Its definitely possible for a Yorkie to kill someone. With the risk of making my dog sound like a little jerk, he broke my skin several times in teh last week. I dont' think it would be that difficult for a mean little dog to kill an incapacitated person or a child

Well, I have to say tht Tucker is always trying to kill me! From tripping me when I walk, laying across my face when I'm sleeping and giving me a heart attack by running towards the road he will be the first Yorkie to kill someone. If you find me dead, he's the culpret!

Ok I think people just need an excuse to focus off of the vicious pit bull breed (Yes I know they CAN be friendly and owners are bad, but lets face it, most are the way they are by nature). Even cats are more dangerous to babies and people in general, than yorkies. I won't believe it, NO NO NO NO NO!..HAHA..they are all angels and thats it.

LMAO - At the risk of making my dog sound like a little jerk ? That CRACKED ME UP !! They ALL act like little jerks sometimes but hilarious little jerks !! LOL - that was funny - you too Teri....That was posted so perfect - you made me laugh out loud - How true !!

I've never heard of a yorkie doing anything bad, but I did hear about 2 dacshunds who climbed up and over stuff to get into a childs crib. You can imagine, because I don't want to write it :( Which leads me to warn people, ifyou have dogs and babies, don't give them a clear path up and into cribs.

It sounds so outrageous that a Yorkie could cause a fatal attack, but I saw what had to be a 30 lb "Yorkie" at Petsmart the other day. The dog was pretty obviously not a pure bred Yorkie but the owner certainly thought it was still a pure bred Yorkie and it did look similar to a Yorkie. Similar enough that had it been involved in attacking a child or someone it would have probably been called a Yorkie attack.

OMG!! That's funny! :yelrotflm

My yorkies kills my budget!

Adria, I do believe I've seen that exact same "yorkie" in PetSmart before too. They asked me what kind of dog my little Romeo was and I said a yorkie and they said oh yes, that's what ours is too! I swear the dog was the size of a cocker spaniel! :eek: The ears were floppy, but it did have pretty hair and could possibly be mistaken for a "giant yorkie." I think it would be possible for one that size to hurt a human.

I wish someone could find out more about these yorkie attacks -- maybe we should ask the author of the article where the statistics came from?

I don't remember yorkies but I can remember a case where an elderly lady fell and her 6 chihuahuas paniced and attacked her - she bled to death. :(

Source of statistics
 

Okay, I tried to track down the originator of that article that fasteddie posted so that I could see where the statistics came from. The info in that article appears to come from the following report that was published in JAVMA (it's like JAMA, only it's for vets instead). It is now available on the cdc's website:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf.

In that article it states that in a study of dog bites conducted from May of 1975 to April 1980, 1 yorkshire terrier was involved in a DBRF (dog-bite resulting in a fatality). So basically, that info from fasteddies article comes from a report quoting another study that says 1 yorkshire terrier was involved in a DBRF between 1975 - 1980.

I am now trying to track down the original 1975 - 1980 study (The citation is Pinckney LE, Kennedy LA. Traumatic deaths from dogattacks in the United States. Pediatrics. 1982;69l:193–196 in case anyone wants to help ;) ). Once that article is located, we should find more info on exactly how the fatal yorkie bite occurred. I'll keep you posted as soon as I find it.

Isn't it interesting how a statistic that there was one DBRF from a yorkshire terrier since 1975 has been turned into an analogy that yorkshire terriers are as vicious as pit bulls??

Mac has managed to "kill" quite a number of his stuffed toys. When he really gets into shaking them to death he can look like quite the mad man. Now maybe if he weighed about 5x's what he does he (tops out at a whopping 2lbs 15 oz. now I'm sho :Puppy: oting for that extra oz.) he might be able to cause some serious damage.

Do they say if the dog bite was the only cause of death or is it possible that the person might have contracted something like Rabies from the dog bite?

And the dog you saw sounds exactly like the one I saw... They were surprised that Pixie was so small and warned me that she'll probably have a major growth spurt and I should be prepared. :rolleyes:

LOL.....That would be one heck of a growth spurt. :D Let me know if pixie doubles in size in the next week or so. :D

As for the article, the one on the CDC site that is a copy of the JAVMA article is just quoting that Picknickey article which lists 1 yorkie with a DBRF. I am trying to find that Picknickey article, but to no avail. I may be forced to actually research it in person at the library instead of online. :eek: All it says is DBRF.....I'm sure there are several things that could be a dog-bite related fatality depending on what related means......i.e. did the bite give them rabies as you mentioned or something else. Also, I know the sources for the original report were newspaper postings and hospital reports, so that also makes it less credible in my eyes. I'm hoping with the original report we could learn more.

Good researching tarawood! I couldn't find that original article no matter where I looked! I think that the Yorkie is just being used as a statistic to further someone else's agenda, though I would believe that it did happen at some point...

I have trouble accepting that a yorkie could kill someone. It had to be a baby or a child. Even then they just don't seem to have the temperment for it. My 3 pound yorkie can't hurt a flea.