Possible Fear or Territorial Aggression Problems

Posted by chiefsone
Aug 10, 2007
Three weeks ago I adopted a 1 1/2 year old female Yorkie from the orginal family where they had 3 kids; 12 year old, 5 year old and a 10 week old baby as well as another 4 year old female Yorkie. They told me the reason they needed to find a new home for her was she was having problems with toliet training since the new baby. They also said she was very territorial of the family.

She seems to be making the adjustment to my 12 year old male Yorkie fine. She is super sweet, loving, a lap dog that wants to be laying close to my husband or myself and loved all the time. Very mellow and doesn't bark unless there is a visitor.

But I am having a couple of problems:

1. She is not telling me she has to go outside. She will go if my 12 year old needs to go out or if I ask if they need to go outside.

2. We have had a several visitors; she starts shaking, growling, showing teeth and she has lunged at them if they get to close to my husband or myself.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Posted by eyeluvdogs
Aug 13, 2007
I love Yorkies! I have two largish dogs, but sometimes wish that I had gotten smaller dogs instead (especially when it's been raining and they leave dirty foot prints everywhere). Anyway, enough about me

I think that with the housetraining, you will need to be aware of the times your dog is likely to need to go relieve herself. For example, everytime she eats, or wakes from a sleep, encourage her to go outside to the bathroom. Even though she is no longer a puppy, you should still praise her when you see her going to the bathroom outside to help reinforce the behavior. If you see her near the door, make a big fuss and open the door for her. Hopefully in doing so she will learn that if she goes near the door, you will let her out to do her business. She might not make any noise to go out (neither of mine do), but if you can keep an eye on her movements around the house, you will hopefully get to know the signs that she needs to go out.

As for the aggression with visitors, you could always leave a bag of treats near your front door, and encourage any guests to take some and give them to your dog when they arrive. This will hopefully mean that having guests becomes a positive experience, and not one to get aggressive about. It's probably best for your visitors to put the treats on the floor for your dog than hand them to her.

Have you read the Secrets to Becoming the Alpha Dog bonus book? If not, you might want to do this so that you can teach your new Yorkie that she is not the boss of the house, and therefore its not her responsibility to protect everyone.

Just because she is small (and probably very cute) don't let her get away with aggressive behavior. She needs to know that it is not suitable behavior!

I hope this helps