The Yorkshire Terrier is one of the smallest dog breeds of terrier type, and of any dog breed. The breed developed during the 19th century in Yorkshire, England. Ideally, its maximum size is 7 pounds (3.2 kg). A popular companion dog, the Yorkshire Terrier has also been part of the development of other breeds, such as the Silky Terrier. It has a grey, black and tan coat, and the breed’s nickname is Yorkie.
Yorkshire Terriers are very playful and energetic dogs. Many people who have a Yorkie as a pet have two because they often have separation anxiety when left alone and “they don’t enjoy being alone.”
History
The Yorkshire Terrier (also called the “Yorkie”) originated in Yorkshire, a county in northern England (and the adjoining Lancashire). In the mid-19th century, workers from Scotland came to Yorkshire in search of work and brought with them several different varieties of small terriers. Breeding of the Yorkshire Terrier was “principally accomplished by the people—mostly operatives in cotton and woollen mills—in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.” In the 1800s, miners wanting to develop a ratting terrier bred Black-and-Tan Terriers with the Paisley and Clydesdale Terriers. Details are scarce. Mrs A. Foster is quoted as saying in 1886, “If we consider that the mill operatives who originated the breed were nearly all ignorant men, unaccustomed to imparting information for public use, we may see some reason why reliable facts have not been easily attained.”
The breed comes from three different dogs, a male named Old Crab, a female named Kitty, and another female whose name is not known. The Paisley Terrier, a smaller version of the Skye Terrier that was bred for a beautiful long silky coat, also figured into the early dogs. Some authorities believed that the Maltese were used as well. “They were all originally bred from Scotch Terriers (meaning dogs from Scotland, not today’s Scottish Terrier) and shown as such the name Yorkshire Terrier was given to them on account of their being improved so much in Yorkshire.” Yorkshire Terriers were shown in a dog show category (class) at the time called “Rough and Broken-coated, Broken-haired Scotch and Yorkshire Terriers”. Hugh Dalziel, writing in 1878, says that “the classification of these dogs at shows and in the Kennel Club Stud Book is confusing and absurd” in lumping together these different types.
In the early days of the breed, “almost anything in the shape of a Terrier having a long coat with blue on the body and fawn or silver coloured head and legs, with tail docked and ears trimmed, was received and admired as a Yorkshire Terrier”. But in the late 1860s, a popular Paisley type Yorkshire Terrier show dog named Huddersfield Ben, owned by a woman living in Yorkshire, Mary Ann Foster was seen at dog shows throughout Great Britain and defined the breed type for the Yorkshire Terrier.