Searching for more information about yorkies and rat-baiting I came across this interesting quote from a book written in 1948 "
THE BOOK OF THE DOG", Edited by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald
Staffordshire Bull Terrier - Stoutheart - RATS...
"Staffords & baiting sports, by Phil Drabble"
Quote:
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As time went on, however, rats became difficult to obtain in such numbers and it became fashionable to run handicaps. These were arranged so that the heavier the dog was the more rats he had to kill. Various handicaps were set ranging from one rat being added to a dog's quota for every 3 lbs additional weight over his rival to a rat for every pound. This was perhaps the favourite, and it was frequent to arrange a handicap where each dog had to kill as many rats as there were pounds in his weight, the dog disposing of his quota the quickest being the winner. For instance, a ten pound dog would only have to kill ten rats while Billy killed 27. This put rather a premium on small dogs and breeds were developed specially for this sport. The little smooth black-and-tan terriers of Manchester and the rough Yorkshire terriers were particularly good for this sport and a friend of mine owns a picture of three famous terriers ranging in weight from 5 1/4 lbs to 7 lbs. That dogs so small were game enough to kill large rats at all always surprises me. That they could kill 20 in less than 3 minutes seems nothing short of miraculous.
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According to Joan Gordon, this sport also led to bring down the size of yorkies.