[Amazing Yorkies]

Originally Posted by wildcard

We only have 1 yorkie but I show and breed papillons and have dealt with similar issues. Much depends on what you want from a show quality dog. If I wanted a dog that I knew I could campaign as a special, I would wait until the dog was around 18 months to a year. However, I do agility and obedience training with my dogs as well as show them in conformation, so I balance the advantage of getting a dog as a young puppy for training purposes versus whether or not I am going to be able to finish a conformation CH on the dog. I err on the side of having the training advantage, so I purchased "show potential" puppies that did not come with any guarantee that they would be finishable, but rather the breeders knew they had no current disqualifications (i.e. markings, current bite, two testicles for the boys, no readily apparent size issues) and felt that, based on many years of breeding those lines, that the puppies would likely be able to finish. So it is a matter of having trust in the breeder that he or she has a good idea of what the puppies' parents should produce, what the pedigree includes, etc. If they are primarily line breeding they should have educated "guesses" about the future of a puppy, but there is definitely a risk that those expectations might not come to be.

So far I have purchased 4 "show potential" puppies that I brought home at 12 weeks, from two different breeders, and all 4 are AKC CHs, a pretty big deal as papillons are getting harder and harder to finish. On the other hand, we have also shown 2 other bitches for one of the breeders, one was around 10 months when we took her and the other was around 2 years old. It was a whole lot easier to determine at those ages that those girls would be "finishable" and both finished VERY quickly.

For me, I am willing to take the risk that a "show potential" puppy might not turn out, but it IS a risk.

Very good post! There is a difference between Show "Quality" and Show "Prospect/Potential". There is also a difference in prices usually. Prospects are usually priced less than Show Quality. But there is a risk.