Question
My 13 year old son doesn’t spend much time with Floyd (our Yorkie),unless I’m in the hospital.
Yet he really wants him to sleep in his room, not stay with me – which is where Floyd wants to be.
We’ve been having more and more trouble getting Floyd into his room, and tonight when my son tried to put a lead on Floyd to take him to bed he almost got bitten.
We’ve had Floyd about 18 months- we got him from some people who had had him the first 5 years of his life. Then the mom remarried, and had a baby.
Floyd didn’t like the husband, and when the baby came, he completely lost any interest in obeying or being housebroken.
So… he came to us.
There’s me. my husband and son, and 3 cats, one of which is a 7 month old kitten who is a VERY spunky little thing.
Floyd did OK with the older cats, but when the kitten pounces on one of the others, they growl. and then Floyd barks and growls.
He has been getting worse -now he will chase any of the cats, and often growls if one of them just walks into the room.
He seemed to settle in with us OK, but the past year has been very hard – I spent over 100 days in the hospital, and when my son was in school and my husband at work, Floyd didn’t do well with being alone, and started forgetting his housebreaking again.
I didn’t find out until long after I was finally able to come home for good that my husband’s response to this was to shut Floyd into the walk-in shower stall all day.
I really like and love Floyd, but the problems are getting overwhelming.
I’ve had several dogs, but almost all were collies or shelties, and they are DESPERATE to please, and I housebroke and obedience trained them all pretty easily.
Floyd could care less. He ran out the door the other night, would not come back, and I spent 20 mins. outside in the dark talking to him and giving him treats because I was terrified that he would be injured and I couldn’t just leave him out there.
He wouldn’t come close enough to me that I could catch him. Finally I got up to go in and get more treats and he surprised the heck out of me and came in with me.
I try to walk him 2-3 times a day for 10-20 mins – I’m getting stronger but that’s about all I can handle- and as long as it’s just me and him it’s not bad at all.
He is even better with the cats when it’s just us. I am at a loss.
Answer
I think all that is wrong with Floyd is that he is possibly feeling like he wants a bit more attention, particularly from you.
The disruption of moving house didn’t seem to affect him too much if you say he settled in well.
What has upset him is the time away from you, and having no attention due to your son being at work and your husband at work.
Obviously these are things that have been beyond your control.
Try litter training your yorkie for those times when he is alone at home so that he can relieve himself?
I do believe that Floyd will settle down know that you are no longer in the hospital. I think his main problems may have just been that he was missing you, and now you can both get back into a routine 🙂
I think the amount of times that you are walking him is great. As long as you make sure he relieves himself each time. You might need to just step out with him at other times if you see that he wants a wee but other than that, 10-20mins 2-3 times/day is great for a yorkie.
I would just like to say sorry for the delay in replying and I am wondering how Floyd is getting on these days. Are things better? Has he settled down some now that you are back home with him?
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