48 Fun Facts About Yorkshire Terrier

What is the maximum weight for a Yorkshire Terrier?

The breed standards cap the Yorkshire Terrier at 3.2 kg (7 lb), making it one of the smallest of all dog breeds, not just of the terriers.

The Yorkshire Terrier's coat is tan on the head and what colour on the body?

The body coat is dark steel-grey from the back of the neck to the root of the tail, with rich tan on the head, chest and legs.

Workers from which country brought terriers to Yorkshire in the mid-19th century, seeding the breed?

Workers from Scotland who came to Yorkshire seeking work in the mid-19th century brought several terrier varieties with them, the raw material for the breed.

The Yorkshire Terrier was chiefly developed by workers in which industry?

The breed was developed mostly by operatives in the cotton and woollen mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire, working men who, as Mrs A. Foster noted in 1886, recorded almost nothing.

The Black-and-Tan was crossed with which two terrier types to make the early Yorkie?

Paisley and Clydesdale terriers, long-coated offshoots of the Skye Terrier, were crossed with the Black-and-Tan, and some believe the Maltese was used too.

The breed is said to originate from three dogs: Old Crab, Kitty and which third founder?

The third founder was an unnamed female; the breed's scant early records name only Old Crab, a male, and Kitty, a female.

Which show dog of the late 1860s defined the Yorkshire Terrier type and is called 'father of the breed'?

Huddersfield Ben, born in 1865 and owned by Mary Ann Foster, was painted by George Earl and fixed the type that won him the title 'father of the breed'.

Which writer called the 1878 show class mixing Yorkshire Terriers with other breeds 'confusing and absurd'?

Hugh Dalziel, writing in 1878, called the show classification that lumped these different terrier types together 'confusing and absurd'.

In which year was the first Yorkshire Terrier registered with the American Kennel Club?

The first Yorkshire Terrier was registered with the AKC in 1885, thirteen years after the breed reached North America in 1872.

Which dog is credited with reviving the breed's American popularity after the 1940s?

Smoky, the World War II war dog, is credited with renewing interest in the breed after small breeds had fallen to 18% of registrations in the 1940s.

In which AKC group is the Yorkshire Terrier shown?

Despite its name, the Yorkshire Terrier is shown in the AKC's Toy Group, not the Terrier Group, because of its tiny size and companion role.

Traditionally, how is a show Yorkie's long coat arranged?

The show coat is parted down the middle of the back and hangs straight on each side; the Kennel Club wants it glossy, fine, straight and silky.

How many colour choices does the AKC registration form offer for a Yorkshire Terrier?

The AKC registration form offers four colour choices: each of two body shades (one dark steel, one black) combined with either tan or gold points.

The white in a rare particolour Yorkie is caused by which gene?

The white patches come from a recessive piebald gene; particolour Yorkies can be registered with the AKC but are disqualified by the Yorkshire Terrier Club of America.

Solid golden Yorkshire Terriers produce only which pigment?

Solid golden Yorkies produce only pheomelanin, the red-yellow pigment, whereas liver or chocolate Yorkies make brown eumelanin instead of black.

Which German-origin breed was once considered a Yorkshire Terrier variant?

The Biewer Terrier descends from a particolour puppy named Schneeflöckchen von Friedheck, born in Germany in 1984, and the AKC recognised it as a separate breed in 2021.

How long can it take a Yorkshire Terrier's coat to reach its final colour?

A Yorkie's coat can take three or more years to reach its final colour, which is why P. H. Combs complained in 1891 that puppy show wins meant little.

To prevent breakage, a show Yorkie's oiled coat may be wrapped in what?

A show Yorkie's lightly oiled coat is wrapped in washi or tissue paper (or plastic); the oil is washed out monthly and the wraps refixed through the week.

In 1878 John Walsh described greasing the Yorkie's coat with which oil and keeping its feet in stockings?

Walsh wrote in 1878 that the coat was 'well greased' with coconut oil, the dog bathed weekly and its feet 'carefully kept in stockings'.

The Kennel Club describes the ideal Yorkie as having a carriage 'very upright conveying' what?

The Kennel Club standard asks for a carriage 'very upright conveying an important air', a nod to the breed's famously self-important demeanour.

Where does the Yorkshire Terrier rank in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs?

Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs places the Yorkshire Terrier 27th, the top of his 'above average working dogs' band (ranks 27 to 39).

A 2024 UK study gave the Yorkshire Terrier what average life expectancy?

The 2024 UK study put the Yorkshire Terrier's life expectancy at 13.3 years; a Japanese pet-cemetery study found 14.3 years and an Italian study 13 years.

Colour dilution alopecia in Yorkies is associated with which coat colour?

Colour dilution alopecia strikes dilute coats, and in Yorkies it is the blue body colour, a diluted black, that is affected, causing patchy hair loss.

Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome in Yorkies causes which bone to degenerate?

Legg–Calvé–Perthes causes the head of the femur to degenerate; it usually appears between five and eight months and is treated by surgically removing the affected bone.

Luxating patellas in Yorkies are graded on a scale running from 1 to what?

