Issues with the Yorkie I put a deposit on..

[kt_luvs_kitties]

I just would not feel comfortable with it. Plus the cats are NOT dog friendly, I dont think they know Joey is a dog!

I dont think the dog would purposely hurt him, but unintentionally.

[jennielynn1970]

Omg... the absolutely angelic face on little Yaki!! My heart is in a puddle on the floor. The poor little girl was in a puppy mill?! I just don't understand how people run those things.

I say, get your money back from the business woman with bad business sense, give her a handbook on how to deal with customers while you're at it, and then get Yaki!!

[kt_luvs_kitties]

If I dont get Yaki OR my yorkie then I think I will keep looking into yorkies, since I have wanted one for 10 years. I did not know Chins get that large, I thought maybe 10 pounds and under, since the two I met were TINY! I would not feel comfortable with a larger dog with my kitties OR Joey. He is 2 pounds so I wanted a small dog with him, so he could play. I really wanted a yorkie that was about 4-6 pounds. I dont know what to do yet.

Ps- Not taking up for her, but I dont think she purposely breeds them to be small, I believe she is just the runt. And with all the tcup crap going around, and the HIGH demand for smaller ones, she saw more $$$. Back in the day, the runt was MUCH cheaper, not twice as much.

[lizbud]

I'd go with the rescue every time. I never encourage small owner/breeders who do it for the money.

[kt_luvs_kitties]

Forgot to add, is it normal to withhold or not give papers to me until the dog is fixed?

[Giselle]

Yep. That's actually the responsible thing to do To the public, "papers" make a dog sound pretty and fancy and $$$. They're often used as a marketing gimmick, and a lot of byb's use papers to sell more puppies. This breeder is withholding the papers to force you to fix your animal, thereby taking your potential marketing gimmick away. It's a common technique. That and limited registration are both measures to prevent pet-quality animals from being bred.

She can talk the talk, but does she actually walk the walk? Ask to see proof that her breeding dogs have been tested. Again, they will be most likely be OFA and CERF tested, so look for the acronyms if you can't quite make the papers out.

Here are samples of the OFA reports: http://www.offa.org/samplecerts.html

Edit: Ask her about the health guarantee. Health guarantees are tricky because a lot of diseases are influenced by both genetics and the environment. A GREAT health guarantee would be a lifetime guarantee. A decent health guarantee would be at least 3 years. A skimpy guarantee is 1 year or a couple months. Congenital defects often don't show up until the dog has hit maturity.

[Giselle]

Ps- Not taking up for her, but I dont think she purposely breeds them to be small, I believe she is just the runt. And with all the tcup crap going around, and the HIGH demand for smaller ones, she saw more $$$.

I'm sorry to be blunt, but your breeder is straight up breeding for money.

That's not the right reason to breed. In my book, she's a dreaded backyard breeder. I really don't mean to offend, but I do love Toy breeds myself (Pekes are my heart breed) and I have a *major* issue with BYBs. Toy breeds, especially, have a plethora of health problems ranging from PRA to luxating patellas - both of which are prevalent in the Yorkie breed. Does your breeder even test for these via OFA and CERF?

If your breeder never even mentioned the above, please pull out your deposit or take it as a lesson learned and run the other way. I say this as the unfortunate purchaser of a BYB-bred dog. I did it before I knew any better and I regret it deeply. But now you know!

[kt_luvs_kitties]

I am currently looking at other breeders online

Anyone want to help? I live in NC and will NOT ship a dog

[Giselle]

Have you checked the Yorkshire Terrier Club of America?

http://www.ytca.org/breeder1.html

There are a lot of Yorkies in rescue, too.

[kt_luvs_kitties]

Thank you all for the advice. I still pray I get my yorkie, but I guess I wont be devastated if it doesnt work out. I still have my hopes up I get her this weekend, if not, then I will keep looking