Around the mid 19th century unemployed Scottish workers moved south in search of work, and they brought their little dogs with them. Cross breeding them with local terriers produced a dog capable of catching and killing the rats that infested the local mines and cotton mills. That dog first appeared at a bench show as a broken-haired Scotch Terrier in the early 1860′s. This fledgling breed finally became known as the Yorkshire Terrier in 1870–The little ratters journey towards world popularity had begun.

Within a decade the Yorkie had clambered out of the gloom of the mines, and in to the lap of the most wealthy women in England. The Yorkshire Terrier quickly became the ultimate Victorian fashion accessory. Either carried in the crook of a Socialite’s arm, or peeping out from her chic handbag. The Yorkie was quickly embraced by American fanciers and was classified by the American Kennel Club as a member of the Toy Group. The breed standard requires the Yorkie to weigh no more than seven pounds, but no minimum weight is indicated. Dogs as light as one pound have been bred. But, as most responsible breeders point out, when dogs are bred to this size their health is being put at risk.

The Yorkshire Terrier has a long, silky, flowing coat of dark steel blue that parts along the spine to cover the body and tail. The head and legs are tan colored. Eyes are dark, and sparkle with intelligence, and the tail is usually docked to a medium length.

The Yorkie and apartment life go together well. A yard for him to explore and romp in would be nice, but he can live without it. Don’t forget to give him a daily walk though. He needs his exercise as much as the next dog, even though he may be a fraction of their size. This is a very playful and sociable breed. They enjoy family activity, and want to be right in the middle of it. If you have young children you need to be careful. Tough as the Yorkie is, he is tiny, and rough play could end in a serious injury.

Yorkshire Terriers usually get along well with dogs and other pets, but they can be attention seekers, and consequently demanding. Some Yorkies can be stubborn, but they also like to please their owners. You should take advantage of this trait by starting to train your puppy from day one. Socializiation is equally important. Try to attend your local obedience classes with him. This will help him to get used to other dogs, people, and situations. It’s also an opportunity for you to meet new people and their dogs.

Yorkshire Terriers are a relatively healthy dog breed. Although, retained baby teeth, hernias and hypoglycemia can be problem areas. Feeding your Yorkie will not break the bank. They do not have the most robust digestive systems, so do tread carefully with his diet. Feeding dry food will keep his teeth in a better condition, than if you feed him on canned food. You can mix the two feeds until you find the best blend. Most Yorkies need regular brushing and combing to keep their coats in good condition, and to prevent matting. Dogs with very silky coats need slightly less grooming. You also need to brush your dogs teeth frequently, to alleviate the problem of early tooth decay that this breed is prone to. The well bred and socialized Yorkshire Terrier is a pleasure to own. Of course, the Yorkie has its flaws like all dog breeds, but as a loyal and affectionate companion it has few rivals.

Andy Matthews is the best friend of Suki, a 2 year old Cocker Spaniel, who has tirelessly built from scratch http://www.top-dogs-names.com. Check it out its kind of unique!.

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During the competition, the dogs show how they are in charge of their movements and their skill as they navigate around a path, without a leash, in positions that necessitate unexpected changes and levels of complexity. The contests have specific obstacles, grading, and measures they anticipate from each of the dogs that have entered. To receive outstanding marks for your dog, you need to be completely prepared prior to the day of the competition. The goal of a competition is for the dogs to prove to the judges and their trainers their responsiveness. You will want to spend time readying your dog in the areas of nimbleness physically (he will need to this for quick movements through weaving), self-control, and fortitude. You and your dog will need to develop an excellent team-working relationship so the dog’s ability to listen to your commands (or hand signals) is paramount to success in this sport.

You can begin training your dog for this sport as early as puppy stage (around four months old). Training during this time is more like playing and that is what the dogs like the most anyway. You never want to make the puppies jump over poles as their bones are not strong enough, but you can begin teaching them the general idea by having them cross over a pole on the ground and as they grow begin raising it until they are at competition level. Puppies love to run – in and through everything – so training them to go through tunnels is actually quite easy. As you are training your puppies to learn basic commands you can incorporate those same commands to get them through the tunnels. This same principal applies to teaching them how to lie down on the table. They will learn the quickness of the table early. You can use a touch stick to begin introducing the aspect of weaving through the poles to the puppies (they love any type of activity where they can move). Puppies are so enthusiastic to learn and so happy to please. They pick things up fast. Once a puppy learns an obstacle, they will not forget it. Another advantage to teaching the obstacles of an agility sport to the puppies is the socialization they are getting with each other.

During an agility competition the dog and their handler move from each consecutive course, the difficulty increases. The advanced courses entail split-second timing for the dog to complete the course within the established time frame. If you are worried for the protection of your dog, you can relax because each barrier has been carefully considered with the safety of the dogs as well as the amusement of those who are watching. Agility competitions are fun for the dogs, trainers, and spectators. They are a great way to show everyone how agile your dog is as you leads him through various obstacles,

Agility trials are open to all dogs. Dogs of medium build that come from breeds and/or lines of breeding that have maintained their original working abilities have a tendency to be the most undefeated in agility competitions. However, no one breed dominates agility trials. Because of the athletic demands of the sport, dogs that are less agile are rarely seen or successful in the forms of the sport conforming to international rules. This applies mainly to the larger, giant breeds and to some degree the short-legged, long backed breeds.

