 Two different breeds
The Silky Terrier was developed in Australia by crossing terrier breeds, specifically Australian Terriers and Yorkshire Terriers. It’s therefore bigger than the Yorkie and has a more angular body. Whereas a Yorkie should not exceed seven pounds, a Silky can be over ten pounds. Whereas, in Yorkies there is only a weight standard, the Silky standard is much more specific: “Shoulder height from nine to ten inches. Deviation in either direction is undesirable. Proportion - The body is about one fifth longer than the dog's height at the withers. Substance - Lightly built with strong but rather fine bone.” Yorkies should be square in shape, a Silky is more rectangular. The heads are the most noticeably different as the Silky’s is much bigger and longer, and again, angular. Unfortunatly, many petshop/puppy mill Yorkies look very much like Silkys. There’s some reasonable speculation that this is because these so-called Yorkies are actually Silky crosses. A Silky can have more pups more easily because of its relatively larger size. This makes them more desirable to people who want to mass produce puppies. |