recommended books for potential breeders

[Katiecat84]

Good Morning! I am hoping to start breeding in 4 years when my youngest child begins Kindergarten. I am inspired to breed Yorkshire Terriers because of my intense love of the breed, I am still trying to decide if I am thick skinned enough to handle putting an animal I love in danger to bring puppies into the world, and I'm still not sure, but I feel an intense desire to better the breed and produce babies that have every fine quality we all love in the Yorkie. I have much experience whelping, bottle/tube feeding and raising orphans as I have volunteered as a foster for my local shelter for years, so I understand the peril these new Mommas & little ones can face. In the meantime I am reading as much information as I can to ensure my first litter and Momma would have the benefit of my education behind them. What books would you as an experienced breeder recommended for me to purchase? I am also very interested in understanding how to read and decipher AKC pedigrees to ensure a good match, and how to access health history on parents/granparents of my Dam & Sire. I am currently trying to locate a breeder in a 45mi radius that I am impressed with, but no such luck yet. If you are within 45min of WACO tx and would be generous enough to mentor me I would love to speak with you. Thank you in advance for any and all help, I appreciate all of your time!

[Yorkiemom1]

First thing you must do is know enough about the breed and what is considered strong genetic building blocks. You will need every minute of that 4 years time line you have set for yourself. The best thing you can do at this stage, is start hanging out at every dog show you have access to, and you will have to travel to do this!....GOOD sanctioned dog shows through AKC, not little pet things at local parks and fun runs.....as you get acquainted with established, reputable breeders of yorkies, you will learn tons of information from them....but be advised, these people dont cater to "breeders" because 98% of the people that want to get into breeding, are actually looking for a way to make money, and this is NOT a money making venture. You will need a substantial deep pocket, in order to finance your travel to reputable dog shows to meet the true professionals that are involved in breeding the best yorkies....you need a substantial amount of money to purchase excellent show quality breeding stock....your building blocks for a breeding program need to be strong, strong, winning, reputable breeding stock, and you must know exactly what that means....you are going to have to have an efficient, complete working knowledge of at least a minimum of 12 generations of pedigrees behind every dog you put into your breeding program. Every educated breeder knows who we can mix and who we cant, what line are stunningly gorgeous standing alone, or when mixed with specific pedigrees, and which lines absolutely DO NOT MIX and will essentially produce genetic disasters. I well remember seeing a picture of a lady that was at this stage of her education, and she had pedigrees going back at least 15 generations, taped together and spread out covering her entire floor in her dining room! THAT is the kind of research I am talking about! I just wish I could remember who that lady was.....she deserved to be remembered because of the time and dedicated effort she was investing into her breeding program! Shame on me for loosing those brain cells that stored that information!!!

Start collecting reputable, well written, informative, educated breeding pedigrees/breeding books on Yorkies.... I love "The Book of the Yorkshire Terrier, by Joan Mcdonald Brearley.....this is like one of my bibles of the Yorkie....I have the binding of this book, taped in some places because the pages are coming loose from continuous referral....this book will educate you on the building blocks of this wonderful breed....you must know where you have been, in order to know where you must go and how to get there!

I would advise spending a year and a half, reading every single REPUTABLE book you can get your hands on, that covers this breed, where it started and with whom, where it has been, where we are now, and where it is going....past, and current well known, established show breeders....their pedigree choices, why they have selected the dogs they have selected to pattern their breeding program after.....you will begin to see what lines mix and what lines you just dont mix.....

You need to then start hitting dog shows and mingling with reputable show breeders....you will have learned enough information over the previous 18 months from reading/studying pedigrees and lines and breeders, that you can "talk the talk" with these people, who absolutely do NOT want to waste time with back yard breeders or people that think breeding yorkies is a meal ticket to fame and fortune.....ONCE they get to know you and know what YOUR motivations are, they will be more open to talking and sharing with you. Hopefully, one of these breeder/showers will get to know you and your true intentions, and this will open up the opportunity for you to either purchase a retiring winning show dog or at least the chance to go in with a reputable breeder on a wonderful winning show dog....this is the building blocks you need for your own breeding program.

