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Originally Posted by gemy  This is a good question. But what I feel is more important than overall height/size/weight, is the density of the bone, and the integrity of the joints.
Now some of all this is related to each other of course.
It probably is true, if you have a taller Yorkie, that they will naturally weigh more, but are their bones dense enough? Of course as we know in humans, larger bones do not automatically equal denser bones.
But in Yorkies as in other breeds we do associate the "thickness of the bone" to approximate the density of the bone. Which of course does not answer the question at the joint (s), are they articulated well.
So I would look to the thickness of the bones as more of an indicator of fragility. Although lets face it a 3-4 lb Yorkie can have challenges irrespective of bone width/density.
"Matchstick type legs" at any age are of a concern, And puppies by definition all have growing bones, and ligaments that are soft. Their structure is very plastic in youth.
I remember picking up one Yorkie that "looked" to the eye, a "normal sized female", and then I felt her bones. Oh dear, so narrow, so tiny. And she was quite light in weight. In her case I thought she'd be weighing in at about 5 -5.5 lbs.
Then we compared her to a visually "smaller" female. And she was shorter than the first. But so lovely in bone structure. I thought I was going to be picking up a light 4lber or so. I was so surprised. A very solid lass. Not an inch of fat on her, and she weighed in at 5.5 lbs. Her bones were very solid.
But the standard doesn't and the very old "illustrated standard" doesn't talk about bone width at all.
In our breed to get an idea about "good bone" which is one of the criterias we breed for, we actually do measurements at the ankle joint, when they are pups. We also do chest measurements, for breadth of chest. |
Agree.
It's actually kind of odd to me, because I've been around other dogs who weigh very little - anywhere between 4lbs and 9lbs (papillons, cockapoos, etc) and they're just not really 'fragile' at all. They very easily get on furniture, they run around super fast, and are all overall very sturdy. But then I've met some 4lb yorkies who just seem... SO tiny to me. They can barely get up on the couch, etc.
But yeah, Jackson being closer to the 20lb scale (he's about 17/18lbs) is a lot less worrisome IMO than me having one smaller. He does things that I don't even think about it, to be honest, but people on here would probably cringe lol. He's always leaping from couch to couch. He jumps on and off the bed no problem. And there's really no stopping him, it's just second nature to him.
You can see him in 2011 with my little sister, around the 45 second mark in this video on the bed lol
Jackson doing tricks and playing with 3 year old Emma - YouTube