mine!: A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs. It takes you through steps to modify this behaviour and teach the dog to see giving up objects as a positive thing.