How to go about breeding Yorkie for first time?
 

breeding
 

Since your plan to breed is 18 months in the future I would suggest spending some time reading all the breeding posts and books..it is best to start at square one.

Hi Pat,
I have been reading the posts and I have posted some of my questions about breeding on here, but nobody will actually answer my questions. They tell me not to breed or that the mother and pups could die and that it costs alot to breed yorkies. I am glad that I was told this stuff, but I want to know things like what tests do I need to have done to Molly before breeding, at what age should I breed her and how will I know she is ready to be bred. I have never done this before and if I do decide to breed her I want to make sure I have alot of information and that I know what I am doing. I don't even know how to go about finding a good Stud also I don't even know what weight is a safe weight to breed her.
I just want to make sure that I will be doing the right thing for Molly.
Thanks for answering my questions,
Crystal

breeding
 

If you are reading, you know many of these questions already. Your best friend is your vet and a mentor...the vet can check out her health and the mentor can check her quality for breeding...this is the way I do it.
What you look for in a stud, is a male that is the best representation of the standard possible. It costs just as much to breed a poor litter of pups as a quality litter.

If I had a girl come into heat at 6 months, then again 6 months later, I would no doubt wait until the third season. The owner of the stud knows when to breed and if they do not, look elsewhere.
When a person is determined to breed their pet, they most often do it, no matter what negative responses they get...so keep reading the forums and breeding sites...you have many months to learn what you need to know.

Pat,
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I will reading up on breeding and I will speak to my vet. Again thank you.
Crystal

If she is only 6 months old and she is already 7lbs. won't she be too big to breed?

Honestly,
I didn't know that they could be too big, I know they can be too small.
Crystal

dont be too worried about the dying. i have seen on a lot of post here people stating that but there are yorkies everywhere. i think they try to scare people from breeding. very few die. people on this yt are always having pups regardless if it is the standard or not. re a stud, look thru your local paper to see if anyone is advertising their yorkie stud. if you find one...call and see if you can get references. if nothing in the local paper, try and find a breeder in your area (my area has no breeders so that would be hard). how about where you got your pup??? do they have more than one stud you can use?? if you find a stud, make sure you look at their medical pap wk (ck w your vet to see what they should have) of course the look at the appearnce and termperment of the stud and of course view the pedigree. dogs having puppies all the time. is a natural event and should be very exciting. good luck to you. also, ck the website....just put canine breeding in and it should give you lots to read.

It is a concern if you are trying to achieve quality standard pups. Yorkies are supposed to be under 7lbs. Many are born larger and make wonderful pets but breeding a very large dog will probably produce more larger dogs. I would wait and see how big she gets before you decide. What if she is 11 lbs.?

Most people on YT care about the breed standard. If they discourage people from breeding it is b/c a lot is involved in breeding these gorgeous animals. We all have pet quality Yorkies that we love but realize they aren't good for breeding.

Well said!
 

So many people breed because "they want to experience it", or "they want their dog to have puppies and be a mother", or "my dog is so cute, everyone wants a puppy from her".

This is why there are so many yorkies out there that don't look like yorkies.

You may be thinking no one wants you to breed. Not true. If you put the time, effort, research and money into setting up a quality breeding program, more power to you. If you throw your pet and another dog together just because you want puppies, I can't support that.

Whatever you decide, I wish you luck!:p

I want to make sure that IF I chose to breed her that the puppies will be from a good male, I want quality puppies. I will not just breed her with any stud. I want to make sure I have enough money for all that is involved in breeding. As far as her being too big to breed, if at 2 yrs old she is too big to breed then I will not breed her and I will have her spayed. This might seem like a dumb question, but i'm gonna ask anyway. If Molly is 8lbs @ 2 yrs old and I breed her with a male that is 5 lbs will it still not be safe to breed her. I don't know the answer so I need to know this so I don't make a choice that will cost my Molly. Thanks to everyone for helping me with this.

Crystal

It is safe to breed her but if she is over 7 lbs she is over the standard and its not ethical to breed a yorkie that is over the standard.