Grade 4 is the most severe; many dogs never progress past stage 1 or 2.

A portosystemic shunt, common in Yorkies, is a malformation of which blood vessel?

A portosystemic shunt is a malformed portal vein that lets blood bypass the liver, carrying toxins toward the brain and heart; seizures after meals are a classic sign.

What is usually the first sign of tracheal collapse in a Yorkie?

Tracheal collapse usually announces itself with a 'goose honking' cough; vets recommend a harness over a collar so lead-pulling does not strain the weak windpipe.

A 2019 study found what share of Yorkies had early periodontitis on at least one tooth by 37 weeks?

The 2019 longitudinal study found 98% of Yorkies had early periodontitis on at least one tooth by 37 weeks, marking the breed as highly susceptible to periodontal disease.

Transient juvenile hypoglycaemia is most often seen in Yorkie puppies at what age?

Transient juvenile hypoglycaemia strikes mostly between 5 and 16 weeks, when tiny pups lack the muscle mass to store glucose; corn syrup or Nutri-Cal and a vet visit are the emergency response.

What colour are Yorkshire Terrier puppies at birth?

Yorkshire Terrier puppies are born black and tan; the black gradually lightens into the adult body shade as the coat matures over the first years.

Which breed was created from the Yorkie?

The Silky Terrier was developed in Australia by crossing Yorkshire Terriers with Australian Terriers, giving a slightly larger dog with a similar fine coat.

Champion Ozmilion Mystification made history in 1997 by becoming the first Yorkie to do what?

Crufts is the world's largest annual dog show.

Sylvia, the smallest dog in recorded history, weighed how much when she died in 1945?

Sylvia, a Blackburn Yorkie, weighed just 4 oz at her death in 1945, standing 2.5 inches at the shoulder and 3.5 inches from nose to tail.

Smoky the war dog was found in 1944 in an abandoned foxhole in which jungle?

Smoky was found in a foxhole in the New Guinea jungle in February 1944; soldiers first thought she was Japanese, but she understood commands in neither Japanese nor English.

Corporal William Wynne bought Smoky for two Australian pounds so the seller could do what?

The seller just wanted to return to his poker game; the two Australian pounds he took were worth about $6.44 at the time.

How tall did Smoky the war dog stand?

Smoky stood just 7 inches tall and weighed 4 pounds, yet flew a dozen air-sea rescue and reconnaissance missions with Wynne in the Pacific.

According to an Animal Planet investigation, Smoky was the first recorded what?

Animal Planet's investigation named Smoky the first recorded therapy dog; she began visiting wounded soldiers in a field hospital in 1944 and kept up the work for 12 years.

Pasha, a Yorkshire Terrier who lived in the White House, belonged to whom?

Pasha belonged to Tricia Nixon Cox, the president's elder daughter, and lived at the White House during Richard Nixon's presidency (1969–74).

Yorkies are called hypoallergenic for shedding little, but allergists say reactions are triggered by what?

Allergic reactions are triggered by dander and saliva rather than hair, so a low-shedding coat is no guarantee; as experts put it, 'the luck of the few with their pets cannot be stretched to fit all allergic people'.

Why is a Yorkie described as having poor tolerance for anaesthesia?

Its relatively small size gives the Yorkie a low tolerance for anaesthesia; toy dogs are also more easily injured by falls, other dogs and owner clumsiness.

Hypoplasia of dens, seen in Yorkies, is a non-formation of the pivot point of which bone?

Hypoplasia of dens is a failure of the pivot peg of the second cervical vertebra (the axis) to form, which can damage the spinal cord and cause anything from neck pain to quadriplegia.

What does the Yorkshire Terrier's coat lack that makes it shed so little?

Yorkies are single-coated, with no undercoat beneath the long silky hair, so they shed very little and need regular brushing to prevent mats.

How many show prizes did the breed's foundation sire win in his short career?

He won 74 prizes in a show career of barely three years, placing at Manchester and the Crystal Palace shows, and was also a ratting champion.

What killed the breed's foundation sire at the age of six in 1871?

He was run over by a carriage in September 1871, aged six; by then his offspring had already fixed the Yorkshire Terrier type.

Which trick was part of Smoky the war dog's post-war touring act?

Smoky's act included walking a tightrope blindfolded; she and Wynne performed for about a decade in Hollywood and on some of Cleveland's earliest television shows.

Smoky pulled a telegraph wire through a 70-foot pipe at Lingayen Gulf on which Philippine island?

The airfield at Lingayen Gulf is on Luzon; Smoky's run through the 70-foot pipe spared about 250 ground crew and 40 aircraft a three-day dig under threat of bombing.

The 2005 bronze memorial to Smoky in Lakewood, Ohio shows her sitting in what?

Susan Bahary's life-size bronze shows Smoky sitting in a GI helmet atop a two-ton granite base placed directly above her burial spot.

When Smoky died in 1957, the Wynne family buried her in what?

The Wynnes buried Smoky in a World War II .30 calibre ammo box in the Cleveland Metroparks' Rocky River Reservation; the memorial followed nearly 50 years later.