[Fatalivy]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

The Yorkie developed over one hundred years ago, the people who developed the breed wrote the standard. Breeders in America followed that standard and have tweaked it over the years. I provided the link, but the site must be doing some revamping, it's closed now, maybe you can check another day. I've talked to people who are developing a standard for a new breed, and it's not an easy task. I'm sure personal preferences go into making it. Health is usually related to structure and that's why so much emphasis is placed upon structure. Of course, the yorkie has lots of genetic problems associated with it, but this has nothing to do with the written standard, it's more due to backyard breeders not knowing their lines and breeding a dog before they even know if it's in good health. We can test for these things now, but byb's don't do health testing.

Thanks so much!