[Yorkiemom1]

When I first decided to breed Yorkies, I had to understand exactly WHY I was doing it. After my "why" was answered and understood, I researched exactly what I needed to do to get to the "why" I had established for myself. I decided my "why" could not be reached until I was thoroughly educated on the history or the breed, and then drilling deeper into lines and pedigrees and what was producing HEALTHY Yorkies, with great dispositions, and that LOOKED like Yorkies were supposed to look.....reference the breed standard.

This part of my education took about 10 years. I attended seminars, dog shows, became familiar with breeders and show people, most of who treated me with the same skepticism and mistrust that you feel you have seen displayed by breeders on this forum, to people whose true motives or agendas are unknown. It became obvious that I was an "outsider" who quite possibly was seeing breeding Yorkies as a get rich quick scheme, and the dedicated breeders that have spent years and years perfecting their lines and promoting this breed, through hours and hours of blood, sweat, tears, study, research, showing, reading, studying, etc, these people did not appreciate anyone that was not totally dedicated to the breed, strictly for the breed's sake.

I had to establish trusting relationships with these people.....some were willing and others were absolutely not interested! I established a relationship with several mentors, very well respected, well established mentors.....all this before I ever considered actually breeding two dogs of my own. I helped whelp litters.....I worked on and off for several years, with a vet that specialized in small dogs, especially Yorkies, for no salary, just experience.

After a total of around 15 years of all of the above, I bought my first breeding stock, and began reaching my goals in my own breeding program. THIS is what I did to avoid as much as possible, the resentment and skepticism of breeders. It certainly was not easy, and there are areas and people that I still approach with humble respect but optimistic caution. I did realize that some of the harshest, most caustic, teaching methods were coming from people that knew sooooo much more than I probably ever would know, and one of my mentors is really brutal with me.....she has reduced me to tears on several occasions....but she has taught me soooooooo much and I owe easily 85% of my breeding experiences and expertise to this lady. I just "got over it", "sucked it up", matured emotionally, stayed the course and showed that I was determined to do it and do it right.