Why are your puppies so expensive?

1.      Yorkies are extremely prone to get luxating patellas. They are the second most common breed for luxating patella’s. Just the surgery to fix the groove in their knees so the patella doesn’t pop out can run you $1,000 on the low end and $3,000 if you live in a more expensive area. Yorkies are the 2nd most common breed for luxating patellas, that is a pretty high rate. I spend months looking for puppies, I’m talking hours upon hours upon hours of searching for an outside line dog that doesn’t have a luxation. That is a lot of time investment for me in my breeding parents. I’ve spent thousands for breeding rights on a breeding dog and had to let them go for a fraction of the cost because they had a luxation that the breeder never told me about. It happens very often. The same goes with underbites, and other issues. Just like buyers have to be so careful, so do we, and even more so – because we cannot look the other way and say well… he’s cute we’ll keep him anyways. That would be irresponsible. I know the quality i’m giving you, the quality I have devoted a great deal of time, and many years of breeding to achieve. Luxating patellas is just one of the conditions that are prevalent in yorkies, its my job to know them all, recognize them, test for them , and produce healthy puppies free of issues, to live a long time of happy and healthy.
2.      Yorkies are not cheap dogs, you can find breeders out there have good quality that just don’t mind letting them go for $800 – $1000. But you need to be so careful if your buying in that price range, because serious breeders who have put all the effort into producing quality dogs, know what they have, and they know they are saving you tons of money down the line and a lot of heart ache.
3.      My yorkies are very tiny. Many breeders say that a 3 lb female is too small to breed and that I’m risking that mothers life because she is too small for breeding. I have successfully bred 3 lb females to smaller males without issue.  I face constant ridicule from 90% of other breeders who think I’m the worst person in the world for breeding small females. I’ve even had other breeders who do breed small females , send me a message saying that I need to take off the weight of my females off my website or lie and add a pound.  lol  . Thats right. my 3.2 pound breeding female makes me the breeder who is doing it “all for the money”. That statement came from a breeder who bred a 4 lb female. .8 of a pound makes me a backyard breeder in other breeders eyes. I am honest and up front about my breeding program. Because I want to attract other breeders who have my same goals in mind, and buyers who can appreciate what I’m trying to produce. My honesty puts me on the ropes constantly, and thats okay. Im not afraid to tell other breeders that health has nothing to do with size. Liver shunts, luxating patellas, eye cataracts, and congenital heart failure… are all genetically passed on. Which means the DNA doesn’t care if your 2lbs or 20 lbs. A gene is a gene. The only thing that size truly affects is hypoglycemia – the smaller the dog the more increased risk of low blood sugar/ hypoglycemia. With proper care that should never be an issue.
4.   Tiny puppies are incredibly hard to care for the first 2 weeks of life. Because they are so tiny – they need be eating constantly. If one puppy gets caught in the blankets (their eyes are closed at birth and they rely on smell to reach mom and nurse) and the can’t get to mom, all it takes is 2 hours without nursing and they are suddenly too weak to be able to even nurse. If that happens , I have to do a procedure called tube feeding. You run a small tube down the puppies throat to its stomach and squeeze Puppy Formula through the syringe into their tummy. Its extremely stressful, for me and the pup. I have to be with them literally every second to make sure each puppy is latched on and nursing. Every 10 minutes I check in their bassinet next to my bed to see if one is unlatched. If they are I have to express a little milk and hold the puppies mouth onto the nipple until it latches. I get less 10 hours of sleep for the first week of a litter with tiny puppies. Even bigger yorkies can have issues like this. But low blood sugar issues are more common the smaller they are. I do not breed show yorkies. I am not trying to. And I get a lot of flack for that as well. Many breeders say if your not breeding to improve the breed according to what the yorkshire terrier club of america says a yorkie should look like.. then you are a backyard breeder. Well… I don’t want to breed a dog that is bigger, with long legs and a long back and a flat head. I breed tiny purse babydoll yorkies. I like big wide set eyes, short legs, short snouts, and tiny ear sets… and as small as I can possibly get them, and of course health. That to me, is improving the breed.
