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7 Things We Bet
You Didn’t Know About Yorkshire Terriers
1. Yorkies Are the
“Tomboy Toy”
Don’t be fooled by
this toy breed’s tiny stature—they are five
to seven pounds of pure tomboy. This spunky
personality has earned the Yorkie its
nickname, “the tomboy toy.” The breed
standard references the breed’s trademark
confidence and courage, saying, “The dog’s
high head carriage and confident manner
should give the appearance of vigor and
self-importance.” Because of these traits,
Yorkshire Terriers do well at everything
from dog sports, like agility, to therapy
work and makes them great travel companions
as well as family dogs.
2. The Yorkie’s
Coat Has a Similar Texture to Human Hair
Yorkies are known
for their long, flowing, silky coats, which
swish around the show ring. But this
beautiful feature is also incredibly
time-consuming to care for. Because the coat
is similar to human hair, it tangles into
knots if the owner doesn’t brush it every
day (it can also break easily when brushing
against carpets in the home). The bonus is
that Yorkies don’t have an undercoat so
their coat doesn’t shed anymore than your
hair does. Many breeders recommend that
owners keep their pet Yorkies in a “puppy
cut,” which is short and easily to maintain.
3. Yorkies Have a
Blue Collar Background
Sure, today they
may wear bows in their top knots and their
self-important air may make them seem like
they have royal roots, but Yorkies have a
rather unglamorous background of catching
rats and other vermin in underground
tunnels. This instinct still comes out in
their play (offer a Yorkie a stuffed mouse,
and you’ll see what we mean), and owners can
put it to work in non-competitive AKC Earthdog
tests. This sport allows dogs to test their
ability to pursue caged rats underground.
4. Yep, Yorkies Are
a Man’s Dog, Too
Really, Yorkies
are great pets for both men and women. But
the former Yorkshire Terrier Club of
America President Cheryl Rangel has noticed
a curious trend in her puppy buyers over
three decades of breeding. She explained
to AKC Family Dog that often the husband
makes a point of telling her the dog will be
his wife’s pet because he would rather have
a “real dog,” like a German Shepherd. Months
later when she checks in with the family, it
turns out that the Yorkie has bonded better
with the husband. “It’s unbelievable. The
men do a 180,” Rangel told AKC Family Dog.
Other “real men” who love Yorkies: Bruce
Willis, football star Brett Favre, Justin
Timberlake, Orlando Bloom, and most famously
from the recent Australia dog-smuggling
incident, Johnny Depp.
5. Yorkies May Have
Been the Inspiration For Toto
This fact will
remain a point of contention among Cairn
Terrier and Yorkshire Terrier fans alike.
The original drawings in the first edition
of L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz depict Toto as what some say seems to
be a Yorkie. The assumption makes sense,
considering the breed was popular at the
time and that the illustrator W.W. Denslow
owned one. We will never know for sure, but
we are certain that in the movie, Toto is
played by a Cairn Terrier.
6. One Yorkie is a
War Hero
In World War II, a
Yorkie named Smoky is credited with saving
the lives of soldiers by dragging a
communications cable through an 8-inch-wide,
60-foot-long drainage culvert. She is also
thought to be the world’s first therapy dog,
visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals.
Smoky was found by an American soldier in
1944 in a Papua New Guinea jungle, and when
he brought the little dog back to the
barracks, U.S. Army Corporal William Wynne
took her under his wing. He later wrote a
book about Smoky called Yorkie Doodle Dandy.
There are six U.S.-based memorials honoring
Smoky, including one in AKC’s Museum of the
Dog, and one international memorial in
Australia.
7. Yorkies Aren’t
Afraid of the Big City (When Trained
Properly)
Even a dog as
small as a Yorkie can succeed in the Big
Apple and other large urban environments. In
fact, Yorkies routinely make the top of the
list of NYC’s most popular breeds (although
they’ve dropped in numbers over the past few
years). That confident manner comes in handy
when a truck backfires or a crowd scurries
around him on the sidewalk. By
providing proper socialization from a young
age and leading them through the Canine Good
Citizen test, you can help ensure that your
pint-sized pup has a New York state of mind.
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