You hit the nail on the head with your example! Actually as far as Labs go, there are four standards - Chocolate, Yellow, Black, and Golden Labrador Retriever. And there are two types - the English and the American. So you can have a chocolate English lab, a black American Lab, a Yellow American lab, etc etc... But, as you said, they are all Labradors. And all AKC registered. I have seen chocolate coated Yorkies, the standard AKC recognized Yorkies, and Biewer Yorkies (I have a biewer parti, I believe). In the end, they are all Yorkies. The way I understand it the AKC sets those standards for competition showing. I had a Chocolate Lab 12 years ago. His name was Dudley. He was AKC registered purebred. Now the AKC states that the chocolate lab should not be over 75 pounds. Mine was over 110 pounds! Does that mean he's not a lab? He wasn't fat or overweight. He just had a lot of muscle and happened to get to be huge. My vet was amazed. So I couldn't 'show' Dudley. Oh well. I'm not in to that to begin with. The point is, just like humans in dogs there are many variations of one breed. It doesn't make the variation less of that breed.
As far as their temperament goes: My mom has a AKC registered Yorkie name Teddy. She also had one name Clancy about five years ago (tragically he died too soon). Both were and are the yippiest, barkingest, hyper little dogs I have ever seen. They love their toys, are energenic players, and can just run around the yard all day long. My Matthias is very calm. He just sits around and cuddles. While he does get down on the floor and run and play he is content to lay on the floor and just watch the goings-on. The most energenic he gets is when he's tormenting our male cat (which is freaking hilarious). I think personally, and from what I've read, their personality traits are pretty much the same. They are both very terrier-like. And again, just like humans these dogs and every dog is an individual. They all have different personalities and much of it is shaped with how they are raised.
My opinion to the question of is a Biewer a Yorkie? yes. They are a Yorkshire Terrier through and through. They just happen to have a different coat coloring. Dock their tails and they look just like a Yorkie. Their body structure is that of a Yorkie. There are different variations of color for Caucasians, but they are all human, right? Biewers are a different color variation of Yorkshire, but it is a Yorkshire. |