While it is true that white yorkies are very smart dogs, the fact remains that many of their owners encourage them to chase things. It’s obedience training in white yorkies for them; and these poor dogs have to learn what they can chase and what they cannot.
Some yorkies drive their owners mad by chasing birds on the lawn, some by running up and down the garden fence when people or other dogs or vehicles go by.
What is the cure for this kind of behavior in a white yorkie?
Keep the dog in away from temptation. I find a vast number of people whose dogs have many vices prefer to grumble rather than remove the source of vice.
They obviously haven’t the skill to train their white yorkies, so they must do the next best thing and keep the dog out of the way of temptation.
Take for example the bitch that destroys everything in the house. There is a best way to stop it, and this is to confine her when you are not about in an indoor kennel lined with zinc. She can then do no manage.
If she never has a chance to destroy things, she forgets the vice, and it is a good bet that she will have grown tired of doing it when she is, again, given the run of the house.
I honestly believe that some dogs – white yorkies included – that chase things and tear things up have a mental disease. If firm training does not stop them, and giving them plenty of interest in life has no effect – then I think there is no cure.
I knew one Yorkshire terrier, aged 8 years then – used to chase his own tail like mad every morning. On his death he was found to have a tumor on the brain.
Obedience training in yorkies must not be termed as useless until the possibility of a mental disease in the dog has been eliminated, for however good you are at training them, a yorkie with a diseased brain will never respond.
Not everyone who starts obedience training is qualified to train problem dogs. Those who expect to send a white yorkie away and get it returned obedient are expecting too much, for it is the owner who must be trained.
The right person to train the dog is his owner. Others can help but the owner must do the job.