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Originally Posted by MommytoMiles  They look like pure Yorkies to me!!! They were originally bred to be much bigger than the "standard" 3-7 many years ago. |
I know a lot of people think this, but they were originally breed to be under 7 pounds. The foundation sire, Huddersfield Ben, who weighed between 9-12 pounds, regularly sired stock that competed in the under 7 lb. limit and this was over a hundred years ago. Ben died in 1871. Yorkies have always been in the toy category. Also, standard only says must not exceed 7 pounds, there is no lower limit for standard. That of course doesn't mean that that a bigger dog isn't a Yorkie. However, many backyard breeders don't really care about standard, and just breed their pets, so the "average" size might be growing, but this doesn't affect standard.