[MyFairLacy]

A male can physically breed and reproduce starting as early as 5 months sometimes but you really shouldn't breed him until he is at least a year old. The female should be 18months - 2 years old before she is bred.

There is a lot of responsibility that goes along with breeding. It takes a lot of knowledge, time, dedication, and money to breed the right way. Why do you want to breed? Breeding should only be done to produce excellent examples of the breed and to improve the breed. It should never be done just because you want puppies, want to experience the "joy" of a litter, want to make money, etc. Only dogs that clearly meet the Yorkshire Terrier standard and are great examples of this breed should be considered for breeding. And most importantly, dogs must be perfectly healthy and come from disease/defect-free lines to be bred.

Before you breed, both the male and female need to be evaluated to make sure they meet the Yorkshire Terrier standard. Most reputable breeders choose to do this through entering their dogs in conformation shows, although some choose not to show and will have judges, show breeders, or others very knowledgeable of the breed evaluate their dogs. Then you must begin health screening (and yes, this is a must...this breed is plagued by many health problems because of backyard breeders and puppymills that don't screen). Both the male and female need to have a full physical exam, a full blood panel, a Bile Acid Test to check for liver shunt, a Urinalysis, eyes and ears checked and cleared, Patellas checked for Luxating Patella, Hips Checked for Legg Calve Perthes, Heart checked for defects, Kidneys checked, etc. You also want to have both dogs tested for Brucellosis (an STD) even if it is their first time because they could have been born with it if the mother had it. You also need to research your pedigrees and know your lines well so that you know if the females are free whelpers or if any have needed c-sections, size of dogs in the past generations, and whether or not any health issues are in the lines. Yorkies are 36 times more likely to have liver shunt than all other breeds combined and it has been known to skip 10 generations so while your dogs may not have the disease, they could be a carrier. It's very important to know your lines are LS free so you don't produce offspring with this defect. It is sometimes fatal and if not, very expensive to surgically correct. Yorkies are also the #4 breed affected by Luxating patellas according to the OFA..dogs with Luxating Patellas should not be bred...while it's not fatal, it causes the dog a lot of pain and is an expensive surgery to correct the problem. Health screening is a must...it is not fair for puppies to be born unhealthy and have to suffer, and it's not fair for their new owners to have to deal with it. So please please please, if you decide to breed..HEALTH SCREEN for everything possible.

Also, are you prepared for the possibility of losing your female? It does happen. Some die in whelping or develop enclampsia or uterine infections which can be fatal if not treated quickly enough. So much can go wrong. Are you prepared to spend hundreds to thousands if she needs a c-section or if something is wrong with the puppies? If the puppies have a health problem or defect, are you willing to keep them and take care of them for life?

Anyway, there is a lot to think about with breeding. It is not something to take lightly. Yorkies are already so overbred right now...backyard breeders and puppymills are cranking them out right and left. So many yorkies are unhealthy and don't even look like a standard yorkie anymore. If you are going to breed, please do so responsibly.