I've had dogs as long or longer than I've been a parent. We got our first Yorkie when my kids were 10 and 2 yrs old. You need to teach your children what is the proper way to handle a puppy and what is not acceptable behavior in the same way you would need to teach the puppy on what is acceptable and what is not. I've done in home child care for all age groups for the past 28 yrs and with all of the children who have come and gone throughout the past 28 yrs the process of teaching them how to treat my animals starts all over again with each one from the moment that they enter my home. It is a must that the child be taught what is acceptable and what is not with any thing including the dogs regardless of their size, large breed or small. I dont feel that any family should be discriminated or looked over as being a suitable family for a Yorkie if their only fault is having small children. I've had to teach dozens of kids throughout my yrs as a child care provider how to handle my animals with no issues.

I have had litters of pups and day care children at the same time with no issues. When it comes to raising pups, I always included my own children at a young age into the raising of our pups in order to prepare them for their new homes. I make sure that my kids handle them and play with them each and every day after the age of 2 weeks in order socialize our pups.

I feel that small children and puppies small or large go hand in hand with the proper training and extra attention given to both child and pup they should get along great !!

Wonderful posts! Love reading the pros and cons here and everyones personal experience or stories they have to share whether good or bad!

Dawn how wonderful to read about your in home daycare while having litters and raising pups!

I have a 2 yr old boy and a 5 yr old girl. When I first got Joey they were not allowed to pick him up or hold him. I would let them hold him close if they were sitting and we just went from there. Joey is a sturdy little guy and runs and jumps and plays with the kids and if things start getting too crazy I tell them to calm down or I put Joey in his crate until things are safer for him. Thats only happened twice that I can recall.
I also have a lab-mix. I got her before my son was born and my daughter was about his age. We adopted from the shelter and from day one I made sure they respected each others space. Carley has never barked or growled at any of us, and warmed up to Joey very fast. I think the whole situation has to be looked at when getting any kid of pets with your family. Not saying that it cant be done regardless, but it really depends on how much work you want to put into it.
Would I do it all over again? OF COURSE! Would I change anything...only that Joey snuggled more and Carley slept at the foot of the bed when she decides to sleep with us, instead of sharing our pillows! haha!!

You can not teach a child how to be stable and coordinated when they move about. They simply do not have the developmental skills fine tuned enough to not fall or trip even if they are doing nothing but turning around and changing direction. This can not be taught,,,,that is like putting a toddler on a 6 lane freeway and expect him to be able to dodge cars....he has been taught to walk, he kows how to walk, he can see he needs to get to the side of the freeway, why cant he do it??? Because he is not developed enough to move with the stability and forethought required to make it safely across the freeway! Toddlers flop down on their butts when they sit...if a puppy is behind them, I dont care how well you have "taught them" to stop and look behind themselves before they collapse to the floor...and if they sit on a puppy....or they fall over a puppy.....or they drop a puppy.....or they set one down too hard on the floor, because they do NOT have the motor skills developed at that age to NOT set the puppy down hard....these are not TEACHABLE skills....these are developmental skills.....If you have small toddlers and you have Yorkies or any small dog and there have been no accidents, you have lucked out....I am just explaining why a breeder may not sell to families with small children. I dont sell to families with small children....6 years old is my cut off age, and I save the "teapot" Yorkies that I have, for families with children. I have placed about 5 of these larger yorkies in homes with 6-8 year olds, and they have done fabulously!

Having had large dogs all my life and no less than 3-5 at a time, I can honestly say there is no way in hell raise yorkies and small children at the same time! High maintenance for sure. Some Yorkies are more fragile than others and they require a lot of attention, and they deserve a lot of attention....Accidents happen, and when you have dogs and kids things will happen, I could tell a hundred stories of the kids and dogs...not to mention the horror stories I've read here...on the other hand, accidents happen regardless, adults and pups as well...theres the sit on the pup, step on the pup, slam the pup in the door etc., I've seen it all here....IMHO as a whole, I would say that raising Yorkies and Small children at the same time really isn't the ideal situation...and theres no way, armed with the knowledge I now possess that I would ever do it....

Couldn't agree more. You never can tell what a small child will do with or around a small, fragile dog.

I got Joel with the daycare, but left no chance of a kid to hurt him. When he was a puppy he was in the playpen and when the kids left he was aloud to run around and he's never once been close to being hurt by a kid, thats why he likes them so much:)
Now that he's older he's used to the kids so he doesn't care to be by them unless there sitting down then he likes to cuddle by them.
But now he either follows me or is sleeping. If anything it's only us adaults that have hurt him lol

I do have a semi horror story about Kyra and my daughters daycare. On the day we brought Kyra home at 11 weeks old we stopped by my Daughters to show her off. Thinking the kids would be down for nap. Well all but 2 were whos mom had arrived early. They wanted to pet Kyra so like I do with my grands I made them sit on the sofa and set her in their laps. One of the girls decided she was going to stand with her and when I told her no she actually drew back her hand and threw Kyra towards me. Luckily for Kyra I was able to catch her before she hit the floor but I have never been so angry at a child. My point is there are children who have been socialized with these babies like my grands have, then there are those who have not. So I would want to be extra careful the first year or more I had them around these kids. It is doable but it does take lots of vigilance.

