hump

Question
I bought a yorkie puppie who was the smallest in the litter.  Her mom was around 5 lbs and her daddy 4.  As she began to grow we noticed that she always seemed taller in the middle.  She is now a year old weighs 7 lbs and if you measure her from the floor up she is 9 inches tall at her front legs and 9 inches tall at her rear but she is almost 11 inches tall in the middle.  She walks perfectly normal but when she runs her front legs move normally but she sort of rotates her hips and hops on her back legs.  She goes very fast and doesn't appear to have any problems getting around at all.  Also her tail is never carried erect like the pictures.  If you see it all it is when it is wagging and then it is carried straight out like a pointer.  We had her spayed at six months and the vet did not say a thing about it.  Also how much longer will she grow.  I really wanted a small dog and the only reason she is only 7 lbs is because she is a very picky eater and skinny.  Thanks
Sue

Answer
Sue,

OK, you got me.:0) I have never heard of this before and you peaked my curiosity so I went and measured one of my Yorkies. What I found was that she was about one inch taller in the middle than at the front and back.  I must admit I had never really thought anything about it until your question.  I believe that if your baby can run and seems to have no problems with pain then that is probably just the way she is built.  I often compare humans with dogs and in this case I think you could do the same.  All humans are different shapes and sizes and nobody is perfect.  In my dogs case she is eleven inches front and back and twelve inches in the middle.  She only weighs four pounds.

Another thing to consider is that she may have puffy hair in the middle which would cause her to look more humped in the back than she really is.  Try measuring again when she is soaking wet and see if that makes a difference.  Having a hunched back can indicate that they are in pain but your baby doesn't seem to be in pain by the way she is acting.  I would also rule out pain since she has had a hunched back for a long time and it has not just recently occurred.

Yorkies always look funny when they run.  I never had one that used their back legs the same as the front.  Some kicked one leg out to the side, or both legs out to the side when they ran and some kicked both back legs to opposite sides.  It always looked funny, but it was normal for them.  I suspect the same is true for your Yorkie.  If she was in pain or there was something wrong she would probably not run at all.

Yorkie tails are like their personalities.  In fact you could consider the tail an extension of the personalities.  I have had bashful yorkies that never lifted their tail and rarely wagged it.  I would say it is more common for a yorkie to have their tail hang down than stand up.  It usually stands up when they are excited, or really happy.  The fact that your baby's tail doesn't stand up is probably just an indication of her personality rather than something being wrong.  As long as her tail does wag and will move in different positions I would say there was nothing wrong.  Also, you mentioned that it was not carried like the ones in the picture you saw.  If it was a picture of a show quality yorkie then that could also explain it.  Show quality dogs are taught to keep their tails up.

The rule of thumb when purchasing a yorkie is to buy one that has a five or six pound mother and a 2.5 to three pound father.  If that combination is used then you will usually get a puppy that is five pounds or less when they are full grown.  Because the father was four pounds your baby will probably be seven to nine pounds full grown.  I know you wanted a small yorkie but I am afraid she is probably not going to get smaller.  They usually stop growing in height by six months but can fill out (put on more weight) up to a year.

Don't let that worry you because I have had yorkies that were the same size (height) whose weight differed by three or four pounds.  She is about one inch shorter than the one I measured and mine is considered small.  So even though she weighs seven pounds I'm sure she is still small.

So, stop worrying mom and just continue to love your precious baby girl.