How To Raise A Yorkie Rescue Dog

by Susan Bailey

It’s an exciting time when your adopted Yorkshire Terrier comes to your home. Hopefully, you will have done a lot of homework and preparation before the big day.

If they can’t help you, they can at least narrow your search by pointing you to the right direction.

Most Yorkshire Terriers in rescues or animal shelters are male. Most are over ten pounds, which means their frames are sturdier than show-quality or teacup sized Yorkies. A purebred Yorkie often has faults that would get them disqualified from the show ring. Yorkies take just as much time and effort for caring as you would a big dog. Although they don’t need as much exercise as a big dog, they do need a lot of grooming and attention. Yorkies are not the best breed for those who have never had a dog before, in general (You’ll always find exceptions to this rule.)

Your Yorkie rescue dog might not match the photos of champion show Yorkies in dog breed books or websites. That doesn’t mean your Yorkie is not a real Yorkie. Many Yorkshire Terriers fail to reach the stringent show standards. If your Yorkie is heavier than seven pounds and is not overweight, the chances are good that your dog will be a lot healthier than a three-pound teacup Yorkshire Terrier. Your dog also may be a different color, have floppy ears or have an overbite. But the dog still could be a purebred.

Yorkies need to be the center of your universe. The late, great author and dog-lover Roger Caras described his Yorkie as ruling every aspect of his home, including twelve other dogs that were all much bigger than the Yorkie! Caras described Yorkies as benevolent dictators. Get used to having them follow you everywhere and wanting to be with you. Yorkies seem to have a need to investigate and supervise everything that goes on in their homes.

You will have to spend more money taking care of the physical health of your Yorkie rescue dog than with most other breeds of dogs. The smaller the Yorkie, the more fragile he or she will be.

They will sniff whatever you are doing. If you are folding the laundry, they will supervise very closely. They have to know what’s going on at all times.

However, diligent and preventative care often pays for itself many times over not only in having a healthy dog, but also in having a long-lived dog. Yorkie rescue dogs often live to be nearly twenty years old. You need to be sure you can commit to that long to the dog. The Yorkie may become a benevolent dictator of your heart, but will never forget that you rescued him or her. The love and the loyalty of a Yorkie rescue dog are worth far more than mere money.

About the Author: Susan Bailey is an avid lover of the Yorkshire Terrier and owns a popular website that can teach you how to have a happy, healthy and well behaved Yorkshire Terrier. Among other topics there, you will find out more about Yorkshire Terrier Rescue Dogs plus a whole lot more.