Good luck, God speed, and start cracking books!!!

[Katiecat84]

Thank you Yorkiemom! That is great information and I truly appreciate your time and expertise.

[gemy]

Before you breed anything you must understand the building blocks of the dog or breed in question. A very good reference book complete with quizzes is called an *Eye for a dog" Here you will learn good structure and how to see good structure in any dog - not just Yorkies.

Attend on line seminars anything by Dr Carmen Battaglia.

Know inside out the standard for the Yorkie breed - AKC has it available on line.

Know and understand as well as possible the Top 10 Health Concerns of Yorkies.

Attend all the shows you can - and most especially those that have Yorkie Specialties.

Join your local breed club and attend all the seminars they host.

Breeding a dog is the final culmination of your research, your learning and your active involvement in the dog world.

You say you want to better the breed - then how? What is lacking in your opinion? Is this an informed opinion? Better the breed in which area? Coat, color structure or internal health? How will you accomplish those goals? Over what time frame?

You must spend the time building a network of breeder contacts. Much is learnt from them. For example I was looking at a particular sire for my female and he is reputed to have an extra tooth as well as a bad bite.....

This is and can be a wondrous journey you embark upon - kudos to you for asking questions first.

[Katiecat84]

Thank you for the help Gemy and Yorkiemom! I hadn't even considered joining a local breeding group that is AKC affiliated (for all breeds) as luck would have it there appears to be a group here in Waco, that is great news. I have looked on AKC's website and see a toy breed competition event in August, in San Antonio (a few hours away) I will be attending for sure.



As far as motivation is concerned, my story goes back quite a bit, (feel free to skip this long sappy story if uninterested haha) 2 years after my father passed away my mother surprised me with the most beautiful puppy I had ever seen! (I had been very depressed, as you can imagine) and had been watching the Westminster dog show a few months back when I was completely lovestruck with the Yorkshire Terrier. I was 14 and loved my Sebastian to bits, he was AKC registered and when we received his pedigree I was inspired by the special gift of knowing my boys lineage (I am quite the history buff as well) fast forward 10 amazing years with my boy. He was STOLEN from me by my condominiums maintenance crew, who were there to repair a faulty ac unit while I was at work (never has trusting another human broken my heart this badly) I put up every dime I had to retrieve him ($1500!) Slept with my door open for days, so dangerous! Of course to no avail, I never saw my baby again. I still cry sometimes about him. When my husband and I met he purchased me the sweetest fuzzy baby, Ziggy, he was AMAZING with everyone, the biggest heart ever. At only 4 years old he was also stolen from me in a different way (by an irresponsible neighbor and their rotmix) poor Zig was so brave, he ran to protect us from this loose and aggressive dog on our property and paid with his sweet life. Because of my love of THESE 2 dogs I have spent countless hours reading about the breed (I'm a bit of a bookworm hah) the standard, what judges look for in competition etc. LONG PART OVER LOL

fast forward yet again, I decided it was time to bring another yorkie baby home, though my last two boys were both AKC registered (and beautiful!) I recognize their faults from the standard & wanted to find a companion that was closer to the ideal. WOW this was harder than I anticipated! I was ASTOUNDED to see obviously mixed breed dogs being sold (even some papered) as PUREBRED Yorkshire Terriers many of the "breeders" I spoke with had parents over or under standard (and let's be honest, pretty ugly builds :/ almost 90% of the puppies & parents I looked at online or via email from the breeder had very obvious faults, ranging from coat colors to ear sizes/shapes, to build (lanky legs, long noses, etc.) many of the breeders I contacted that seemed reputable had litters born to very tiny Dams & it seemed many of those tinier babies had teeth, overbite issues. I personally hope to breed Yorkshire Terriers that are as close to perfect in standard as possible because I see SO FEW that are. I hope to educate more potential new puppy owners and people in general WHAT a Purebred Yorkshire Terrier is supposed to look like.

As experienced breeders I completely understand this is not new information for either of you, and hope you're not bored to death! I just wanted to Answer Gemy.