CKC vs ACK

[Ladymom]

Originally Posted by mrs merch

I owe you an apology. I had noth considered all the repurcussions of careless breeding.

Nikki is not my first Yorkie. I had 2 in the 80's: One we purchased for $150.00 from a friend that had several Yorkies, and one we paid $500.00 for from a breeder. Both were registered with AKC. (Charlie Brown and Lucy were their names.) Both were perfect from the time we got them until we had to give them up (I had a son and he was highly allergic to them, causing repiratory problems). Lucy was of champion bloodline. Her coat was smooth and shiny, her teeth all straight. Charlie's teeth were all crooked and his coat was oily and smelly. He required much more grooming. We never had to take either of them to the vet for anything more than well check ups.

My point I guess is that I had no idea until we got Nikki how fragile this breed could be.

I will take your advice and that of the other posters and see what the original breeder has to say about regisering her with CKC rather than AKC. I have my suspiciouns that it's because of the criteria and the costs.

I'm sorry about the problems you and Lady have had to endure with her health. And I'm sorry about the tone I took with you last night. Please forgive my misunderstanding of your concerns.

No apology needed!

Since you had Yorkies 25 years ago, unfortunately the breed has become really popular. As a result, backyard breeders and puppy mills have been breeding them and all the health problems we see today are the result.

[BamaFan121s]

I have to say, somewhat in mrs merch's defense....

Because we are from the same down, I KNOW how rare it is around here to happen upon a breeder who DOESN'T let their pups go early. It is very much the common practice here to release pups at young as 6 weeks. Unless you take it upon yourself to learn about Yorkies VERY thoroughly first, you'd have no indication that there are huge risks invovled with getting one young. I remember that years ago when I was researching before I got my furbutts, learning that threw me for a loop too because it's honestly just not something you hear 'around these parts.'

Unfortunately, our state is one that has yet to adopt a minimum age release law as so many others have.

[jadecomputergal]

None of us want to offend you, but you have to be extremely selective in breeding Yorkies, even more so than with most other breeds. Yorkies are very prone to health problems/genetic defects. I have one that has luxating patellas (research on that is conclusive that it's a genetic disorder) and one that has a PSS. There's disagreement in veterinary community about whether that is genetic, but they all agree that dogs that are afflicted by it should never be bred, nor should the parents or siblings be bred after it's identified in the offspring.

My guess is that the breeder knowingly lied to you. I know a lot of breeders, and none of them would choose alternate registration because of the small difference in registration expense. You also won't be likely to get an AKC sire for stud, because people who do responsible AKC breeding don't allow their dogs to breed with untested dogs. Also, as others have said, any half-responsible breeder would never let a puppy go at six weeks old. Eight is the absolute minimum, and ten to twelve is preferable. I won't buy animals (I have both dogs and cats, and used to breed cats) that are younger than ten weeks. They're still bonding with and learning from the mother at that time, and they're too young for some health issues to be apparent at that point.

I truly am not trying to be harsh. I'm very sensitive to this issue because I'm on a campaign to do away with puppy mills. The conditions that you saw are, unfortunately, not uncommon. I'm going to a rally at our state capitol on the 16th to support legislation to stop this, at least in PA.

Please take a look at this thread http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...ppy-story.html