Please help - I am so worried

[northview5]

Hi everyone, I've been visiting this site for a little while, but this is my first post. I sure hope someone can help!

I have an 8 month old Yorkie. About a month ago she started barking and it is progressively getting worse. I've been doing EVERYTHING I ever heard of to nip it in the bud and train her. Nothing is really working and it is getting worse. Now she is starting to growl at people. I am a nervous wreck. We often have company and children over and she comes to work with me everyday. She simply cannot grow up to act like this.

She seems to respond the most to me telling her "quiet" and making her sit and watch me while I offer treats for obedience. However, she is starting to ignore it and barks and now even growls regardless. She can hardly resist the temptation to check out this "invader" and bark at him/her. If I let her go (and I almost never do) she usually seems happy enough to meet up with the person...tail wagging... But today..... growling. And it was people we knew. I am so discouraged!

Can someone please tell me what to try next??? Has anyone ever gotten over this??? What did you do and did it really stop?

Our other Yorkie went through a stage something like this. It never got this bad and he got over it (we had to train him through it). He is a wonderful dog. He loves people! We had hoped it would go the same for Josie. We absolutely cannot have an aggressive dog! I am willing to do anything to get her through this.

Hoping for good advise,
~Allison

 

[EliNHunter]

Oh, wow. And welcome, btw . I've never had an aggressive dog so can't tell you anything from my experiences. I HAVE heard of puppies that are taken away from their mamma and litter too early when they're in their brain formation days and that could have a lasting impression on them and give them traits such as this. Something your pup is associating with the past. This is just MHO... so take it for a grain as you'll hear from others... but I would make sure this puppy continues MUCH socialization with others and the others are true in their acceptance of your pup. For example, maybe your pup had MANY people manhandling him/her while at that impressionable age that she/he now associates with people she/he meets now? Just a thought...

 

[YorkieLover]

Well, I'm not sure how much help I can be... I myself have 3 yorkies, 1 female and 2 males. My female barks so much more then my older male guys. She barks if the wind blows. Most of the time I can correct her with a very loud "uh uh" but it usually takes my husbands booming voice before she will quit.
She also will growl first even if its someone she knows, but she always runs to them with her tail wagging.
There are great people on here that can help you get her trained.? Stay tuned!

 

[northview5]

She didn't leave her mom until the was just over 9 weeks. (So was Pepper) And she was socialized a lot, but never, ever did we allow her to be mistreated or make it a scarey thing. (She did get a bit frightened by some overly "friendly" children. In that case I either put her in her kennel or allowed her to find a convenient hiding spot and insisted that the child leave the puppy alone unless I was there to help.)

We just love our Yorkies. She is a very happy playful little thing. She seems to like people well enough. Her tail wags after she's done barking and she wants to go see whoever's here. I'm just worried where this barking/growling thing is going to go. I'd really, really like to get her over it!

Thanks so much for your replies so far!

 

[MysticRealm]

What exactly do you do when she barks and growls at people. Do you pick her up or put your hand down to her to try to calm/quiet her? Though you are trying to keep her away from people or make her feel more secure so she will stop you may accidentally be praising her for her barking. Have you tried completely ignoring her and telling people who walk by or come to your horse to totally ignore her.
Is she possesive over her toys and territory and food?
What have you all tried to quiet her other than saying quiet?
When you take her out does she generally walk on a leash or do you carry her?

 

[skyeboxer]

At 8 months your pup may be going through an adolescent stage and he's testing the boundaries. You went through the same thing with your other dog and though s/he wasn't as bad, you got through it with training. So don't worry. Same again only more so this time.

Have you tried clicker training? Are you doing NILIF? That little guy needs to be focussed on you as the leader. If there's someone over there that he doesn't know, he should be looking at you not barking at them. Is he solid on sit and down. Does he hold these positions for any length of time? Work on the down-stay and before he starts getting excited at any stranger get him in the down stay focussed on you.

Try to cut off the barking before it starts by giving the little monkey something else to think about.

 

[YorkieLover]

I'm not sure I'm seeing aggressive behaviors in this? Maybe I'm wrong... My yorkie girl will bark and growl when the door bell rings, anyone comes into the front door, even if she doesn't know who it is. However, once she runs to the door (yapping) of course, she is overjoyed to see whomever is there, weather it's a stranger or someone she knows, (Like us)..LOL For goodness sake, one day I picked her up when the pizza guy came so he could open the door and hand me the stuff and she licked him to death..LOL But prior to that, she was barking and growling as she was running to the door.
If she's not growling while she's eating at you or the other dog, if she's not growling at you when you try to take a toy or anybody else does, I'm not sure there's a great problem here other then training. Just my thoughts..

 

[northview5]

Thanks again, folks for your comments! Some of my own thoughts are being reinforces and a plan of action is coming together here!

MisticRealm - Thanks for your feedback. I have tried ignoring her when she barks. No help. That just seems to give here free reign to do as she pleases. The only time I pick her up when she is barking is so I can then place her in a down position and hold her there until she gives in and relaxes. She does walk on a leash. (We're not the kind to let our little dogs become monsters...that's why I'm desperate to get this worked through.) She has shown some aggression about her food in relationship to our other dog. That is being quickly and rather easily dealt with and she has almost given that up.

Skyeboxer - Clicker training? I've used that some with another dog and he loved it. What would that do for barking? And what is NILIF? You know - I think you've got a point about the reliable down/sit stays and all. Here's the story...

