The Yorkshire Terrier, Outrageous Prices & Why

The Yorkshire Terrier is a highly desired and sought after breed for the very best of reasons - they are quite attractive, have a charming demeanor, are simply devoted to their companions whether they are human, canine, or even feline, live a long time, have been bred for perhaps approximately 200 years, from up to six different terriers that were in the 20 to 30 pound range, so you might expect that genetically most of the kinks have NOT been worked out making it easy for the exploitive and uneducated breeders or pet owner who breeds their bitch to recoup the money they spent to purchase her, to produce a poor quality dog.

When one might consider that a truly devoted fancier, when deciding to produce a litter of pups (which, trust me, has much less to do with the biological capability of their bitch to get pregnant at any point in time than it does on other factors such as the availability of the ‘proper stud dog’), other factors in the breeder's life such as planned vacations or expected company from out-of-town, a heavy work load at the office, or any other complications which may coincide with the due date and the days immediately following.

No, any breeder will plan astutely, find and put the owner of the stud on notice, fly or drive the bitch to the stud for a series of encounters that may take up to a week spending $400 or more to fly the dam, or perhaps even more to drive her, and then perhaps much more money to stay in a local motel for a few days. Next, depending on your expertise and knowledge, you may want to have your vet x-ray ($75-$100) the mom at or after 58 days or so to discover position and number of pups to expect, a progesterone test ($50 - $75) may become a necessity at some point if things appear not to be progressing normally, up to a $2000.00 C-Section is not unusual, you've already paid a $1000.00 or more stud fee or offered one or more pups back out of a litter that will probably only produce 2-3 pups if everything goes smoothly. Even using low numbers from these expenses can produce a litter of two pups (for the breeder) that costs easily $2000 - $3000. Even when I use my own stud dog, you must understand that we can't use him more than two times a year on our own girls.

My investment in my own male is often in excess of $10,000 by the time you factor in a hefty purchase price to acquire a truly exceptional dog from a well-bred background and then invest the required sum to finish him in the conformation show ring. Even if bred in-house two times a year (which is a lot more than we do), for eight years, that is 16 breedings which cost me $200 or more, each, not including the costs to feed, shelter, groom, vaccinate, and provide for his veterinary care - after all he isn't on my health insurance plan with my children, and the vets are NOT CHEAP. They can be as costly as human doctors.

Then you must factor in the occasional disaster - where you invest a fortune, have a C-Section, and lose the entire litter and worst scenario. also lose the mother. This scenario comes along just often enough to offset those litters where the mom free-whelps you a four or five puppy litter.

Still, any time you try to quantify the dog breeding game on a dollar basis, you will invariably go in the red. Still, we all must have a "passion/labor of love" into which we can truly immerse ourselves, and the fact that no matter what price I sell a particular puppy or litter, I always reach deeper into my pocket every passing month to continually invest into our breeding program.

No, the Yorkshire Terrier is not a cheap pet. Properly bred and reared and judiciously priced, the pet purchased from a reputable and responsible breeder, even if it costs $2000, is worth every penny. You will spend the same on basic care for any pet (of comparative size), and, if the Yorkshire Terrier lives only ten years, he has cost you $200 a year based on his purchase price. You can buy a $500 dog out of the newspaper or on the internet, and then immediately spend $1500 or more due to a hypglycemic episode that also can cause death, $2000 for parvo recovery, up to $4000 for Liver Shunt surgery and if your puppy has severe luxating patellas(slipping stifles), later in its life it could cost up to $10,000 to correct the slipping stifles. You just spent up to $10,000 but had to go through a great deal of trauma and heart ache.

Please consult a responsible and reputable state licensed breeder or show breeder for your pet; their pets are every bit as competitively priced as the pet stores and you don't end up with a dog that was produced strictly on the basis of its mom being able to produce two six-puppy-litters every year. Instead, you get a dog that is a progressive step in someone’s breeding program, a program that is designed to produce better dogs in EVERY successive generation.

Good luck and good hunting. Remember ALL Yorkshire Terrier pups are cute and adorable, just as all human babies are, BUT we all do not end up cute and adorable!! Speak to at least two or three reputable and responsible STATE LICENSED BREEDERS, if possible, and don’t let ANYONE pressure you into an uncomfortable purchase decision. Remember two old sayings, "If it sounds to good to be true, then it is "to good" to be true" and the other old saying is, "There is nothing free in life".

Purchasing a pet long distance is a possibility; you pay for the animal to fly or be delivered to you. However, if you ask the right questions and do your homework, you can find exactly what you are looking for no matter how far away you live.

The Yorkshire Terrier is a "LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH" kind of breed. They will bond just as strongly with a new owner at sixteen weeks, twenty weeks, seven months or even 5 years or older - given proper socialization by the breeder and LOVE, ATTENTION and PATIENCE from their new owners - better then they will at eight weeks or 12 weeks of age because they have been weaned to soon or are not physically or emotionally ready to leave their mother or the breeder - and at a MUCH LOWER CHANCE OF A HEALTH RISK.

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