Also yorkies can be very hard to and sometimes they dont potty train and that can be a problem if you have young kids too

Touchy subject.

I got my yorkie(s) when my daughter was 10 and my son was 4 almost 5...their first dogs-we got our schnorkie first a rescue then later our yorkie and mini schnauzer.

I'll make the perverbial claim many do, but I mean it, Maisy and Milo were and are extremely gentle calm well behaved children. They went to the theater-the real theather, could and did go to the glass anworks store they knew look with your eyes not your hands abd I had chinchillas before and while they were very young-our oldest and last chinchilla (all rescues) died 2 years before we got Scoobers.

Well baby Marek is almost 2, I didn't plan on having more kids, we're expecting another baby now too-big surprise (I'm getting Derik neutered lol!).

I will NOT add another dog for a long time,

I purposely sought out a Yorkie OVER standard Elvis is 12.2 pounds-Scoobers our schorkie about 18, both are leggy tall.

If I had known I was going to have more kids...well bite my tongue I might have rethough adding Elvis &a Princess.

I'm so blessed they are tollerant.

Baby Marek-horrible to say but other moms will get what I mean-if I had had him first gee I might mot have had more kids! Don't touch meand grab and throw it-fast!

He loves to stomp by the dogs and put his fingers in their mouths...not their favorite, I don't trust him alone with the dogs.

Raised the same as my other two kids-totally different personality.

Can kids and yorkies work-yes, should someone purposefully start getting any small breed (especially yorkies) with young kid(s) or kids who are not extremely well behaved-no, I'll be the first to admit it.

Breeding with young kids doesn't seem a good idea to me, until a child is school aged they require so much, so does breeding-why spread yourself so thin?

Even then breeding or rescue fostering etc takes so much effort in many ways more than ownership, personally I'd wait until kids were out of grade school so they can help and not be slighted by the huge endevor's level of required commitment.

Do people do it and say its all wonderful etc-yes...either very rare, or I honestly think they are either falsifying the reality or not performing at an acceptable level.

If nothing else let's be honest kids are carriers of everything just the health risk to pups with kids in the home is so great.

I'd love to get into breeding, I might still after my last child graduates high school.

I'd love to get back into rescue volunteering and fostering, I can't until my youngest child is at least 12.
Well the rescue I helped with previous will make an acception because they know me but their minimum is kids in grade school ONLY after evaluating the children's personality and having kid friendly dogs in need of fostering.

I think you can absolutely help your mom as a breeder and your sister but to do so with the age of your children wouldn't be the best choice IMHO.

Sorry for the novel!

I wanted to add my big rule here with dogs:

Noone, absolutely no one touches approaches or bothers my dogs ever if they are on a dog bed.

Dog beds are the dog's safety zone, period.

If the dogs want attention they are more than welcome and mostly do come to us jump on the chairs couch, laps etc, but the dogs are well aware when they don't want to be bothered they go to a dog be-at least one in every room here.

Edit:
Of course Princess has figured out it's good fun to snatch something (mostly my shoes) and race for a dog bed..BASE/SANCTUARY!

More great reads from you all! Everyone here is so wonderful at stating their experiences and opinions I love it!
ilovejoel, aww if you adults did it I am sure you felt horrible afterwards. Every parent makes mistakes/accidents whether with a child or a pup!!

Concretegurl, no apologies for novel, enjoyed reading every word. Also find your pup snatching a shoe and running to base very humorous!!! How funny.

Lynzy420, you are very opinionated, stern, and a little sassy, I like you.

Anymore stories/opinions from people are welcome. My next question would be, if someone were to own/breed even Yorkies and did so with their small children. Do you think baby gates/places for only pups and places for only kids could work out in a large home? What would be advice on if someone were to do it, advice on this from the ones saying hell no and don't do it would be great since you guys are the ones with the most fear about it! :)

Also I wanted to say I very much understand why breeders would perhaps not sell to families with children. Out of the care for their animals and putting them in a new home it is the fear of the unknown and what ifs! It would be horrible to live with ones self knowing they unknowingly placed a pup somewhere that it would not be safe or to hear back from the person that their pup had passed or gotten severely injured due to a child in the home and negligence!

That's what I've heard the most about too. Even here on YT, we've had adults drop dogs/puppies & break legs...even multiple times

:rolleyes:
I also wonder how these few that are so against people with children having yorkies, feel about seniors having toy breed dogs. Maybe there should be an age cut off where you can no longer own toy breed? All these shaking old people holding tiny animals...how scary!!! Add the vision problems, cataracts, etc.,...can they even see the animal on the floor so as not to injure it? And speaking of floors, how many old people fall each year??? Gosh, they could easily trap a yorkie under them on their way to the ground. A broken hip is one thing...a broken yorkie...totally unacceptable!

You speak volumes!!!