When looking at a first dog for yourself or your family, your immediate thought process might be to look into popular animals, or more specifically, popular small breed dogs. You have come across a Yorkshire Terrier and are now asking yourself if they are an excellent first dog or not.So do Yorkies make a good first dog? Yorkshire Terriers are wonderful dogs to have around, making them an excellent initial pup to have. They make wonderful therapy dogs, as these animals are very lovable, friendly, and affectionate. It helps because since they are so small, you can easily carry them around wherever with no issues. Besides having all of the excellent qualities mentioned above, what exactly can you expect out of a Yorkie, and what should you do if a problem arose? We will be going over all of these things today to understand these fur babies as a whole better.
Their Behavior
The first thing one must look at is their behavior to know what to expect. Overall, Yorkies are intelligent creatures that understand you and are reasonably easy to train. But there are a few other qualities we should go over as well.
Extremely Confident Within Themselves
Although Yorkies are tiny animals, they act as if they own the entire world! They will make it known to you that they know it all and can do it all. Not only this, but they can bite their owners and other animals if not appropriately toilet trained. It is necessary to make sure that your first animal can get a puppy to correctly teach them right from wrong if this is your first animal.
Boldness and Bravery
Yorkshire Terriers are extraordinarily bold and adventurous. When they have separation anxiety, they always look into something, not in the right way. We will go over this in a moment, but these small yet brave animals will also alert you if there are any possible intruders, which is mostly good but can get annoying after a while.
Very Loving and Loyal Creatures
These small dogs will have no problems cuddling up to you, especially after their stomachs are full from eating. Your fur baby is exceptionally loyal to its owners as well. More often than not, they will choose one particular person to be their main companion, so that is something to keep in mind. You never know if it will be you or someone else in your household!
They Are Hypoallergenic Animals
One of the best qualities about Yorkies is the fact that they are hypoallergenic, meaning that they are unlikely to cause an allergic reaction out of you. This is good because they do not shed fur. You do not have to worry about all of the hair that would stick to you and cause you to have sniffles or continuously sneeze.
What Should I Know Before Buying a Yorkie?
Before immediately going out to get a Yorkie for your family, there are many things you should know before getting one of these cute and adorable animals for your family. Some of these things are health issues to expect, how Yorkies act when they have left home alone, and how many times you need to groom your fur baby.
Grooming
Yorkshire Terriers overall tend to have long hair, so grooming and brushing their hair is a must. You will need to brush their hair daily or every other day, depending on how long you keep their coats. This is to prevent knots from occurring. Some dog owners prefer their locks to remain long, but others do not and tend to shed it off.On top of that, their eyes tend to get goop over them, so it is essential to wash it off with a lukewarm, wet washcloth. Their ears also need to be continuously cleaned, or else it can quickly develop into an ear infection, which is common in Yorkies.Correctly trimming their hair is where a groomer makes an excellent addition to your everyday lifestyle. There are ways you can do this yourself, but if you wish to save yourself some hassle, a professional groomer is a way to go. Usually, they cost anywhere between $30 to $80 per visit.
What Type Of Energy to Expect
These small, yet mighty creatures, have a lot of energy. After they take a nap, you can expect them to want to play around with you. They like to play chase, but this could also teach them that every time you walk towards your Yorkshire, they will run away, even if you need to take them somewhere important, so keep that in mind as well.Overall, Yorkies need 30 minutes of exercise time, but if you have an extremely high-energy dog, it could very well go up 1.5 hours.
Attention Needs
These cute and fluffy animals will need a healthy amount of attention and are the perfect animals to have if you wish for a dog to cuddle with all day long.It is tough to leave them home alone without causing behavioral issues, such as chewing on the furniture, scratching the door, constant barking, and possibly have some depression swell up in them. That being said, if you are unable to attend to their needs at every turn, then they may not be the best first dog to get.Another reason is that Yorkshire Terriers should not be left home alone for very long. If they are a puppy up to 18 months of age, it should be no more than 2 to 3 hours due to their bladders being small and constant need to feed, and overall the required attention. However, as an adult, the time can rise to 4 to 6 hours per day!
Yorkies Are Extremely Vocal
One of the many qualities you will quickly find is that these animals talk. A LOT! With this, it may be because the company that came over or a delivery person rang the doorbell. However, a massive reason why they barked is from being home alone a lot, and they may have been yapping at nothing.There are some ways you can train them not to bark at every turn:
- Train them when they are incredibly young.
- Remove any distractions: If they are barking at people or animals from inside, you can always close the blinds to limit this behavior. If your Yorkie is outside, bringing them in is helpful as well.
- Ignore the barks: Turn your back to them if they continue to bark. Since Yorkshire’s love attention, they will get the point and eventually stop this behavior as time goes on.
- Wear your dog out: Being worn out means they have much less of a chance to bark at other animals, people, or things due to exhaustion. Be careful not to overexert them so much that they cannot do anything, but to where they are going to bark way less. Provide brain games, go on interactive walks, or play chase with them.
- Get a professional trainer involved: They know a lot about these things and can significantly help with any behavioral issues you may have trouble with.
What Type Of Training To Expect
With every animal comes training involved. As mentioned above, you may have to train your dog to not bark, but other things come into play, such as potty training, teaching them to sit or stay in one area or lay down. It is imperative to be consistent during the training phase, as this is essential to their everyday lives.Yorkies are brilliant animals, so most of this may be easy or hard, depending on what type of personality you are dealing with.
Health Issues
There are a few common health issues that a Yorkie can have. We will not be going over all of them, but the top 3 to show you what can occur. Let us go over them down below:
- Hypoglycemia: Where your dog’s blood sugar levels are low, especially for the first five months of their lives. Some signs of this include:
- Seizures
- Drowsiness
- Shaking
- Depression
- Weakness
- Tremors
- Confused behavior
- Legg-Perthes disease: Problems with the hips and joints, and becomes deformed. They may be limping, hobbling, and overall suffer from immense amounts of pain.
- Skin issues: Having skin issues can be caused by a multitude of problems, such as allergens, pollens, molds, chemicals (such as what you use to clean with), fleas, or other issues. You may notice that they are always irritated, itch their skin more often than not, or even hair loss. Being stung by a bee or wasps can be a life-threatening situation, so make sure you take them to their vet asap if this were to occur.
Final Thought
Overall, a Yorkshire is one of the easiest and relaxed animals to have as a good dog. They do not take up much space and are incredibly loving and playful creatures. If you decide to get one as a first dog, you will not regret it! Just make sure to pay enough attention to them and ensure they will live happy and healthy!
