The Instruction Manual that Never Came with Your Four-legged Child
Pam Whyte

Yorkshire Terriers are not small dogs. They are big dogs with short legs. They have big hearts, big egos, big opinions, big attitude - and their teeth are not so small either!

They are dogs, like any other dog – but just midget dogs. A person that is a midget can function just as well as any other person – and so can a Yorkie! They can have children, rear children, hold down a job and command respect. They are not babies because they are short! When they are over 6 months old, they are adults. That is the way Yorkies would like to be regarded. Not as helpless because their legs are short!

So, if your Yorkie is to be beautifully behaved – you need to treat him like a child – not like dog!  I bet you have never heard that one before! But then, I bet you have never heard any dog handling technique that works as well as Nature’s Formula for Obedience! It works so well that you never even have to reprimand, or command or dominate or punish, or bribe, or click, or threaten or squirt, or point a finger, or be firm… which you will “have to do” (and it won’t work anyway) if you treat your dog like a dog.  The human perception of what a dog, that is!

Dogs were designed to live in a family (not into a circus, an army or a laboratory) and in a social system where there are parents, cousins, baby sitters, affection, mutual respect and cooperation with the parents, love and devotion for the “children”, (provided there is enough food to go around, that is) as well as ground rules, a conscience and a moral code. Doesn’t that sound like a sensible arrangement? Enough to make you want to go back and live in caves and in the jungle!

These natural principles produce peace and harmony, where the leader and his pack are a team – not opponents.  We are taught by the human system that the leader dominates. No, the sergeant major dominates! And a pack of dogs has nothing whatever to do with the army! As we know, a sergeant major is hostile toward his troops – he is not a leader (a leader is trusted and loved) - he is a dictator! Sure, in the wild there are dog fights – but why copy dysfunctional packs where dogs are fighting as a result of food shortages and destabilization through human interference, when we can apply the natural principles that govern harmonious existence?

So, in a functional pack of dogs, where there is more than enough food to go around, and where there is no rivalry over leadership, and the presence of humans has not caused anxiety and suspicion in the pack, a pack of dogs is a very close-knit and loyal social system, that nurtures, loves, cares for and protects one another and their young.

When a puppy is 8 weeks old, he is already one quarter of the way to puberty. That makes him at about the level of development of a 4 year old child! Makes you think… and if we fed a 4 year old by hand, never gave them a chance to walk, allowed them to dominate the scene… I think we would end up with a dog not unlike a movie star! Diva dogs do not like sharing the lime light any more than human celebrities do! So what is the solution? Don’t treat your Yorkie like a baby… treat him like a child! They were their mothers’ babies, and she weaned them both physically and emotionally before they moved into our homes. And then we go and undo all their Mom’s good work by treating them like our babies, and making them emotionally dependent, egotistical, and insecure!

How do I know? Because I have been teaching families to follow Nature’s Formula for harmonious coexistence for several decades, and the results they report are very exciting. Does it sound new to you? It is as old as history. And as up to date as tomorrow. Nature’s Formula for Obedience never dates.

And how do you treat your dog like a child? You don’t measure a child’s food; you don’t force them to eat revolting food,  you don’t keep a child hungry; you don’t feed a child only processed (fast) food (we know how that is linked to both bad health as well as to abherent behaviour; you don’t eat before your child while they are hungry; you don’t lock a child outside, or command a child (I hope), or order them to go outside; you don’t leave a child without company all day;  or tell them to sit and jump through a hoop, put steroids in their food, keep them constipated, (give them food that “gives them small stools”), force them to build up their muscles; deny your child fresh vegetables or gravy on their food, neglect their mental health… but people are taught to do all these things to their dogs, causing the dog owner-cum-consumer market to “need” gimmicks to try and cure the stress- and confusion- related behaviour problems that result from these fast-escalating, unnatural practices - which wouldn’t have presented themselves in the first place… if the dog was just treated like a child!

Also, parents automatically attend to their children’s mental health by encouraging them to observe and process what they see. But we are never taught to allow, and indeed, to encourage our dogs to stare, and to process their environment by observing, listening and sniffing what they see and smell, both at home, and on their outings, when visitors come, and at what is going on outside their front gate. Imagine not allowing a child to stare at a helicopter, or tractor, or horse, or other children, forcing them to run past them, and ignore them instead, and not allowing them to read or watch – they would grow up neurotic and completely mentally unstable. Like over 90% of our domestic dogs because we actually encourage them to grow up with very narrow horizons, where they are never given the opportunity to develop a frame of reference for what is happening around them. They have not been around on this planet as long as we have, so they simply do not know what we know, and are not given the opportunity to learn through observing, thinking, processing what they are seeing and hearing, and coming to correct conclusions uninterrupted. Which is another reason why The Dogs Must be Crazy!

