[CJxDanielle]

Originally Posted by DvlshAngel985

I find this thread very interesting, and have a question. Sorry if this makes me sound like a "noob" but what's the difference between "working breed" and "working bred." Does the first mean a category that the AKC has and the second a line of dogs that does a job and does it well so you breed from those lines?

One last question, even our toy breed yorkies had some working function at some point in time, right? How many of your yorkies actually hunt rats and mice? How does a show coat affect the yorkies ability to do this job? Or is it that the yorkie has been transformed so much that they are just lap dogs and nothing more? Just curious!

Its no problem! I can see the confusion
A Working Breed (i consider) has two definitions. Now this is just for me, but the first definition is a breed in the Working Group of the AKC. The second definition could be a dog breed that was bred to work (very descriptive I know ). I use the first as a definition of the working breed.

Working bred (for me, now it could be different for someone else or someone else could explain it better) is when a specific dog breed is bred only to perform the task it was originally created to do. For example, a working bred border collie would be from a line of dog bred only to herd, guard flock, etc. The dogs aren't always standard (because as you have already read) the standard can affect the dogs ability to work. So sometimes working bred dogs aren't standard because they wouldn't be able to perform their task properly.

On the other hand, their are dogs bred strictly for conformation. Some breeds bred for conformation (although standard) can't do the job is good as a working bred dog because of said standard.

I hope all that made sense because I kind of feel like a rambled all over the place. So basically what you said you think it was is what I consider it to be.


And your last question is a good one! I think some yorkie breeders now might try and direct that purpose else where. We don't exactly have the rat problem we use to anymore so its kind of as if the purpose faded out (or people use cats to do it). I know a few toy breeders who then direct that "purpose" to a dog sport such as Agility, Obedience, etc.

I'm not yorkie breeder and probably haven't been alive as long as some of the great breeders we have one YT have been breeding. So they will probably be able to answer that last question better than I can.