But it is these eager white yorkies who are the first to get tired of doing it, and who have to start all over again later, so we are going to teach our white yorkies the right way from the beginning and ignore their natural desire to retrieve, which may soon diminish if not properly directed.

First of all, we use a dumb-bell, because it has big ends to make the center bar stand up off the ground; this enables the white yorkie to pick it up easily.

The white yorkie must never be allowed to pick it up by the ends or chew it. At home I keep my own high up on a shelf, and as I give it to my white yorkie, I use an excited tone of voice as if it were the greatest treat to be allowed to retrieve dumb-bells.

We begin with the white yorkie on the lead at the ‘sit’. Gently open the white yorkie’s mouth by inserting your finger into the side of the mouth where there are no teeth, immediately behind the large canine tootj, always keeping your hand on top of the white yorkie’s nose, not trying to pull down the bottom jaw.

Don’t push the dumb-bell back into the white yorkie’s mouth – just balance it behind the canine teeth, and allow the white yorkie to close its mouth on it.

If you shove it roughly into the mouth you will frighten and hurt the white yorkie, and your task will become more difficult. Should the white yorkie try to spit it out, as most of them do – put it firmly back with the command ‘hold’.

To help him do this, scratch his chest with the other hand, for white yorkies will hold dumb-bells for a long time so long as this pleasurable scratching continues. Always take it out of the white yorkie’s mouth with two hands, holding the ends, never with one hand only.

Repeat this, making the white yorkie hold the object until he does quite so happily.

More on Yorkie terrier training.

You would imagine that in training your white yorkie, with all the noise and bustle, would be the very last way to cure a nervous white yorkie. But it works out otherwise.

Training a white yorkie is never that easy, believe me. It is extremely hard for the owners not to give in immediately, chiefly so as stop the noise, in case the neighbors think they were being cruel.

The truth is that it is cruel to give in, for the white yorkie has then allowed its nerves to get the better of it. Shut thy ears and go on compelling the white yorkie to do what you want, praising and stroking encouragingly all the time.

The reason is that there is so much going on all around it that the white yorkie does not know what, specifically, to be frightened of, and soon pays little or no attention to hurrying feet or a bounding white yorkies.

I have a neighbor who had an adorable show white yorkie the other day who would not hold his tail up in the show ring and thus lost the prize card.

Another friend of ours suggested that they just come and stand in the middle of the room with all the white yorkies going round. We took them there, and, in a happy, cheerful voice, encouraged them to come for a romp.

In no time, up went their tails, and I hope they will now win the much sought after prizes.

On a serious note, white yorkies suffer from inhibitions and fears we do not understand. They are waiting for a lead from their owner, and if the owner can transmit to them his confidence in them, that is half the battle.

I hear so many people say ‘I know my white yorkie won’t do this or that’. In my mind I say ‘if you trust your white yorkie he will. Especially if you know how to instruct it’, and that is the secret, mutual trust and belief.

It means you must train yourself first before you can train your white yorkie. If you have zero confidence in yourself, your white yorkie knows it.

Therefore, I suggest that before you start to train a white yorkie, you should read as much as you can about the efforts of other trainers, if possible see how it is done, then go and do your best to carry out all the 20 exercises – convinced that success is not far off.

Learn more about training yorkies.