Do You Hear Your Yorkie Barking?
The sound of your Yorkie barking most likely isn't music to your ears, for the simple reason that there may be way too much of it. Your neighbors probably don't care much for it either, particularly if you and they share the same apartment house.
The point of this article is not to pick on the Yorkshire terrier, a much loved and very popular little dog. It just happens that when God made dogs he must have had some bark left over, quite a bit in fact, when he got around to making the Yorkie. A Yorkie barking is a Yorkie doing what it seems to do best, and training the bark out of the dog can be a challenge.
By A Book Or Browse The Web - You can buy a book which my give some tips on how to cut down on Yorkie barking. You can't stop it entirely, nor should you want to. There are times and places a dog should bark or really needs to. The Yorkie just hasn't learned that lesson all that well. One of the better books is Cesar Millan's "Be A Pack Leader", which lays the groundwork for dealing with most any problem one may have with their dog, Yorkie or not.
Another approach worth trying is to browse Yorkie sites and forums on the Internet. Most people, when contributing information, whether stating a problem or offering a solution, won't have too much to say about the Yorkie before getting into the subject of Yorkie barking. Yorkie owners try all sorts of things, from psychology to shock collars to stop the barking. One of those ideas may work for you.
Collars - Let's look into collars first. As a rule of thumb, you should not put anything on your dog to discipline it that you wouldn't put on your own child. The shock collar is out. Maybe when your two year old is throwing a world-class tantrum, you feel like putting a shock collar on him, but you really won't. You don't want to put a shock collar on your dog either. There are at least two alternatives. There is a collar, if you can locate it, that makes a rattling noise when a dog barks, and appears to be quit effective in stopping the barking. A Yorkie, being a Yorkie, may respond to the rattling by barking even more at first, but probably will not. The other alternative is the citronella collar, which sprays a gentle mist of citronella when the dog barks. Dogs don't like the smell of citronella at all, and will usually stop doing whatever they believe caused the scent to occur. A citronella collar can be expensive, but may be well worth it, especially if all else fails.
Squirt Guns And Cans - There are other things you can do. A squirt gun, filled with citronella juice or just plain water can be effective. So can an empty soda pop can half filled with pennies. Most dogs don't like the sound when you shake the can. The Yorkie may, and probably will, bark the first time it hears it, but will soon learn that ceasing barking equates with a quiet can. I've used this method for disciplining dogs, whether the jump up or bark. It doesn't take long before the dog will cease bad behavior when they see you even reach towards or point to the can.
Distraction Or Exercise - Another approach is to distract the Yorkie when it's barking, and get its attention fixated on something else. I'm not certain that the Yorkie actually learns anything from this approach but it may be worth trying. Seems like a lot of extra effort. You can also take the dog of long walks or extended romps in the yard. This energy-packed pup needs plenty of exercise. This also takes extra effort, but may have the advantage of helping you loose a few pounds while trying to tire your Yorkie out.
A final tip. When using a voice command to discipline your dog, don't precede the command with its name. Doing so mixes affection with discipline, and the Yorkie may not realize you want it to stop what it's doing (barking).