male yorkie

Question
I have a 27 month old male yorkie. I have had him since he was 12 weeks. I
have thought long and hard about breeding him. Lately, I have decided to
begin researching this whole process. Since I love this breed and care about
the puppies I produce, I want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as
possible. He is a wonderful little man with a loving, playful temperment. He is
about 4 pounds and seems to meet all the standards. With that said, he has a
collapsing trachea problem. When I purchased him (my breeder owned both
parents) and has no knowledge of this in their genes. My vet has said it is
very possible that this is not genetic. What are your thoughts? I intend to
purchase a female, so it would be a while. Would the correct weight for her be
around 6 pounds? Thanks

Answer
Caroline,

My first question would be to ask you if you have consulted your vet about breeding him considering his health problem.  Does stress cause his trachea to collapse?  If so breeding may be too stressful for him.  He is about one pound to large for a stud. The majority of people who want to purchase a Yorkie want a teacup.  A teacup is 4 pounds or less.  In order to get puppies that are going to be teacups you have to breed a 2.5 to 3 pound male to a 5 or 6 pound female.  The general rule of thumb is that the puppies will be the size of the male when they are full grown.  You must never breed a smaller female to a larger male because there is a chance that the puppies would be too big for her to deliver.  With that being said, if you just want to have puppies and are not interested in making a lot of money then purchasing a female that is 6 pounds would be fine.  The puppies will not be too big for her to deliver but you will have a harder time selling them.  You should take into consideration that even though your vet has said that it is possible that the collapsing trachea is not hereditary these things can skip generations and it is possible that the people you bought him from do not have enough history to know that is was in the bloodline.  You would have to disclose to whoever bought the puppies that there is a possible birth defect in the line and that would probably cause many potential buyers to not purchase a puppy from you.  I wish I could have given you better news.

Sincerely,

Melinda