Dog News, Resources & Training Tips for Dog Owners & Dog Lovers!

Dog Training – Your Dog Around Horses

You’ve undoubtedly noticed that your dog is much smaller than a horse. (Well, most are anyway.) Nevertheless, most horses are much more frightened of dogs than the reverse. That creates unique problems – for dog, horse and the person who has to govern both.

In this case, unlike other animal training areas, it helps very little to start the interaction out when both animals are young. Young horses are at least as skittish as older ones, and are often accompanied by a mare. Neither is naturally fond of nor curious about puppies. To a horse, nearly everything but their owners and a few other horses are threats – at least until they’re mature.

Dogs, like humans, show a wide range of tolerance for others. Some are immediately friendly with every new dog, cat or lizard. Others are forever hostile to even the opposite sex of their own breed. Considering dogs are by nature territorial the diversity is odd, but there it is.

Naturally, animal lovers like to have more than one dog around and often several breeds or other species. Ensuring that chairs remain upright and necks unbitten can be a real challenge. Add to the mix the neighbor’s pets or random critters who wander into your companion’s territory and your furniture, not to mention your sanity, can be at real risk.

The first step is to start the process of socializing your dog as early as possible. Like children, puppies are much more accepting of strangers. They haven’t yet distinguished between friend and foe and everything is a new experience to be explored rather than feared or chased.

If you have only one dog, expose the puppy early on to other dogs and people. Get them used to being touched, especially between the toes, in the ears and near the eyes. Apart from impact on interaction with animals, that will make vet visits and trips to the store a lot easier.

Dogs, of course, sniff everything. When they’re about to interact with another, control them until you’re confident there won’t be chasing or violence, then let them explore the other dog, cat or creature.

A dog’s jaw muscles are among his strongest. An average-sized Golden Retriever can untie the knot in a rawhide bone (or just chew it off) in minutes. If only they’d stick to those!

The tendency to chew will vary from one breed – and one individual – to another. But most dogs will chew on objects in and around the house. Keeping them focused on objects intended for them is a continuing challenge.

Younger dogs, puppies in particular, will usually have a greater tendency to chew and less discrimination about what they choose. But even young puppies can be discouraged from grabbing things the owner would prefer to keep whole.

Yorkshire Terriers are the second most popular dog in the United States, with the Labrador retriever being the most popular. This essentially means that the Yorkshire Terrier is actually the most popular small dog in the United States. Is this popularity why they cost so much?

Yorkshire Terriers can cost as little as $450 and as high as $5000 or even $6000. For such small dogs, those are pretty steep prices. Usually, the females cost more than the males, and puppies that are parented by champions cost thousands of dollars, if they also conform to all of the breed standards and have the markings of a champion.

When it comes to dogs, some people will advise you to get a male, rather than a female, and in some cases, to get a female rather than a male, based on varying facts and myths. However, when it comes to Yorkshire Terriers, if you simply want a pet or a show dog, and you have no intention of breeding the animal, are you better off with a male or a female Yorkshire Terrier? Well, before you get the cutest puppy in the litter regardless of its sex, realize that there is a difference between males and females that you must be aware of, other than their sex.

Female Yorkshire Terriers are smaller than the males. Males are more aggressive than females, but if a female dog has a litter, she is actually more aggressive than any male could be. Some female Yorkshire Terriers are over protective of their litters, and this can become a problem.