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View Full Version : Steve B, Dog Fence Question



billbenson
12-14-2008, 03:46 PM
Steve, I have a Boxer who has turned out to be a pretty well balanced dog. My third one, so I know the breed pretty well. Recently adopted a Yorkie from a shelter for my wife. Vicious little sucker. He's drawn blood on me several times and will jump on top of the Boxer (7 lbs vs 70 lbs) and bite him in the ear. They actually interact well. Just kind of funny to watch.

Anyway, my question. We have a fenced yard. Portions of the fence are pretty old and rotted. The boxer is easy. The yorkie, however, finds holes and goes visiting the neighborhood. I've been plugging the holes as I find them, but he keeps finding new ones. Yorkies are ratters and bred to go through small places.

Is there a dog fence solution for a dog as small as a yorkie? I've used shock collars before, but the ones I have seen would be half the weight of the 7 lbs Yorkie?

Steve B
12-14-2008, 07:26 PM
Yes. I use my system on dogs as little as 4lbs. I have lots of Yorkies and a even a few chihuahua's on my system. Aesthetically the collar will look large - but it's safe and effective for them. The sytem with the lightest collar is a Permimeter Technologies system. However, the lightweight comes with a trade-off. It's not as rugged as other collars because it lacks "potting" which is just the filling of all the voids inside the collar with silicone (or something similar). I would recommend the Innotek 2100 system - a little heavier but a better system overall.

I recently adopted a Yorkie myself. We've had several issues with him as well (viciously attacking Derby my 60 lb. Coonhound). We've solved that, but we're now trying to stop him from marking in the house. The dominance instinct in that breed is incredible. I can give you lots of tips if you're interested. I'm working very closely with a professional dog trainer on these issues and I'll be happy to pass on what he's telling me.

billbenson
12-14-2008, 10:24 PM
Might as well make a dog thread out of this. When I was 21 or so, I got my first dog as an adult, which was a boxer. I traveled a lot for work and boarded the dog in a luxury kennel. They had a trainer. The trainer initially took the dog for a month for doggie boot camp. He also continued to work with the dog for another 6 months as well as work with me.

I spent an incredible amount of time with that dog training her. I put up mirrors in the house and had her sit. When she moved, I would reprimand her. In the end, I had a dog that I could put a steak next to on a table, tell the dog to sit, leave the house for 20 minutes and the steak was still sitting there. That actually happened although not on purpose. Boxers are pretty easy dogs though. 19 years later and I have my third one. All I want at this point is sit, stay, heel, come. The trainer I learned from was big on choke chain sort of training with a lot of sit, heel, sit, heel sort of dog walks.

Steve, your Yorkie exibits the traits I see in mine. Two males by the way. The only difference I see is that it seems like rough play. They take turns. One goes after the other, then the inverse. If one wants a drink of water, everything stops. I let them rough house for a while, then I will have each one sit and play time is over.

I have not spent the time walking the yorkie that I should. When he gets out, come certainly doesn't work. That's my fault. I'm a believer that heel, sit, heel, sit sort of walks transfer into other obedience traits as well.

We treat the Yorkie similar to the Boxer. I'll let him on my lap, but by invitation only and he get off my lap when told. That seems to work well. The biggest problem I have at the moment is the escape issue, not coming, barking while I'm on the phone with a business call and what I think is over timidness. I don't know the breed like I know boxers, but either because of the breeds tendencies, over breading, or where ever he came from being a rescue dog, he's scared. Fear in a dog can manifest itself into aggression. Certainly if he is surprised or uncomfortable he will bite. He bit me twice when we first got him putting a collar on him. He's about 1 yo and we've had him for about 3 months now.

Other side of the fence is he's a smart little sucker. I'm sure he could learn tricks very quickly. Extremely alert and much better hearing than the boxer. The way he prances around the yard is really cute.

So that's where I'm at Steve. I'd love to hear your advice, experiences, trainers suggestions...

Oh, on the marking issue; that only happened for the first several days. There definitely is a marking issue in the yard but not in the house. He wasn't housebroken and knew no commands when we got him. He's still not completely housebroken and I use a combination of crate training and timing when I think he needs to go out. I don't believe he has urinated in the house in a long time, but if I don't time when he needs to go out for no 2 it's paper towel time.

Steve B
12-15-2008, 06:07 AM
My Yorkies problem is quite different. I broke up a couple fights that would have clearly resulted in death for the Yorkie once Derby decided to fight back. We had to adopt a zero tolerance policy even on play fighting (which they also used to do). The play fighting would unpredictably take a vicious turn. That problem has been solved as a result.

It sounds like you have everything else under control - except the timidness. I don't know of any techniques to help with that. Different breeds and different dogs within the breeds just seem to have different personalities just like the rest of us humans.

billbenson
12-15-2008, 10:46 AM
Ya, I think this would be different if the boxer wasn't so tolerant. Forgot to mention, he tried to bite the assistant at the vet.

Kind of reminds me of my high school. The high school had a dorm. There was a little kid that got beat up and picked on a lot. If he got picked on by somebody, some time later that little kid would walk up to the big kid and kick him in the groin when he wasn't expecting it. It only took a handful of times and big kids stopped picking on the little kid.

It's that kind of fiestyness that this cute little rodent of a Yorkie has. He does react by biting out of fear though. Based on both of our experiences, I don't see it as being a good breed for little old ladies; who usually are the ones that get this type of dog. Probably why he was abandoned as well. He was found in a very wealthy beach area.