[Nancy1999]

While I can understand that many people, after first buying their Yorkie, are tempted to "replicate" it; it's unfortunate that they don't study the subject enough to realize breeding Yorkies is much more difficult than the larger breeds. I think people tend to think that reproduction is a very natural thing, and done in nature constantly, and with very few problems. They don't understand though, when man first became involved in breeding dogs, it became extremely important to do it in a healthy way. The testing that should be done on the dogs is too expensive if you are just going to put out a litter or two, so they neglect to do this important testing, and the results of poor breeding often don't show up until years later when the offspring is diagnosed with a genetic illnesses, and often after being bred themselves. What's really sad for the breed, as a whole, is that it's the poor breeder who sells dogs with no restrictions on breeding, so the whole thing repeats itself, resulting in dogs that are sicklier and sicklier.