[Nancy1999]

Hi welcome to Yorkietalk! The teacup miniature thing is confusing. Certain breeds, like poodles, have three size classifications, the largest is standard, next miniature, and the smallest is toy. Many people call the smallest size, the toy size, a “teacup”, but that’s not an official name and has no real definition. Yorkies, however, have only one official classification and it’s called the “Toy”. The official standard is “Must not exceed 7 pounds, although many are much bigger. Since there is no real definition for teacup, and everyone has their own thoughts to it’s meaning, it’s not a good sign when a breeder uses the terminology, and some do it to suggest that their dogs are ultra-tiny, under 4 pounds. Good breeders will not breed a female under 5 pounds, and it’s not good to breed for tinies because as you shrink down the size of things, they don’t always shrink proportionally. For example, the jaw may shrink, but the teeth are still large. There are some tinies who are small because of genetics and some are tiny because of illness. So it just depends why the dog is so tiny. I personally would be fearful of getting a dog under 4 pounds, and they may have more health problems, but this isn’t always the case. Size is just one piece of the puzzle. Tinies often have more accidents because Yorkies are fearless, and they will jump off of furniture, so get steps and teach them to use them, or don’t allow them on furniture.


It's certainly not true about the 7 year thing, we have many member with tinies whose dogs are 10 plus years. They should live as long as their larger counterparts, as long as they don't have illness that is making them tiny.