yorkies aggressiveness

Question
Hi.
I have a 11yr old male yorkie and we purchased an adorable, baby yorkie 2 years ago in Jan. She is female. For the past 6 months, Ava is attacking old Jack. She paces and guards all food, toys and even us. She is completely controlling Jack. I took her for training and it did not help. She woofs down a bowl of food super fast to be sure Jack can't have any. We are trying everything. Separating them is so hard. The vet just gave us names of very expensive behavioral specialists. I know there is a great chance that it wouldn't work anyway. I paid 2000.00 for Ava. I have tried to contact the breeder here in Colorado 3 or 4 times, just to ask her opinion and she never responds.
Oh, and we have had Jack to the hospital bleeding with punctures and a sprained leg. She goes right for his legs and won't let him go. I try to pick one of them up and she bites me.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thank you.
Chris

Answer
Chris,

Wow!  That sounds like you are going through a horrible experience.  First off I would like to know why you paid so much for Ava.  Did you plan on breeding her?  Was she from a championship bloodline?  Do you have papers for her?  How old was she when you purchased her?  Is she current on her shots?

If I read what you wrote correctly Ava was a year and a half old when she started attacking Jack, did she ever show aggression before that?  

I do agree that taking her to a behavioral specialist will probably not work.  If my suspicions are correct the problem is ingrained in her genes and cannot be fixed.  There is a practice among some high end breeders of breeding close relatives.  The American Kennel Club only allows this one time.  If a dog is bred back more than once the AKC will not recognize the dog and will not issue papers.  The practice of breeding back is done because it makes the bloodline better for dog show quality dogs.  I suspect that the high cost of your Yorkie is due to the fact that it is a show quality dog.  The reason breeding back is not allowed more than once is because it makes the dogs mean.  The more breeding back is done in a bloodline the meaner the dogs become.  In order to get around the AKC rule a breeder will sometimes breed back but put a different male on the papers than was the actual male that was used.

With all of that being said there are only a few options that you have.

1.  Sell Eva and cut your losses before she kills Jack. Yes, I said kills.  

2.  If you can find a willing vet you could have Ava's canine teeth filed down so that if she bites it will only pinch but cannot do any real damage.

3.  Get a crate and keep them separated for the rest of Jacks life.

As far as the breeder there isn't a whole lot you can do about her not calling you back.  She is probably aware that the dog is mean because of to much inbreeding and therefore she would not want to answer any of your questions.

The fact that she bites you would tell me that she is not a loveable dog.  I am sure when you purchased her you wanted a loveable dog and that is not what you got.  If it were me I would opt to sell her to a breeder (who just wants to breed her) and I would purchase another Yorkie.  I can tell you what to look for and how to purchase a Yorkie that you can love and who will not hurt poor Jack if that is what you decide to do.

Please accept my condolences for the horrible experience you are going through.  It is a shame that there are people out there who do not care about others who have to suffer because of their decisions.

Sincerely,

Melinda