Still Looking!
 

:littleang

I am still looking for a Yorkie puppy! I would like a little girl! I would love to find one before Christmas for my daughter! My daughter is deathly affraid of dogs no matter the size, but I have reasently took her to my friends house and she has taken to her yorkie! We live quit aways away from her! There for it is hard to let her see gizzy all the time! So I am hoping to get her one of her own! She is very excited about it! She is three and I figure it will grow up with her for a while and help her with fear of other dogs!

Thanks,
Paula

Good luck with your search. I just wanted to tell you with that age of a child I would look for a yorkie on the larger side. I have a 5 year old and a 9lb yorkie and a 5 lb yorkie. The 9 lb yorkie will play And rough house with my daughter. My 5lb is scared of my daughter and wants nothing to do with her. My daughter is a girly girl and isnt really rough either. My 5 lb yorkie doesnt even like it when my daughter is loud. There is a day and night difference in the two dogs tolerance levels. Good luck again

I replied once and it didn't show up so if it posts later. I'm sorry. Please reconsider buying a yorkie for a three year old child. My grandaughter is three and I have to watch her like a hawk around my yorkie. She is not allowed in the room unless I am there. Then, I let her sit on the floor and play fetch. she gets very impatient and gets up to run and get the toy. I have to grab her. My five year old grandson is the same way and children are very clumsy. you might think your daughter isn't clumsy but all it takes is for a child to accidently trip and there you go!!!! Dead yorkie. someone on here recently had that happen and it was sad for everyone. The child was two or three years old. My grandaughter recently visited and I was trying to help her over the gate for the room the yorkie is in. She put her little foot down and nearly stepped on him. He yeloped like she had but nothing was mashed or broken and I'm not even sure she stepped on him. Please reconsider. A three year old shouldn't have a yorkie for a pet .

Your right Sugarsmom. We waited untill our daughter was 5 and she is still too rambuncuous for our smaller yorkie. I would say wait untill she is about 5 then get a larger yorkie. The smaller yorkies dont make good pets for children of any age really unless they are preteen age and they just like to hold and cuddle them. Good post

Sugarsmom is so right. It is so hard with a yorkie underfoot and a small child under the age of 5. I had yorkies first, since it didn't look like we could have any children. We were doing great with the yorkies - showing and all. Very heavy into it and loved it. Well, I finally got pregnant and thought - no problem, I can handle the yorkies and a baby. Things were doing great until my daughter started walking and getting into everything. No matter how I tried - she kept picking them up: by the neck, hair, ears, etc.. So I decided I had to keep them totally seperated. That sounds easy. Well, I didn't want to neglect my yorkies and I couldn't neglect my own child. So I made the hardest decision I have ever had to do - I had to give away my yorkies to my closest yorkie friends. I threw away all trophies, ribbons, everything that reminded me of my yorkies. Now I wish I would have kept some of their winnings and photos.
So you might want to wait until your daughter is older. We are just speaking from experience. And it would be so hard to get a puppy and then later on after your attached and the pup is use to you all - to have to find another home for him.
Well, my kids are all grown now - so I have returned to showing/raising my own yorkies and loving it!
T.

I agree small children should not have small dogs.

I have to agree with the other posts. A three year old is not old enough for a yorkie. To be honest, I don't think a 5 year old is old enough unless the dog is full grown and definitely not a sub 5 pounder. I had a friend with a 4 year old child and they decided to try getting him a pet and settled on a kitten. The child had broken the kitten's leg before the end of the first week. Kitty wanted to get away and a child that small doesn't understand when to let go.

I have mixed feelings about this. I had Zorro my first yorkie after I was married and he was 7 when she was born. She was taught from early on to be careful around the dog. Luckily my dtr was very laid back and Zorro was 7 lbs. Then when I got Gracie, my dtr was 5 and she was fine with the puppy and we had no problems. Gracie was about 6 lbs. So I agree the tinies are not good around little children because you can't be to careful, but a larger size one may work out if the adults are diligent in watching the puppy around the kids. This takes a lot of work and the last thing you want is a dead dog, or it ends up in the shelter.

Although I think many of you have listed legitimate reasons why some young children should not have Yorkies or small dogs in general as pets, I also think a lot has to do with teaching your child, no matter their age, to respect and love animals regardless of the animal's size. My Tristan just turned one and we have Piper and our Chi and also his "kitty-cat" that he LOVES to pieces. All three are small now compared to him, although he is very tiny for his age. We also have 1 Boxer puppy and 1 grown Boxer, whom he adores. As parents of both Tristan and all our furbabies it is our responsibility and duty to teach our son to love and respect all animals, which includes knowing the proper way to touch and pet them and not to "grab" onto or hold them. I believe if you teach a child from the beginning to respect animals, just as you teach them all other important "right from wrong" things, you are benefiting all involved. We always supervise our son around all our pets and will continue to do so but the fact that he knows not to "hurt" them helps make us one big happy and safe family. IMO they are never too young to learn how to love and respect animals, along with the proper way to touch and treat them:thumbup:

It isn't just teaching children from day one to respect animals. My grands have been raised around animals and taught to love and respect them all their lives. I am more concerned about the "tripping accidents" that small children have. I am sure none of our kids would fall on a puppy on purpose but at this age, they will trip often times right in the middle of the floor on a flat surface. Once is all it takes with a yorkie right next to them. Even when I walk, I almost always have to shuffle my feet when I am in the room where my baby is. Usually, he is hanging on to one or the other of my feet. I know he will grow out of it and he is just a baby right now but while I agree with your post and it is very well written, you left out the accident factor . It would be heartbreaking for everyone concerned. I wish the lady that was on here the other day telling about having her yorkie put down because her child tripped and fell on it breaking its neck would come forward and post. Can you imagine how devastated that family was.