For those who love dogs and love competitions this is a great sport to become involved with. You can cheer and support your favorite dog or simply enjoy watching the dogs as they show the judges their best.

Zahid N. Sindhu is a dog enthusiast who, after noticing the lack of an online resource for dog lovers in Pakistan, decided to launch http://www.DogsPK.com The site features a comprehensive list of breeds, breeders, veterinarians and online classifieds. The site also has a forum where people meet to discuss their canine friends.

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Dogs can do some pretty disgusting things, and poop eating also known as coprophagia probably tops that list. You may have noticed that your dog has a taste for cat feces (either found outside or fresh out of the litterbox). Some dogs even eat their own stool, right after eliminating. While this isn’t necessarily bad for them, it can be harmful if they ingest cat litter or the stool of another animal that contains harmful parasites. Aside from that, it’s just plain disgusting and not becoming of our canine friends.

Why Does My Dog Eat Poop?

There are several factors that can result in coprophagia. It can be seen in dogs who are hyper and immature in nature, simply because they are bored, and are driven to keep themselves busy. Dogs raised in filthy environments (pet stores, unscrupulous breeders or previous owners) are likely to eat their own feces simply because they have a need to be rid of it, and it becomes a learned behavior. Some believe that particularly dominant dogs will eat the stool of other dogs in order to remove their scent from the territory. Coprophagia seems to be most common in hunting, working and herding breeds.

Don’t Rub His Nose In It!

Coprophagia might be a learned behavior. Rubbing your dog’s nose in a pile of his own feces as a method of housetraining can teach him that the presence of feces is bad, and he’ll develop a habit of eating it in order to avoid punishment.

How do I get my dog to stop eating his own poop (or random dog poop he finds outside)?

The best way to prevent a dog from eating his or other dogs’ feces is to clean it up as soon as possible, without making a fuss or otherwise calling attention to the act of cleaning. If you’re walking your dog, clean up after him immediately (you should be doing that anyway!). If your dog has free reign of the backyard throughout the day, be sure to pick up poop on a daily basis.

If you have an indoor dog, be sure you are taking him outside on a frequent, regular basis. Dogs have an instinctive drive to keep their environment free of any smells that will attract predators and if they have to poop inside due to your forgetting to take them out, they will sometimes eat their own poop as a way of acting on this instinct.

There is a product on the market called Forbid. When mixed in a dogs food, Forbid is tasteless. However, once it is digested and excreted in the stool it is exceptionally foul tasting! This of course only works for dogs who eat their own stool. Talk to your veterinarian about this product.

How do I get my dog to stop raiding the litter box?

Dogs seem to especially love cat excrement. Unfortunately, this can be more dangerous since they will most likely eat some of the cat litter along with the stool. Cat litter can be toxic to dogs as well as wreak havoc on their digestive tracks especially the clumping variety.

It’s a good idea to keep the litter box in an area accessible to your cat, but not your dog. This can be accomplished by putting it in a room or corner blocked off with a gate (make sure your dog can’t jump over the gate!), with a small area of the gate cut out just big enough for your cat to fit through, or even propped up in such a way that your cat can squeeze through but your dog can’t.

Some litter boxes are designed to prevent easy access by a dog, such as those with a top entrance instead of a side entrance the dog’s neck isn’t long enough to reach all the way to the litter at the bottom through the small opening at the top. This might be a good solution for you.

As a final note, keep in mind that this behavior like most behaviors isn’t going to disappear overnight. Be patient, consistent and loving with your dog, and with enough diligence he can be trained to stop eating feces. Keep in mind that dogs are creatures of habit and if your dog has gotten used to eating his or other animals’ stool, it might take some time to break this habit. Diligence is the key!

Daniel Collinsworth More dog training articles can be found here: Dog Training Basics

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You know the scenario. You come home and your dog has made a mess on the rug, or chewed the corner off the coffee table, or eaten the lasagna you had sitting on top of the stove to cool. You immediately give your dog the eye and, not surprisingly, he gets that guilt-striken look on his face and starts slinking away.

A-ha! you exclaim, You know what you did! You just couldn’t help yourself, and now you feel guilty!

Going with the moment, you punish your dog with a swat to the head with a newspaper, or a stern No! Bad dog! Baaaaaad dog! You don’t eat food off the counter! Or maybe you even banish him to another room with the door shut, to really show him who’s boss. He knew what he did, you think afterwards, feeling confident that you taught him a lesson he won’t soon forget.

…Or did you?

