[MyFairLacy]

I was thinking about the Yorkshire Terrier...nothing is extreme about our breed except maybe the long coat which shouldn't affect health in anyway. We have a nice-sized toy breed (if people aren't breeding the 1-3lbers), with a moderate length muzzle, moderate erect ears, level topline, etc...if we have yorkies that conform to the breed standard they ought to be sound, well-structured dogs. We get things like Luxating patella and hip dysplasia when structure is off. And we have major problems with liver disease (shunt and MVD) but that's not from the breed standard we conform too..that's from genetics and even a yorkie with perfect structure could carry the genes for liver disease. I guess like cavaliers carrying genes for mitral valve disease.

It's very sad that there are breeds that must have such extreme features according to their standard that it hurts them..ie the bulldog's extreme head and face, the dachshunds long back and short legs, bassets long back and short legs, pekingese short snout, etc.