Dominant Yorkie?

Question
My 3 year old Yorkshire Terrier, male, named Neito has turned into a ball-playing terror.  It seems as if all he wishes to do is eat and play ball.  He is constantly jumping at members of the household's feet barking (sometimes showing his teeth and growling) for us to throw the ball.  He seldom allows us to pick him up or pet him.  When guests come over, he is very loud and distracting, in our faces at all times.  The only way I can lead him into another room in this situation is with the ball, and he fiercely scratches at the door and barks/growls loudly when I attempt to punish him by secluding him there.

Neito didn't always behave in this manner.  He used to be a calmer dog who would allow you to pick him up and enjoyed being pet often.  We allow him to sleep in our bed with us and he often nudges his way between my wife and I.  A few weeks ago, as I was walking down the stairs with the lights off, I accidentally stepped on Neito rather hard.  He cried for a minute or so and was shaking violently the rest of the night.  Although I did everything I could to comfort him (cuddled him on the bed, "happy-talked" him, gave him extra attention), I hope this incident isn't a factor in his gradual behavior change.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer
Dear Christopher,
Thanks for the question. I doubt the stair incident has anything to do with Neito's behaviors. His gradual change is the cumulative result of mis communications between you and Neito.

Neito does what he does because at some level,it works for him! His behavior is instrumental in reaching some portion of his immediate goals.

Since his misbehaviors involve interactions with people. then people have inadvertently taught him to misbehave. Your job is to modify the environment and the consequences of his behavior so that his misbehavior does not serve to reach his goals.

For example, if you had walked into another room and closed the door behind you - the very first time he barked at you, he would have learned very quickly that barking at you makes you go away- which is quite the opposite of his goal.

ON the flip side, if you asked him to sit and then gave him attention- tossed the ball, et cetera, he would sit more often to get what he wanted.

In general, you will be addressing two behaviors at once. You will be increasing wanted behaviors which in turn decreases unwanted behaviors.

SO, instead of focusing on stopping the misbehaviors, think about starting wanted behaviors. Anytime you catch yourself wanting to punish Neito, ask yourself these two questions. At this moment, exactly what specific behavior would I like Neito to be performing and exactly where would I like him to do it?

Once you have the answer, now you have a specific training goal. Teach Neito the wanted behavior, not when guests are visiting, not when you are trying to study or read or watch TV, but when you have the opportunity to focus 100% on your training goals.

Start a training program. Teach the basics first- attention, sit, stay, down, here, leave-it, go-to-place and heel. Clicker training works well with these turbos! Teach him some tricks, like shake, high-five, speak and quiet.

Take him for a couple of 30 minute walks each day to help burn up that energy.

If he has access to food 24 hours a day, discontinue 24 hour access. Throw away the food bowl. Now he works for all his food! Incorporate feeding into training sessions. Ask him to sit, he sits, he gets a bit of dinner. From now on, every piece of food is the consequence of desirable behaviors!

In the meantime, don't let Neito practice his misbehaviors. Attach a leash on him when guests arrive, give him something else to do - like forage - . If you know guests are coming this evening, don't feed him dinner beforehand.

Get a puppy kong, place a strip of duct tape over the small opening, place some treats and some food inside. Add water and a tsp. of chicken broth. Stand it upright in your freezer - let it freeze. When guests come over, get out the kong and let Neito forage while the guests are visiting.

IN summary, you'll need to change your behavior if you want to change Neito's. Visit this article written by a vet behaviorist. Changing the Owner Pet Relationship.

http://www.vin.com/VINDBPub/SearchPB/Proceedings/PR05000/PR00470.htm

Contact a local trainer that uses a clicker. Here's a couple of web sites where you can search for a trainer. http://www.apdt.com
http://www.clickertraining.com

Buy one or more of these books-
The Only Dog Training Book You Will Ever Need: From Avoiding Accidents to Banishing Barking, the Basics for Raising a Well-Behaved Dog (Paperback)
by Gerilyn J. Bielakiewicz, Andrea Mattei

Click here! for a well-trained dog by Deborah A Jones

One great thing about Neito's personality is that he is nuts about the ball. He likes the ball and wants the ball. You know exactly what he wants- now you can teach him to perform polite behaviors to earn ball time. With a bit of practice, you can incorporate the ball into a reward system and he will learn very quickly!

You can change his behavior relatively quickly once you learn how to "make all good things" contingent upon his polite behaviors. . soon you'll have a wonderful turbo Yorkie!


Happy Training!Happy New Year!

Alan J Turner

Owner: How's Bentley, Memphis, TN
http://howsbentley.com

Editor: Animal News Network
An animal digital resource
http://animalnewsnetwork.org