Shoot, with six yorkies and four tundra shepherds, ALL of whom live in the house with us, you won't get any flak from me! LOL! Typically large dogs are extremely tolerant of foolish yorkies, at least mine are. Our rescues have come from a vast assortment of situations and most of them are pretty foolish when it comes to territory ... they each think they are the alphas. You're right to be cautious about the bigger dog, but I'm betting he wouldn't do anything more than scare the bejesus out of the little guy. I remember when Woofman (165 lb tundra shepherd) "took down" Rocky (20 lb yorkie) it scared me to death! Rocky was diabetic and was on a special diet food which he detested. One day he snuck into the pen where Woof's food was, and started eating out of it, Woof growled his warning and Rocky leaped for the throat. He wasn't giving up that tasty food without a fight! Woof used his big ol' foot to pin Rocky on the floor and then did the snarly-in-your-face thing that dogs do, baring his teeth and making very nasty noises. Rocky wouldn't submit, but when Woof let him up again he did walk (quickly) away from the food dish and never tried to eat out of it again. Yorkies really don't notice that they're shrimps.

I can almost guarantee it's an issue related to the heart or the blood circulation in a specific area. I saw another post on here from someone that said it could be related to blood circulation or issues with the heart or chest, and that their dog was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, which, my dog has these heated spots as well and also recently got diagnosed with congestive heart failure and fluid retention in the lungs and abdomen. The heat is extremely hot to the touch, like, really really hot at the base of my dogs shoulder blades and migrates down his left side and then around his rump. He does have a weight issue, which is related to the congestive heart failure, and an enlarged heart, and this heating only happens when he's resting, which to me would hint at it being related to blood circulation because his heart has to work harder then he's resting. My advice to anyone that's worrying about this overly heated area: get some x-rays done. Mind everyone else - if it's a warm area where: your dog is itching (or chewing) on their fur relentlessly, is starting to get a wet, balding, or raw look due to scratching their fur out, and may possibly even be causing itself to bleed due to the amount of itching.... Then you have a hot spot. It can be due to skin conditions, fleas, allergies, or even just bad habits or anxiety. You can shave the fur around the spot if it's starting to look raw or wet-like, keep the area clean, and you can also put a shirt on the dog (if they're getting to it by scratching) or a cone on their head (if by chewing) to keep them away from it until you can get them to the vet to treat it. Hope this helps you and your fur buddies, and good luck to everyone!

The derm vet at school does not like ZD for allergic dogs. Some dogs manage to react to it, despite the manufacturer's claims that the protiens are too small for the body to recognize. I know other allergists and derm vets who feel the same way. They recommend single protein, single carb source food that the dog has never eaten before. In my own personal experience, I don't like the ZD either. My now deceased Aleksander had some food allergies and other allergies that got a lot worse when we moved from MD to NC. In addition to all the other stuff I had to do for him, we tried to switch him to ZD. This was back when they first introduced the food, and Aleksander's allergist was trying it out on some patients. Well, Aleksander and ZD did not get along. First of all, he acted like a hyperthyroid cat. He'd eat and eat (I doubled then tripled his caloric intake) and run around the house like a stark-raving lunatic. He would also drink a lot of water, probably to try to alleviate his constant hunger. Despite my tripling his caloric intake and not increasing his exercise, he lost 5# in one month, and didn't need to. I was about to test him for hyperthyroidism (which is always caused by a very malignant thryoid tumor in dogs) because of the way he was acting. I was really worried about him and the sudden weight loss. Then my vet friend (not the allergist) asked if I had changed his diet and suddenly things began to make sense. I told the allergist about what was happening, and she said that several other of her patients reacted oddly too, some of them with massive weight loss, most with odd behavior. So the allergist said to switch to IVD venison and potato, and I did, and Aleksander was fine. He calmed down within a couple of days and his weight increased to normal. He stayed on IVD until he died. SG- most dogs can eat anything. Wild canids certainly are not that picky about what they eat, and I sincerely doubt that they have allergy problems. The problem is not with the food, it's with the dogs due to years and years of breeding for looks and not health and ability. Just as a person with shellfish allergies avoids eating or touching shellfish, dogs with allergies to lamb or beef or corn or wheat need to avoid those food items. Normal dogs have no problems extracting the nutrients from plant and animal sources (unlike cats, which cannot digest plant materials at all because they are Carnivores) because dogs, like humans, are omnivores. Just as there is nothing inherently wrong with most people eating shellfish, there is nothing inherently wrong with most dogs eating corn or lamb or whatever. It's only those that are allergic that have to avoid their individual allergens. There's nothing magic about the digestion of the foods the duck or deer eat (farm raised deer often eat corn, at least they did until the price of corn increased), just that they are broken down by the animal and used for energy. Although some pet food manufacturers use "animal digest" (pre-pooped poop) as an ingredient, most of the quality ones don't, so it doesn't matter what the protein source animal ate recently because it isn't included in the diet. Of course, wild canids eat everything and are fine because they evolved naturally instead of being messed with by humans. We ruin everything, but that's another discussion.

Hi Everyone~!! After reading all of the comment's on this thread I thought I would add our experience in hope's it will help someone. This happened several years ago with our 4 month old G.R. Murphy, we started noticing red rashes on his abdomen, after bathing him and trying simple things we took him in to our vet. We were told it was just a basic skin allergy that he had more than likely picked up from the Lake water and with medication and bathing it would clear up. It did not......after 2 year's of doing everything humanly possible to clear his skin including sending skin scraping's to U.C. Davis in Calif. , 3 different vet's, and a constant stream of extremely expensive medications, potion's and lotion's I intensified my research. I found an article that described everything Murphy was experiencing perfectly, I found a few more and all of them led to dog's being put down with no cure. Well I never give up so the one thing I found similar in every article was that it may be an internal parasite, so comparing all of the different medications came up with a list and started researching internal parasites and the medications that would kill them. After the process of elimination I found one Medication that neither I or any of the others had tried..........Interceptor. Unfortunately all of my research was lost with the computer I had done it on but the research paid off. I got the medication gave Murphy the chewy tablet and within 6 days his skin was beginning to clear, it is a once monthly treatment and by the 2nd. month all open sores had cleared, we were able to wein him off of all of the medications he was energetic and happy again. They have improved the medication and it is now called Interceptor Plus. Unfortunately all of the medications had taken a toll on Murphy's Liver and we lost him a year later. 6 years ago we brought a New Member of the Family home another G.R. , I had ordered the new Interceptor but it had not arrived yet and we saw the same rash..................................at that time they had stopped producing it while building a new plant so I was so desperate I had to order it from Australia told them the situation and they had it to my home within a week, gave Hunter his chewy and All is well. In closing I hope this info will help someone and remember Never Give Up~!!!!! Here is a link. Love to All. Jan. http://www.interceptorplus.com/