You might look up local Yorkshire Terrier-attended dog shows, go to the website for the show and look for the breeders showing Yorkies there. If they are local, you can call and visit them and ask about any non-show quality dogs they may have available or get a referral from them to a good breeder they know of that doesn't breed show dogs. Most show breeders know who has good, healthy pet quality dogs of their breed available. Word of mouth is the way I found the dog breeder I got Tibbe from. I got my second Yorkie, Jilly, from her and called her when I was ready for my third Yorkie, 5 years after losing little Jilly. Barbara, the breeder, had him and some other Yorkies from another breeder that could not place her dogs and was having personal problems. The dog breeder I got Tibbe from said that the dogs from that other breeder were a mess when she got them and as far as she knew, they had all been crated all their lives and that she thought the kennels weren't cooled or heated - just outside with maybe some cover. Tibbe is pure pet quality and was 9 mos. old when I got him, has poor shoulder joint alignment and knew nothing of family life, grass, wind, pavement, how to go up or down steps, human contact or how to cuddle. He was wild as a hare and spent a great deal of time looking up at the ceiling or sky, of all things! When I first tried to clip his toenails he fought me like a Tiger cub. He spent considerable time standing with a foot in his own water bowl. He was fearful of TV, doorbells, running water, opening the refrigerator door and most other things. I honestly called an uptown dog trainer to see if he could see a dog and tell if it were brain-damaged or not, thinking Tibbe was mentally impaired due to his early hardships. Slowly, issue by issue Tibbe learned how to live like a dog with a human and turned out to be intuitive, smart as a whip, knows about 300 plus words that I know of, LOVES training, learns new tricks easily, is fun-loving, a great guard dog, well-behaved and FULL of life itself. Plus, he's the cutest thing in the world. So, one doesn't have to get a dog from the best breeder in the world to end up with a great canine companion but it sure helps to start out with a breeder with a reputation for breeding healthy animals in a clearn, humane facility. Anything worth doing is worth doing well so keep doing your homework, be persistent, visit breeders or the person you are doing to buy from if possible and I hope that you wind up with as great a Yorkie as we all here at YT have! When you get your baby, post, post, post. We all want to hear all about it! |