Last night we started her beginning obedience class. (She's been though puppy class - not much was accomplished there. I didn't like the trainer's methods much at all; it was way relaxed) Whew! Was this class different than any other I've ever been to! The instructor has everone use a training collar - no treats allowed. (That is a very new concept to me...) Josie was the only little dog in the class and she shook like a leaf at first. But by the end of class both she and I were stepping in line and she was doing really good. (She was no longer being such a smarty pants.) Amazing thing, but today - she did MUCH better with the barking. She hasn't been this controlled for a while. I was quite surprised. I still wrestle with the collar, but he (the trainer) is confident that if used correctly it won't cause any harm. Since Josie is so little, I try to temper my use of it. She has almost altogether got her lesson down in just one evening. Interesting.... We're quickly getting a very good sit-stay. It's fun. I love working with our dogs. What do you all think of the collar with no treats? I still try to verbally reward.

And YorkieLover - what do you think of the collar? And yes, I know what you mean. Once she's done barking, she's usually pretty glad to see whoever it is she was barking at. Wags her tail - but she can be a bit timid and shy away sometimes. That's somewhat why I worry that this barking is going to become an aggressive thing. It sorta seems to be heading in that direction. Hopefully this intensive training will bring her under my control and she will begin to stop thinking she can make her own choices in life.

So what do you all think of our new direction? This discussion is doing me good!

 

[baineteo]

I think it might just be the way she "warns" of any possible intruder. She knows that someone is coming in, and is warning him/her that if he/she is not coming in for a good reason, he/she is in trouble. But once she realises that you are ok with whoever that is, she's excited to get to know him?

My uncle used to have a german shepard. She would bark and growl whenever we open the door, or whenever someone walked into the house. Sometimes my cousin would ask her to, well, shut up. But once we walked to the kitchen (where she is), she would sniff us and she did not ever showed aggression to any relatives visiting.

 

[YorkieLover]

Personally, I'm not big into the collars. We just tend to give her a quite command or a loud uh hu, its hard to explain. She has always been a yappy thing and like I said she will bark and growl when the wind blows. It's funny sometimes she'll growl like a bubble mower..LOL The thing is, even though she is barking and growling as she is running towards the door. She stops as soon as you open it. I think it's like the poster stated before me, she is just warning the person at the door that she might be little but she's in there. lol
Our one old yorkie guy, he's funny also.. He will bark and run to the door with the other ones, you open the door and if it's not one of the family he runs (barking and growling of course) to the couch and hides. Cracks me up...

 

[Doberluv]

Ignoring barking doesn't work because it's a self rewarding behavior. She couldn't care less if you ignore her or not. Dogs love to bark. You can go to the dog, distract her and the instant she takes a breath click/treat. Distract her again. During the second or two that she may be quiet, give the command, "enough." (never give the cue word while she's barking until this cue word and behavior is solid.) Prasie and treat. Interrupt her barking by distracting and trying to give her an alternative behavior. In other words, "thank you for letting me know someone's out there, now it's enough." So, barking is not a no no because I assume you want her to bark sometimes, but she can learn "enough." It's not easy. It takes persistance, consistancy and patience. You have to go to the dog and bring her away from the window or whatever and interrupt the barking. You can even use a leash if you must. A clicker is great if you can be sure to time it with the second or two that she' quiet.

 

[RD]

Be careful with a training collar (I assume you mean a choke chain?) on such a small dog. That can cause a lot of damage to their tiny necks.

I'm not going to tell you what to do about this because I'm sure other people will. However, if you MUST use a "training" collar (collars don't train dogs btw) I would use a very small pinch collar instead of the choke chain that constricts around her neck. The pinch collar is uncomfortable, but at least it won't seriously hurt her.

I would also be very careful using punishment-based training methods with an aggressive dog. That's apt to backfire, big-time. Is there a trainer in your area who uses positive methods? Clicker training is great . . .

 

[Doberluv]

Sorry....I read your post yesterday but didn't have time to respond till today and I just went from my memory...big mistake. Anyhow, I was picturing your dog going nutso at the window from inside the house. If this is a situation out on a walk, a desensatization program needs to be implimented. You need to start somewhere not so close to other dogs. I would recommend the book, Click to Calm. It's for this very thing I think. I haven't read it myself, but have heard great things about it. My dog Lyric was like that and he's improved a whole bunch, although not always Mr. Perfect in high distraction areas. But he is in a class situation. That is very different to him.

Anyhow, a behaviorist could help but definitely I would steer away from aversives such as painful collars because you associate the other dog with more of a rotten time. You want to turn the "bad" thing into a "good" thing to him.

Let us know.

 

[ToscasMom]

You asked what NILIF is = Nothing In Life Is Free.

I'm sure someone here can explain it a whole lot better than I can.

 

[Doberluv]

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/nothingfree.htm

There's a good description.

 

[northview5]

Thanks for your replies. Mostly, Josie's barking is the worst at our office. (We have a family business and customers come and go infrequently through out a day.) Walks seem to be OK. I did talk to my vet about the choke chain. He said that he highly respects the trainer I am using. He said the trainer is very cautious about making sure his students use them properly and also gave me his own cautions and advise. Unfortunately, we are in a very rural area and I have to travel an hour to get to this trainer - so there are no other options. I called all over the place before I finally settled with this man because I had really wanted to avoid the choke chain. We had an awsome trainer just 3 miles from us (she used a treating method), but they closed up... too bad!

I will continue to reinforce and be very consistent. Hopefully things will turn around. We've been giving customers treats to give Josie so that through this stage (and that's all I hope it ends up being!) she will remember that people mean wonderful things... The leash and the reliable stays are also helping immensly. I think maybe she needed to remember that's she's the dog and I'm the boss...

Thanks so much for your replies - This forum has been a great help!

 

[puppy_paws3332]

guess what your nmot alone i just signed on to this site and was hoping for some good advice on my two 6 month old puppies one the female is a terrier and the boy is a wenie dog they bark all the time and it drives my mom nuts