I have several books on yorkies and their breed history. In one of them (I'm going to post the book's title and author as soon as I'm done here!) the author states that contrary to popular opinion (and several websites) the original yorkshire terriers that were larger than today's standard weighed about 10 to 12 lbs maximum. It goes on to state the physiological reason why they weren't or couldn't be close to 20 lbs as many believe. Since they were bred as ratters they had to be small enough to get down in the rat holes. The book also says there were many weighing under 5 lbs, hence the reason why show groups were divided into 2 groups for yorkies over 5 lbs and under 5 lbs. |