So – if you treat your Yorkie like a child – the way a sensible parent does – this little four legged child will grow up stable, knowing his parameters, not throwing wobblies when he doesn’t get his own way, not demanding to be the centre of attention all the time, coping when the family go out, not being insecure or neurotic – because that is how adaptable, well adjusted children that are not confused, are.

We also need to realise that when we own such a small dog, we need to be tactful, and not to overwhelm them with loud voices and sharp and sudden movements close to them, and directed at them.  They are not really children’s pets. With their long hair, which is easily pulled, and small size, which often makes them feel intimidated and threatened by footsteps running past them – especially in a confined space – and with their sharp teeth that they frequently use in self defense, living with children can cause them misery, and children to get bitten.  Small children with grabbing hands that think the cute dog is a live stuffed toy that they just want to hug and play with can be very traumatic for a tiny dog. Even adults can unwittingly overwhelm, threaten and stand on their Yorkie by mistake. And when given to children and teenagers, they frequently bring more unhappiness than happiness because they are highly complex and highly intelligent animals, and therefore have complex animals needs, which when not understood and met, cause “behaviour problems”, which in turn bring guilt and anxiety to the child.

And because of their plucky temperament, children from 3 to 90 frequently think it is funny to provoke them to be aggressive by teasing them. This destroys their temperament, and the dog then becomes bad tempered through no fault of his own. People who get their kicks out of doing provoking angry reactions out of an animal (especially one that is so much smaller than themselves) have low self esteem.

And, not only were Yorkshire terriers were not designed to be children’s toys or adults’ surrogate babies - they were designed to kill! Big difference… Yorkshire Terriers were designed and developed for the “sport” of killing rats, where their owners in Yorkshire used to (and still do) lay bets on how many rats a Yorkie can kill within a set time. (Not very civilized, but that is what they do.)

And how does this affect your Yorkie? It affects a lot of our Yorkshire Terrier pets very tragically, because the dog only has the urge to kill rats when he is pumped with steroids. So when a Yorkshire Terrier is intoxicated with steroids, such as adrenalin, which the body produces under certain circumstances, he “has rats on the brain”. And when he is in this state, he does not look around and think to himself: “Well, I see that I am not in a rat pit, so therefore, even though I really feel like killing a rat or two or twenty, I can’t, because I don’t see any.” No – when he “has rats on the brain”, anything will do. A Pit Bull, a Rottweiller (size makes no difference), a visitor, a horse (as I said, size makes no difference – he is a very big dog with very short legs). And his fellow Yorkshire Terrier will also do…

Yorkies so often get killed during a “bar brawl” when their steroids levels are so high that they completely lose their grip on reality and take on large, vicious dogs, and also often unwittingly kill their beloved companions when in this intoxicated, disconnected state.

Nature’s Formula for Obedience teaches Yorkie owners how to keep their pets free of steroids, and therefore clear headed, so that they do not make these misperceptions, and these tragedies do not happen.

Also, being big dogs with short legs, they often run in one direction when out of their front gate, and have no intention of  turning around and coming home of their own free will. They also have a tendency to jump out of upstairs windows and off balconies. Many a Yorkie owner will testify to their Brave Heart being too brave! Natural Dog Training teaches Yorkies not to want to run out of open gates, and to come right back when they are called if they do, and keeps them rational so that they do not put bungee jumping onto their list of “things to do this week-end”.

And it has the added bonus of saving dog owners from getting trapped on the marketing treadmill.

Have you ever felt “My Yorkie does not show me the same affection that he shows my visitors! And he is my dog!” This is a mind game these little Diva Dogs actually enjoy playing when they get too big for their boots! Why? Because they can! And why can they? Because we underestimate them! The problem with Yorkies is that they are so flipping cute, so very smart, and so extremely good looking. (No, I don’t sell them – I have just rescued so many of their owners from them, so I know only too well.) Now add charm and charisma to this very impressive Curricula Vitae – and we stand no chance. Emotions inevitably cloud judgment. In fact, when a pup walks in the front door, common sense flies out the back door, as we get swept off our feet by their enchanting and manipulative little ways, finding that in no time, they have us tucked in their back pocket. And this is no exaggeration. It is actually quite sad, because this tendency to overachieve, without having appropriate parameters in place, actually detracts from the quality of their lives, and from the enhancement of their families’ lives.

Nature’s Formula for Obedience puts everything into a correct perspective, bringing harmony between dogs and their owners in a very simple and gentle way. Naturally! It shows you how to bring up your Yorkie to be confident without being (too) vain; to be obedient out of choice; to be emotionally stable, so that he does not get jealous, and/or bark to get attention whenever visitors come, when you are on the phone, and whenever he is not getting his own way; that does not make “mistakes” indoors, or suffer separation anxiety when Mom and Dad go out. In fact it shows him how to fit in, and to be good - because he wants to be!

And still be a Brave Heart that protects his family with his life.