The most important considerations for training are ensuring the dog's safety, preventing the habit of aggressive behavior, and of course, housetraining. For all other Yorkie training techniques, there are several extremely good books on the market.

HOUSEBREAKING

Housetraining any puppy can seem like a difficult and time-consuming process requiring the utmost of your attention and patience. True, it is not unusual for it to take most of the puppy's first year of life to become reliably housetrained. However, it can be incredibly easy if you just follow the basics. So don't give up, because if you remain consistent with the training described below, you will eventually be rewarded with a well-behaved Yorkie companion.

Successful housetraining begins with the institution of a regular feeding schedule. Four meals a day at say, 8am, 1pm, 5pm and 9pm. Do not waver from your chosen schedule once you have adopted it. After each meal, once the puppy has eaten its fill, take it outside and repeat the command "Go potty!" until it relieves itself. Then praise and/or reward the puppy.

Follow the same procedure every time the puppy wakes up, too. This includes getting up early enough in the morning to take the puppy outside before it has a chance to eliminate in its crate. For the first few months, this will mean you and your puppy will be watching the sunrise together every morning. This is admittedly quite a commitment, but it is probably the most important "magic bullet" to successful house training. That's because a Yorkie puppy is quite small, and its GI system is even smaller. An eight-hour night is a long time to expect them to "hold it" with their tiny equipment. Please don't ask them to wait for you to sleep late too!

Until the puppy is six months old, it should not be allowed to run freely throughout your house unless it is under your direct supervision. If you cannot pay strict attention to what your puppy is doing, keep it in a crate or pen. Or you can put it on a leash and tie the other end to your belt, so you will know when it starts to do its little pre-potty dance, at which point you should immediately take it outside and repeatedly give the command "Go potty!" until it relieves itself. Then praise and/or reward the puppy.

For a more comprehensive description of these and other successful housebreaking methods, please refer to Donna Malone's How Do I Housebreak My Dog? manual.

 

 

SAFETY

HOUSEBREAKING

BITING AND BARKING

PUPPY KINDERGARTEN

SAFETY

The first thing  you will want to do is train your puppy not to go out the front door when it is open. When you are going to be home all day, put a collar or harness and leash on the puppy and stand just inside the door with the door closed. You will need someone to stand outside the door to ring the doorbell or knock on the door. When you open the door and the puppy starts to run outside, give the command "Stay!" and pull it back inside with the leash. Don't forget to praise it profusely for compliance: "Good Stay!"

Repeat this exercise about 10-15 times, or until the puppy seems to get the idea. Then wait an hour or two, and do the exercise another 10-15 times. Several hours later, repeat it again. By the end of the day, your puppy will no longer bolt out the front door when it is opened.

BITING AND BARKING

For biting and barking, the trick is to give the puppy the command while holding its little mouth shut. Not in a way that would be painful, just so it knows which part of its body you are wanting to correct. If they bite, put your hand gently around their snout and say firmly "No Bite!!" and when they stop, immediately say "Good Dogl!!" Then try to get them to bite again, and if they do, repeat the action and command combination, always followed by praise when they stop.

It's most effective to set aside an entire day to just concentrate on one command, so by the end of that day there is no question in your Yorkie puppy's mind what it is you expect from it. Repeat the lesson for about an hour a day for the next week.

If there is still a problem with biting or aggression, try this: Put both hands completely around your puppy's body and hold it down, very still until it realizes it is not going to be able to get away from you. Because the biting is a symptom of a puppy's exaggerated feelings of invincibility, this usually results in extreme  frustration, squirming, trying to get away, even screaming, which might disturb you... but the puppy is only having a tantrum because it is not in control. It's ego may be bruised, but it is absolutely not a cry of physical pain. Once you've done this a couple of times, Yorkie puppies realize they are not the biggest dog in the yard, so to speak, and they will be more careful about initiating aggressive behavior in the future.

Only do this to correct extremely aggressive behavior, and as always, immediately follow it up with praise. It may seem extreme, but there is nothing that can ruin a dog's character and chance of future happiness more than allowing it to form the habit of aggression or biting. So rest assured, it is done for their own good.

For barking, just give the command "Quiet" or "No Barking!" in your best drill sergeant voice -- again putting your hand firmly around their little snout. Spend a day concentrating on that and they will learn what you want. If they are barking in their crate at night take the crate into your room and rap on top of it loudly whenever they bark, again giving the command "Quiet" or whatever phrase you prefer. Another technique you might try to get their attention when they are barking is a couple of aluminum pie pans stapled together with a few coins or pebbles inside. Shaking this will usually stop the barking and get their attention long enough to give the command.

Once your Yorkie puppy understands exactly what you mean when you say "Quiet" they will stop barking on command. The only trouble is, they don't take a standing order, so if there is actually a cat in the vicinity, a delivery truck, or some neighbors talking outside the fence, a few minutes after the command they will probably start up again. At least it isn't continuous barking!

PUPPY KINDERGARTEN

For a small investment of time and money, you can ensure your Yorkie puppy will grow up to be a well-behaved and pleasant companion to live with. Simply enroll it in a weekly puppy kindergarten class. These classes usually go for about eight weeks, during which you and your puppy will get to know each other and, as you learn all the common commands together, your puppy will also learn who the boss is.

An added bonus is, for the duration of the class, you will effectively have about two months of "tech support" where you can ask a professional and knowledgeable dog trainer what to do and how to resolve any situation that might arise as the puppy is assimilated into your home and your family's routine. Be sure to speak to the instructor in advance to make sure the class is safe for a tiny Yorkie puppy (the other puppies should be small to medium breeds).