[Foster Mom]

You are not alone.

I had my little boy and wanted a girl so I could breed. I figured my little boy was 3 pounds and if I got a bigger female all would be good, right? WRONG!!!

So I went looking for my little girl, I found a breeder that would give me breeding rights (this was 9 years ago and when I lived in Canada). I bought my baby girl and paid 3000.00 for her and also signed a contract that said the breeder got a puppy out of EACH litter she ever had. I thought that was a little crazy, but decided to go ahead with it. (Yes, I was very stupid at the time). So they bring me my girl, I got her April 1 of that year. With my little boy he was only 3/4 of a pound when I got him at 14 weeks old so when I saw her and she was about 1 1/2 pounds, I had no reason to doubt she was 12 weeks old like they told me she was. I was told she would be about 6 pounds full grown. Well about 2 weeks later I got her CKC Registration papers and noted her birthdate was Feb 28, which made her barely 4 1/2 weeks old when she came to me, not even old enough to be weaned yet, lucky for me she was a bigger, sturdy girl and she did fine.

Fast forward 2 years, We had a litter. It did not go so well, first off she had to have a c section, then she rejected her babies so we fostered them out until they were 7 weeks old. She went thru a depression after we fostered the babies out and would not eat or drink for several (8) weeks, the only way I got nutrition into her was to feed her and give water by syringe. I decided then to have her spayed. The breeder tried to talk me out of it, saying the next time would be better and she would help me out. I said no. So the vet tells me afterwards it was a good thing I never bred her again because her uterus wa "paper thin". Well in the meantime this breeder had used myh male for stud, and I bred 2 girls for her, then she brought me a 3rd and this little girl was not even 4 pounds, I absolutely refused to breed her. The breeder had a fit because of this, but I said she was too small to be bred and I was not going to be responsible in any way for her getting pregnant. The breeder then went on to tell me that my male must be sterile because her one girl did not get pregnant and her other girl only had one pup. So by this time I realized she was nothing more than a puppy mill type of breeder and I asked her if she was insane, I said my male had 3 pups with my female and even if her one dog only had one pup, there was no way my male was sterile. The puppies came back after being fostered and my agreement with the breeder (a different breeder) who fostered them for me was she was to keep one pup in payment for fostering, so 2 pup came back, my girl was an awesome mom to them when they came back. They ended up with coccidia and I thought I was going to lose them both. I again got lucky and they survived. The breeder I got my girl from called and said she wanted one of the pups as per our agreement, by this time I was so upset with her and her breeding practices there was no way in hell she was getting one of the puppies, so I lied and told her none of the babies survived. I was NOT putting a pup into her hands.

First she charged me 3000.00 for a girl that was supposed to be 5-6 pounds full grown, she is 10 1/2 pounds and when I told the breeder she was much bigger than I expected she said "Do you want to trade her for another female" I said no, I love her, and I do not care what size she is. She sold her to me when she was only 4 1/2 weeks old. She has a cotton coat, again no big deal, but I was told she would be of show dog quality. She has had numerous health issues, the most serious being having BOTH of her back legs COMPLETELY reconstructed, she lost use of both of them at the same time. One minute she was out on a walk and the next she could not use her back legs, so of course we rushed her into the vet and found out her legs were just a mess and major surgery was needed. She had the surgery on both legs at the same time, then 2 weeks later had to have one redone as it was still as bad as before the surgery. She was not socialized and this has caused problems because she is not always the best with other dogs, she will at random times for no apparent reason go after any other dog we have. She does not do it as often as she used to, but the fact that she does it at all with no apparent obvious, reason the only thing I can think of is because she does not know any better because she was not with her momma and litter mates as long as she should have been so she was never taught by her momma.

The year she had her babies I spent close to 17,000.00 in vet bills. First her ultrasounds, then xrays to see see forsure how many babies there were and to see if she should be able to whelp naturally, then the emergency c section (of course she decided to try to have the babies on a Sunday), then the numerous vet visits to try to figure out why she would not eat or drink, each vet visit was never less than 250.00 - 300.00 and we were at the vet about every 2nd day for almost 8 weeks, then her spay, then the babies had to be microchipped, have their shots, bile acid tests, treatment of the pups for coccidia. Then we had her legs done and then 2 weeks later had to have one re done.

I tell ya, I give good breeders all the credit in the world, I was nieve and stupid when I decided breeding would be a good idea, I mean after all, how hard can it be??? I found out the hard way just how hard it is. I decided that I would leave it to the pro's.

With yorkies breeding is not something to be taken lightly. If you have not bred them before please think twice before trying it, it is alot harder than you think. With the kind of breeder your girl came from you are taking a huge risk if you try to breed her, and God only knows what kind of genetic defects could be in her line, you obviously did not have a reputable breeder and you seem to be very much in the same situation I was in, when it comes to that so God only knows what her breeding stock is like health wise and if there is anything in those lines. Sounds like she is very much like the breeder I used, someone only in it for the money, someone who does not care what she throws together in order to have a litter and make money. Someone who dies not care if there is genetic defects or health issues as long as she can sell puppies and make money. I feel so sorry for any other dogs still in her care and sadly there are alot like her out there.

Please learn from my mistakes and do not jeopardize your girls health and well being, just love her and give her the great life she deserves because apparently she did not have the best life in the beginning and that is all because of someone's greed.

good luck and give that little girl lots of love, it is not her fault where she came from and she did not ask for it.

Hugs