The Unmistakable Face of Guilt

We’ve all seen that guilt-striken face, haven’t we? The one that says, I did it, I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have. There’s just one problem… dogs don’t feel guilt! Guilt is an exclusively human emotion, so while it’s not surprising that we ascribe our emotions onto our dogs, we are mistaken in doing so. Dogs don’t have morals, and they certainly don’t have moral dilemmas. They act on instincts, impulses, and conditioning. If a dog gets into the lasagna that was sitting on top of the stove, you can be sure that he enjoyed every moment of it and walked away from the scene of the crime feeling nothing but a full, satisfied belly. And perhaps a feeling of incredible luck.

That look of guilt is nothing but your dog’s reaction to your upset/angry/annoyed demeanor and body language. A dog’s first language is body language that is how dogs communicate with eachother. Therefore, your body language is very important to your dog and he reads it constantly to understand you. When you see that mess on the floor and your face tightens up, and your eyes glare, and your shoulders drop, your dog is getting a very clear message from you: I’m feeling aggressive and you’re standing right in my way!

No wonder your dog gets that look on his face and starts to slink away. This is his way of saying, I see you’re not happy, and now I’m showing you that I’m no threat to you. You’re the boss, I’m just gonna back away slowly now and get out of your way.

It has nothing to do with feeling guilty about what he did. This is very important to keep in mind you’ll discover why in the following section.

Timing is Everything

Dogs live their whole lives in the present moment. In a dog’s eyes, punishment and reward must be immediate. In the litter, if a puppy mouths the mother too hard, he gets a quick nip from her right then and there. Dogs connect punishment and reward with whatever they are doing in that very moment. Here are a few examples of ineffective punishment and reward:

1. You are housetraining your dog, and you stand just inside the door as he goes out and does his business. He relieves himself, sniffs around a bit, then trots back into the house. You lavish him with praise and possibly a cookie. He’ll love the attention and the treat but he won’t associate it with eliminating outside. An effective reward would have been given outside, the very moment he finished.
2. You come home from work and find that your dog has urinated on the living room rug. You bring him close to the urine spot, point at it and say, No! Bad dog! before cleaning it up. This is just confusing to him… he won’t understand why the urine is making you angry, and might resort to urinating in a more hidden area so you won’t find it in the future. If you find a mess, just clean it up and work on out taking him out more regularly (and praise him when he gets it right) so that he learns outside is the proper place to relieve himself.
3. You discover one of your most expensive pairs of shoes has been completely demolished by your dog. You shove the mangled shoe in his face and tell him what a bad dog he is, and that he should never eat your shoes again. Your dog doesn’t know the value of your shoe, nor does he understand the concept of a shoe that is unwearable because it has been chewed up. Make sure he has plenty of toys to chew on, and keep your shoes behind closed closet doors.

Remember: Dogs don’t associate right now with 2 minutes / 30 minutes / 2 hours ago! They only associate right now with right now!

Daniel Collinsworth More dog training articles can be found here: Dog Training Basics

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Dogs thrive on positive direction and are extremely social animals. Over the years, the breeds have been protected and perfected. The outcome is a breed who have a deep foundation within the respectful human dog relationship. This is why the respected relationship is the most significant factor between pet and pet owner. As such, a good relationship between dog and man is built on trust and honor.

In such a relationship the dog is guided and not pushed to understanding himself naturally. By doing this, a pet owner is committing themself into truly understanding who the dog species really is. This is first developed by understanding the dog and its history.

Within a dogs pack are its inner circle of friends. This consists of both human, the pet owner and family, and dogs, either friend or sibling. We know this because all dogs are derived from the wolf, who are social-pack animals. By understanding and studying the wolf, we gain a deeper knowledge of the dog’s human relationship; where the canine views those humans he lives with as pack members. By recognizing and understanding this simple yet crucial fact you now understand and know 95% more about the true dog than the average pet owner. This will lead to the best possible training of a puppy through the inclusion of the dog in the pack and naturally developing a pecking order with your dog.

What about the alpha dog? Is this for real or is it another dog myth? By all scientific documentation the alpha male is for real and is a common fact. All wolf packs have an alpha male that can be seen as the head boss. They can take on single or multiple roles depending on each pack that can be: leadership, setlling fights between pack members, dictator, etc… All other wolves look to the alpha male dog for leadership and guidance and therefore create a stable family pack relationship. If you’ve got a dog who hasn’t be trained properly and is the alpha of your house a change is needed. There should be no question in your dog’s mind tha you are the alpha and he is the subordinate. You must present yourself as a leader starting with the first impression.

When dealing with your dog, an enormous amount of communication is sent through body language. One important way alphas command respect is with authority in their eye contact. Gentle looks will signify acceptance and stern dominant expressions will demand respect and compliance. This is done through various training techniques to aid the dog in establishing and making eye contact with its owner. Training in general should start the day the little puppy enters the world. Dog training should be a complete life experience for the dog focusing on the big picture and the human dog relationship. This is different than the basic sit, roll over, shake, stay and find commands and requires much more than breaking a dog through disciplinary actions and reward systems. When the inner pack relationship is established between owner and dog, an unbreakable and non-duplicated bond is formed. This bond is not done justice with words but is known by many pet owners throughtout our world.

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