Genes for other colors besides blue and tan, are in the Yorkshire terrier make up. Attached are several paintings from the 1800's prior to the Yorkshire Terrier becoming a breed of it's own. It was dogs like the ones pictured, who ran together, bred and produced pups that were a genetic smorgasbord of more than just blue and tan colors. The pups selected to start this breed, may have been black and tan as pups, but they carried more than the blue and tan color genes. I see black and tan, solid tan, parti and white terriers running around in these paintings.
Also pictured is a scanned portion from the 1945 book written by the American Kennel Club, "The Complete Dog Book," where it says "it is doubtful if many of the early Yorkshire Terriers could trace back to common ancestors, for in a land that knew so many terrier and toy dogs, it would be unreasonable to suppose that all the breeders used the same crosses." It goes on to say that it was thought that the Maltese also had a part in the development of the YT.
If some one has a newer version of this book, I'd love to hear what is written today about the Yorkshire Terrier because todays thoughts are so different from the views from earlier written yorkshire terrier history. |