Washing

Question
I would like to know at what age i can wash my yorkie, he's 9 weeks old.

Answer
Malikah,

You can bath them as young as eight weeks as long as you are careful.  You must make sure that they do not get chilled.  Make sure the room you are bathing them in is warm and that you have a towel handy to dry them off right away.  In order to make sure they don't get chilled I would suggest that you also use a hair dryer to dry them completely.  You can make sure that the hair dryer is not too hot for the puppy by placing your hand on him and brushing the hair back and forth until it is dry.  If the hair dryer is too hot on your hand then it is to hot for your baby.  Rubbing the hair back and forth also keeps the hair dryer from burning the skin because you are breaking up the direct contact with it.

You will also need to be careful not to get any water in his nose.  If water gets into the nose it will go straight to the lungs and then you are going to have a sick puppy.  I had this happen once before I knew better and I couldn't figure out why the puppy was blowing snot out his nose when he breathed.  Dogs do not breath through their mouths naturally.  If they can't breath through their noses they could suffocate if they don't learn to breath through their mouth.  I took him to the vet and he gave me antibiotics and some other things that took care of the problem fairly quickly.
You must also make sure you do not get any water in his ears.  Water in the ears is a recipe for an ear infection.

Most of my yorkies went to the groomer every 30 days.  I felt that was sufficient in order to keep them clean.  They were inside dogs and only went out to potty so they didn't get dirty.  Generally vets will tell you not to bathe them more than once a week because it dries out their skin and causes a whole host of new problems.

I never gave my puppies a bath until their hair had started to get long.  Usually between 5 and 6 months old.  I of course would have exceptions to this, like if a puppy was covered in feces or urine.  Yorkies are very clean animals and spend a lot of time grooming themselves.  Because of that you will not have to bathe them very often.  If you think he needs a bath use baby shampoo because it is not harsh on the skin and it also will not sting their eyes.  You could also give him a washing with a wash rag and that would prevent you from having to worry about all the things I mentioned above.