What people are trying to explain about her being too big is that the Yorkshire Terrier has a breed standard. That is between 4-7 lbs. If people continue to breed dogs that are outside of that standard we are going to deviate more and more from what a "Yorkie" is suppose to look like. What would be the point then for even having a standard. I myself have a girl that is almost 7 months old. She is 9 lbs already. I have began my research on becoming a breeder and hope to breed my first litter sometime next year. However, she has been spayed. She was not breed standard. Do I love her??? Heck yeah! I have since purchase my first stud and will be aquiring my first bitch in a few months. I've been researching for almost 4 months already and will continue to do so up until the day of my first litter next year. What people are trying to explain to you by saying "too big" is that she won't be standard and then we'll have a a whole lot of dogs (papered) running around that say they are yorkies, but don't even look like them. I hope that this makes sense to you and I'm not trying to knock you at all.. Just explain a little better.

I was told the same things when I asked about breeding. But the best bit of advice that I was given, was to get a couple of good books on breeding and read them asbout 20 times, I think I am up to about 12 times by now.

All of my questions were in the books.

Also get a couple of good books on yorkies, so you know what a standard yorkie is supposed to look like, what traits to breed for and which dogs should NEVER be bred.


That is the best advice you can get because there is soooooooooo much to learn.

Also keep reading the posts on here, they are very informative. And find an experienced breeder that you can go one on one with.

You also need to understand that if you breed an 8 pound dog with a 5 pound dog, you will not necessrily get 6 to 7 pound puppies, you will most likely get some that are 8 pounds and some that are 5 pounds. 5 pounds is good, 8 is not.

If you do decide to breed her you need to look at pedigree. It would be best to find a male stud that has produced good quality puppies. You should be able to go back atleast 4 generations on both dogs to ensure that the puppies should turn out healthy. For example, take liver shunt, genetic testing will do little to ensure that the puppies will not inherit it, you have to know the line of pedigree and whether any of those dogs have had liver shunt or passed it down. The dogs can and should be tested for it but sometimes it does not show up until they are much older. Even when you know the dog's lines you arn't guaranteed 100 percent that a puppy will not end up with it, it is the safest way however.

As far as size goes I would look at the parents, grandparents, great grandparents and etc.. to see the size of the puppies they have produced. I know of some breeders where their first, second, third generations all produced small puppies and then the fourth would produce bigger puppies and the fifth would be the original size. So you can't always go by the parents' sizes. I have heard of some studs bred to bigger females produce small puppies no matter what the size of the female was. Size and weight can be a very tricky thing to determine or predict.

And for the age to breed her, I was always told atleast one and half years old and had two to three heat cycles.

I'm confused??? Didn't the original yorkies use to be over 10 pounds, so why would yorkies that are over 7 pounds not look like yorkies. Perhaps it's the small yorkies we are all trying to breed that don't look like yorkies.

Yes, the originals did, HOWEVER, the breed standard now is between 4-7 lbs...

;) I don't know when this happened, but the breed standard used to be 4 to 7 pounds. It simply states not to exceed 7 pounds now. 50 years or so ago in England there were 2 classes of Yorkies. Under 5 lb. class and over.
Crystal, I commend you on studying up on breeding before you actually do it. When I first bought a female to breed, I thought I had found a good breeder and mentor. Although my pups were very pretty and healthy, I discovered she knew less about the breed standard than I did, after I had spent some time reading and attending a few shows. I'm planning to begin again, and am still learning all the time. I suppose I always will. I was fortunate enough to end up talking alot with a wonderful woman named Terry Shumsky (now deceased), who asked me simply, "if you're going to put the time and money into breeding, why not do it right?" LOL. She was never judgemental, just very practical. Here's one big tip. If someone will stud their dog without asking for a brucelosis test, run. And a good breeder who studs her dog will supply you with one from her male. Protect your baby, and good luck to you.

Reply to DaisyMaesMom: Just playing "devil's advocate" in my previous message (I understand the "standard" thing) However I still find your comment that breeding larger yorkies will "deviate more from what a yorkie is suppose to look like" humorous. Take a look at the thread "Pictures of a larger size yorkie??? Anyone" under Yorkie Discussion postings. Lots of pictures of big, cute yorkies that still look like yorkies -- Saw these yorkies and thought "wow, I need to look for a big yorkie -- they are adorable". (My yorkies are 5lb. and 6 lbs. - adorable as well!).