The Yorkshire Terrier Club of America (YTCA) sets the standard for the Yorkie. Here's the link, but the site is closed now, I guess they are doing some updating too.
Yorkshire Terrier Club of America The AKC is the registry that the YTCA uses, but they do get involved whenever the YTCA is changing the written standard. Club members swear to protect the standard and standard shouldn't change, just because of a new fad or color preference. Many people believe that standard should only change if there is some type of health problem associated with the written standard. There are about 5 other breed clubs that do have health problems due to the written standard, but so far this isn't true of the Yorkie. Most breed’s standards include personality attributes as well as physical descriptions, and standard is not so much written as to "what's the best", but more for what works best for a certain type of job. Yorkies were bred as ratters and they just happen to be beautiful, but a true dog lover can see the beauty in every breed. Here's some information from Wikipedia. The breed was being established in the 1800's.
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Huddersfield Ben (ca. 1865 – 23 September 1871), an early Yorkshire Terrier, is universally acknowledged to be the foundation sire of the breed.[1][2] In his day Ben won many prizes, both as a show dog and in ratting contests. He had tremendous influence in setting the breed type for the Yorkshire Terrier, a new breed still under development in Ben's day.[3] Although larger than a standard Yorkshire Terrier, Ben regularly sired stock under 7 pounds. Huddersfield Ben - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
This last part is important because it meant that Yorkies could start competing in the toy group.