-Kristen and Abbey

“Devyn,

Here is our current picture of Abbey. She is 5 pounds and healthy as a
horse! She gives her brothers and sisters(4 other dogs) a run for their
money!

Best of luck to you.

Kristen”

-Tracey

If you have a particular behavior that develops in your dog that you do not like, you can change it.  It may take some hard work, patience, and time but it can be done.  Treats are your best friend just like they are when training a puppy.

We have a dog in our family that is about six years old and begs for food.  This is something that he has been doing since he was a puppy.  He barks and begs until he gets exactly what he wants.  This is a behavior that can be changed.  Dogs have the ability to learn at any age.  They are creatures of habit.  Something they do today is something that they want to do tomorrow. 

You want to start re-enforcing the behavior that you want and not rewarding the old habit that you do not want.  It is going to be much harder to change a habit rather than teach a habit. This is the reason why it is important to decide what behaviors you would like your dog to have when they are a puppy and train them early so you don’t have to go back and change a habit later. 

The key with a dog is to reward the positive and ignore the negative!

The ideal coat color for a Yorkshire Terrier is blue and tan.  “Blue,” in this case, is really a steel gray color.  The AKC will also recognize black (although rare) instead of blue and gold instead of tan.  The optimal color combination of a Yorkshire Terrier is:

• Blue and gold
• Blue and tan
• Black and gold
• Black and tan.

These color combinations should appear on a particular part of the Yorkie.  Their body should be blue or black from the back of the neck to their tail.  Their head should be a combination of tan and gold with their ears and muzzle being slightly darker.  The chest should be gold or tan and the legs also gold or tan.

Although you may love the look of a black and tan Yorkshire Terrier puppy I promise that you will love them just as much when they mature into their adult coat color!

My terrier, Lizzie, is very good with small dogs but will bark at a large dog even if it is a few blocks away.  We all like to call this the “Napoleon complex.”  Although our small dogs appear aggressive when they are barking at larger dogs it is really a reaction to fear.  They think that if they bark and appear aggressive that the larger dog may not feel as powerful.  This can be a very embarrassing experience when the larger dog is walking by nice and calm while your terrier is barking away.

Most Yorkshire Terriers, Cavachons and Yorkie mixes behave well with other small dogs, but there is always the exception.  The most important thing that you can do to protect your dog and other dogs is to ask the owner of the other dog if it is okay if both of your dogs interact.  Most owners will say, “Oh yes, my dog is friendly” or “Oh no, my dog doesn’t do well with others.”  Once you have permission to have your dog interact with another make sure that you keep your leash taught and are able to react quickly if there is a problem.  You never want to get into a situation where the leashes become crossed or you have to yank on your dog’s neck.  If you have to yank on your dog’s neck an injury could occur.

Whenever you dog is interacting with another dog you want to remain vigilant.  Your dogs may be getting along one minute and be in a serious fight the next minute.  Dogs can have very good friends; you just want to make sure that they have time to get to know each other!

If the ears of your Yorkshire Terrier are not standing up on their own by the age of 6 months you may have to help them stand up or you could just not worry about it if you like floppy ears like I do!

If you would like the ears of your Yorkie to stand up, which is the breed standard, it is best to keep the hair of the ears trimmed.  This is especially important when they are puppies because the weight of their hair can prevent their ears from standing on their own.  The trick to trimming their ears is to use clippers and trim the front and back of their ears from the tip to half way down the ear, and always trim in the direction of hair growth.  Make sure that your Yorkshire Terrier is secure and comfortable before you do this.  A trick that I learned with my dog is to let her smell and listen to the tool that I am using before I touch her with it.  This helps to increase the comfort level of your dog.

Make sure that you are very careful when trimming your Yorkies ears.  Ears do bleed a lot and if there is bleeding you can apply styptic powder to help with the bleeding.  If you are not comfortable with this process be sure to take your dog to a professional groomer. 

You also want to make sure that you keep your Yorkies ears clean.  The supplies that you need to clean their ears are an ear cleaning solution, which you can purchase at the pet store, and cotton balls or q-tips.  You do not need to reach deeply into your dogs ears; just keep clean the areas that are easily accessible and you will decrease the risk of injuring their internal ear when cleaning.

Yorkshire Terriers, like all dogs, are able to show lots of expression through their ears and it is important to keep them clean and healthy!

 Many of us think that our dogs are colorblind but in fact they are not.  They do not see as many colors as we do but they can differentiate colors within the range of sepia hues.

Although dogs cannot see as many colors as humans can, they have different benefits to their vision than we do.

Dogs have a broader field of vision and can detect movement better than humans can.  Our field of vision has a range of about 160 degrees while our dogs have a field of vision from about 200 to 270 degrees.  This fluctuation depends on the size of a dog’s snout. 

Because of the broader field of vision and a special membrane that covers their eyes they can detect movement from a much larger area than we can and they have much better night vision than we do which is why many dogs are used for hunting and like to do a little bit of hunting of their own in the back yard.

Even when a dog begins to lose their vision they are still capable of leading a full life because of the fact that their sense of hearing and smell is also so excellent.

Yorkshire Terriers, Yorkichons and Cavachons are very small when you will bring them home at the age of 8 weeks.  Their necks are also very fragile.  When you put a collar on a small dog, even when they are full grown, it is much easier for them to suffer a neck injury than if you were to use a harness.

My boyfriends family was walking their miniature pinscher in the park about three years ago right around Christmas.  He was wearing a collar.  A larger dog approached him and Rufus, the miniature pinscher, jerked on his collar as the larger dog came towards him.  He seemed fine and they continued their walk and returned home.  That evening Rufus was having trouble walking, was falling when he tried to get up and wasn’t able to jump on the furniture like he had been in the morning.  His family rushed him to the veterinarian’s office where they found that he had injured his spine and was suffering from internal bleeding in his brain.  They did not think he was going to make it through the night.

Rufus did make it through that night and was able to come home but to this day, three years later, his one front paw is still paralyzed.  He falls over sometimes when he is excited and he isn’t able to run or jump like he was before the injury.  All of this could have been prevented if he had been wearing a harness instead of a collar.

In my opinion, putting a harness on your small dog can prevent many injuries from occurring and can help you to have piece of mind that your puppy or dog will be able to enjoy all of their outdoor activities with less risk of being injured.