Finding a mate
 

Hey, I'm Madison! I have a little boy named Tatum who will be 1 on April 14th! I have decided that I want to find Tatum a mate and a best friend. I just have a few questions and figured this would be a great place to get some advice considering how new I am to the world of Yorkies. :) Should I get a female who is around his age, or should I get a little girl? I know Tate won't be ready to mate very soon but I assumed it would be good to get the two aquatinted early. Any advice on the subject would be very much appreciated. Thank you :) :animal36

Think long and hard and have $2k-$3k set aside in case things go wrong. Find a mentor that breeds toy dogs and learn everything you can, be there when your mentor's dog whelps to get experience. Be prepared to be home 24/7 for the first few weeks if momma doesn't make it, because you will need to bottle feed around the clock. Know the lines well, back several generations, that your breeding pair came from. Have your dogs evaluated by a professional so that you know what their faults are and if they are breeding quality and a good match for one another.

I could never do it, I would be a basket case. Breeding toy dogs is not simple and NOT for the inexperienced or the faint of heart. We get a lot of stories around here like these:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/bre...-my-story.html

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...ant-breed.html

There is a lot that goes into breeding and many things that can put a female at risk if done wrong. Most of the time reputable breeders with great lines will not just give breeding right to anyone so more then likely your dogs lines are not super great and shoukd be continued. If that comes out wrong it's not meant to it just means he should just be a lovely pet. If you are really seriously wanting to be a breeder first get this guy fixed and start going to dog shows and getting friendly with the yorkie people and maybe one will take you on to mentor you and teach you because there is so much to learn. Breeding is such a serious thing because if your not well educated in it you can lose your female or the pups or both. We also have so many dogs being but to sleep ( millions) each year that breeding shoukd only be done to better the breed. Males will also mark more and it changes them after being mated. Females shoukd not be breed there first heat and not at a year old. A female under 5 pounds should never be breed and the male shoukd be smaller. It is really very important to know the lines of the dogs like there parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on for so many reasons like to make sure there are no serious illnesses any of them have had, what size puppies they throw, how many puppies they normally throw and so on. Yorkies being breed should be an excellent example of the breed, AKC registered and not have health issues so knees, hips and so on need to be checked. A lot of well respected breeds have said you are lucky to even break even by breeding so you need to make sure you have the money for it and emergencys. Are you prepared to take care of the pups if there mom rejects them? That means feeding them every two hours, keeping them warm, cleaning up after them, stimulating them to potty and so on? It can be a lot of work and cost a lot of money to keep pups until 12 weeks but they should not be taken from there mother until them. There is so much more. Just remember you would be bringing into the world little lives that you would be responsable for so if you don't do everything you can to try and make sure they are going to be healthy by knowing the lines and such then you could be setting them up to have a live of pain because of bad health issues.