:aimeeyork

I think that everyone has made good points, but as i said before my daughter is still alittle affriad of dogs! She loves gizzy, but she never trys to pick him up she always sits down on the couch and he gets right next to her and she just sits there and pets him! She has never tried to pick him up or anything! I do have some fears about the triping, but she very careful around our cat! She has had him since she was one! She knows the do's and don'ts of the picking up and stuff (although she never trys)! I just wanted to say thanks for everyones opinions, but i wouldn't be looking if i hadn't already thought about all the ups and downs to raise kids and yorkies! My friend who has gizzy has three little boys (4, 2, and 6mo.) and has helped me really think about all the responsibilities and whether i really would like to do this or not! I am pretty set that we can make this work only b/c of my daughters personality! Thank you all again for your opinions!

Thanks,
Paula :aimeeyork

Have to say I don't think children in general are a bad mix with Yorkies. I think it depends on personalities and the particular child and how they are raised together and how the child is taught to respect. i have had my 2 youngest helping with the dogs...even tinies since they were born and we haven't had any major troubles :) . Actually I MYSELF have probably tripped on the dogs more then the little ones. :)

I am speaking from experience as a mom and a teacher of elementary students. You can train your children all you want, like I did with mine on the proper way to hold or pick up a puppy and stay from underneath. But kids are kids and they do not mean to be rough, but accidents happen and very quickly. I would not have given away my yorkies (show dogs with plenty of time and money invested in them not to mention how much I loved my dogs). It was too hard keeping my daughter away unless I kept them seperated from each other. And that is not a way to live. My daughter was very meek and gentle and not quick like most children her age and she still managed to pick up a puppy from the hair, ears, and the final straw she picked one up from its tail hair upside down. What if she had dropped him - he would have landed head first. She would do this when I wasn't looking - in a split of an instant she had one. And here I had taught her hold to hold and be very gentle with them. Under the age of 5 - they forget. They get caught up in the moment of a cute puppy jumping at them.
I know you have thought this out completley and very carefully, but it is totally different than what you think it will be when you have to live 24 7 with a puppy and a young child. Remember - I too thought I could do it. I was wrong.
T.

I think that no matter what, sometimes accidents happen, no matter how hard you try to keep them from happening. It's just me, my husband and my 7 year old son. I watch my son and husband like a hawk. I just think you have to be very careful and observant at all times. My son was playing with Kiki with a rope and Kiki jumped up to get it and did not fall on his feet, he fell directly on his head. I thank God that he did not hurt himself. He yelped really loud, but was fine.

In the mornings before we leave the house my family gather to say a prayer and we be sure to include Kiki.

http://yorkietalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23618 I responded to your thread that you posted before.

I do not place my small Yorkies with families who have kids under 12 or sometimes older. My reasonings are these......first, the very thing that can make a child a good Yorkie owner (well, parents are owners but kids in the home are also part of that ownership) is the very thing that makes them BAD Yorkie police. The sweetest and gentlest child is not gonna be able to make their friends behave or change a behavior that is a no-no with these small/tiny Yorkies.
Here is another consideration in my book.
I mean...an adult cannot and SHOULD not stay right with a young child when they have friends playing anywhere in the home or yard. Children learn to be individuals by forming independent relationships with their own age groups. The parent must either spend every second with the dog OR with the children..your child might be a very sweet kind loving child, but you cannot count on them, nor should you, to be responsible for policing their friends.
Kids by nature are rambunctous no matter how many times we tell them "NO RUNNING IN THE HOUSE. YOU MIGHT STEP ON THE DOG OR TRIP OVER HER!"
I call these "uah situations" as in "UAH, watch the dog!" . There are other situations when a child should not have to stop play in the middle of a very fun game because the dog is in the way and parent(s) are trying to reinforce some rule about the pup/dog.
Of course, everyone has an opinion about this and this post is mine...someone else will sell their puppy to you, I am sure...but, basically your little one can have an equally bad fright with one of these little "terrors"...Ya gotta love them...both kids and dogs..

I have loved yorkies all my life and convinced many friends to buy them just so I could be around them, but I waited until my youngest child was 13 before I got one and even then I had to convince every breeder that my home would be a safe place for such a small dog. Even with my family I am constantly reinforcing that we have "babies" in the house and they cannot slam doors, they have to watch where they step, and they have to know where those babies are at all times if they are the only ones home with them.

Having a yorkie is really like having a toddler and all the same precautions need to be taken.

If you are determined to get a yorkie get one thats gonna be on the larger side. A 9lb yorkie will do so much better with a 3 year old than a 4 or 5lbs yoirkie. I speak from experience with both sizes. You will still have to be verycareful when its a puppy.

You've gotten some wonderful advice on here. We got our first puppy when my son was a year old and it was a nightmare. The puppy would climb on him when he was on the floor and scratch him without meaning to. It ended up making my son afraid of the dog! And, house breaking, forget it. You have to take the baby and the dog out a million times a day. I would wait until your daughter is older. She is still a baby in many ways, and doesn't understand that a little yorkie can't be handled like a stuffed animal and carried around. It wouldn't be fair to her or the dog.

I was 15 when we got Lacey. So, I was older. Sometimes I baby-sat for my little cousins though. I felt like I always had to pick my 4-pound yorkie Lacey in another room. I was so protective over her. Lacey did not like kids at all. She was not brought into a house with small children. I was 15 (almost 16) and my brother was 13. So, we both knew how to take care of our yorkie and be extra careful around her. Lacey would always hide behind the couch whenever a child did enter the home. She would not come out until they left. I would be scared to have a any child under the age of at least 13 in my home if I have a yorkie. Because you can't watch your child every second of the day and accidents can happen. And with a breed as small and delicate as a yorkie, these results can be deadly.