We have a 10 month old male neutered yorkie who snaps and growls when he is asleep and is moved or 'bothered' . He is our 4th yorkie in 30 years and we are so 'beside' ourselves. Parker is SO DIFFERENT from the other 3.....and I have used so many bandaids on my hands in the past couple months. We no longer have him sleep with us.....to dangerous......, and he's put in his crate, and doesn't seem to mind. All others slept with us and NEVER ONCE ever growled or snapped or bitten us......but oh, my.......just don't know if there is hope. I am going to check with a behaviorist...as I already talked to the vet about it. Does anyone know of this type of problem?...and is it something that a behaviorist can 'deal with'? I'm really scared, as it is getting worse. It is like he is 'sleep deprived' and 'attacks' when awakened ! ! ! Any suggestions or comments....PLEASE ! ! !

Has he had any kind of a fright while he's been asleep? My Beardie bitch Una was attacked while asleep and while she never bites will sometimes wake up snapping then realises and stops. Also you say you have consulted your vet, has he actually checked the dog over as my old Beagle got like this as he became stiffer. I would assume a young dog would react in the same way. Una's 13 now and very deaf so I have to be careful not to startle her I try to tap the floor or if she's on her bed pull the edge of the bed to wake her gently.
Anne

Have you tried waking him without touching him? My husband is really touchy when he first wakes, and needs to be woken by being spoken to and not shaken! If your pup is deeply asleep it's possible he's generally startled when suddenly woken and does what dogs do - they defend themselves from attack. If he's fine in his crate he obviously feels safer there, so I should let him sleep there. :)

One of my crested's was like this with my cleaner. She always put the dogs out when she comes around. My girl didn't like going out to the loo so she would snarl and snap at the cleaner. We put her on a larger piece of bedding which the cleaner could grab a corner of and carefuly tip her off. She soon got the hint. It's just about showing whose boss. He's 10 months old, hormones kicking in and wants to be boss of the house. You can't blame a dog for trying. If you haven't read Jan Fennell's The Dog Listener I'd recommend it. It will give you loads of strategies for putting him in his place kindly.

Good lukc :)

Forgive me, but if it were not for the bandaids I would have to laugh. My Yorkie never did this with me, but she exhibited exactly the same type of behaviour with my other dogs. If she was asleep and one of them moved she would growl and sometimes leap at them to attack, lips curled. If she had been on the bed or sofa, landing on the floor would wake her fully and she would wag her tail at her victim, completely unaware I'm sure if what she had just done, meanwhile her victim would stand there looking surprised and startled. My Yorkie slept in my bed with me and the others were in crates in my bedroom, for their own protection!

My sister's Cairn will growl is someone tries to move him when he is asleep, but he is moved anyway and he never snaps.

Stacey

I feel the thing to do is to maybe have a vet check to make sure he isnt reacting this way for a health reason. It sounds unbelievable but there are people who have had deaf dogs and the dogs have been so clever they haven't realised Now I'm not saying your Parker is deaf, but just using that as a sort of illustration to show that there can be health reasons for dog behaviour.

A behaviourist may be able to help or improve matters, but a lot does depend I feel, on why Parker does this. I suspect there is no health problem and he is fine. At the end of the day, I expect he is really sweet, but he is a terrier and maybe he just wants to hang on to his particular "resource" at the time.

I wasn't quite clear whether he snaps and bites just in the bed or at other times, presumably it is basically when he is comfy? If he is just bolshy then it is often possible to "re-train" the dog to understand he must listen to what you want :)

Lindsay