5.      The level of care your puppy gets while its with me is incredible, it will ensure that it will be socialized, spoiled, and be ready to leave when it does leave my home. I do separation training, and tape ears to make sure they are standing before the puppy leaves, I do free potty training when I can, I give a health guarantee, my puppies are socialized with small children. Most breeders are older ladies, and some don’t have kids running around or coming over to play. And you will notice when you get a puppy, that they are scared of kids. Mine play with young children who have been taught how to safely play with a small fragile puppy.
6. These dogs are a huge investment of my time and money. It has taken me 8 years to even start getting the type of quality I truly want to produce. I have lost puppies and huge amounts of money in my pursuit to produce a beautiful healthy small Tea Cup Yorkie. It is not fair for anyone to tell me what I can or cannot charge for one of my dogs. It especially irks when someone who has never even committed to a breeding program wants to tell me I charge way too much. They have literally no idea. And thats why I wrote this page. Because I know there are people out there who genuinely want to know why, with no ill intention toward me. I don’t expect people to understand why I charge so much when they have never bred a dog before.
7. Breeding quality is extremely expensive and risky. I recently bought a male from the most popular kennel for show yorkies in the country. He cost me $3,500. I have told you that I do not breed for show, but I invested in a show quality male because they are as healthy as they come. People get obsessed with health certificates, but I will tell you… even two parents who have health certs can still produce a puppy with a genetic issue. Because puppies are affected by genes going back 7 generations. So if you want to go off health certs, you need them going back at least 2 generations to be mostly sure you won’t have any issues. Thats why I have always argued, that buying a breeding dog that has champions all over in their pedigree is much more reliable, because show breeders have solid healthy lines going back 100 years. Show breeders generally buy from other show breeders.
8.      I spend even more time researching health issues, and the breed than I spend looking for parents. I am constantly learning more about the breed. Anyone who buys a puppy from me, gets my personal cell # and my ear any time , day or night, for anything for any reason , for the whole life of that puppy. I don’t have all the knowledge in the world about yorkies, and I don’t think anyone does, because our knowledge is a product of our experiences with yorkies, and some of us have different experiences with what works or doesn’t work , because genetics are diverse. But I do know a lot – and I take the time to be unbiased in every situation. I once had a good friend of mine that bought a yorkie, that thought the yorkie I sold her had a liver shunt. I was very worried about the dog and I had never even had a yorkie with a liver shunt before. But I was in constant contact with them, as they went through the vet process. The vet put the dog on a special diet, and they said the dog would be fine. The dog had a second seizure and my friend figured out that the seizure episodes were right after receiving heart worm medication with ivermectin in it. Medications are generally given in doses of lbs right? well most medications say 0-10 lbs, 10-20 lbs. Well,… when your dealing with a dog that is only going to be 2.5 lbs full grown, you have to cut the smallest dose way down. I don’t even give my tiny ones a full shot, they get half the vaccination. Think about it, if your puppy is 2 lbs and the smallest dose is for 10 lbs, thats less than half the size of the dose. So cut your dose way down. Turned out, she didn’t have a liver shunt, too much heart worm medication. Thats just one example. It was a learning experience for me, but I will continue to learn and share what I can at any time with my clients. My dedication goes beyond the point I put that little puppy in your arms.
9. Yorkies live 12-15 years. That is a very long time. Spend the extra money to get the puppy you want, that has been properly cared for and properly bred. It will save you money down the line, and its going to be in your life for a long time. I take pride in knowing my dogs aren’t going to end up in a shelter. Shelter dogs are usually poorly bred mix dogs that have health issues the owner can’t afford, or temperament issues from being caged its whole life, or abused. You won’t have any of those reasons to take one of my puppies to the shelter. In fact , my clients frequently tell me that everyone still thinks their 8 year old dog is a puppy. That is the entire goal of my breeding program. People buy dogs thinking they will stay so cute their whole life, and then when the puppy grows up, they decide they don’t like how big it is or how it looks or whatever. Mine stay cute their whole life, and I take pride knowing when you leave with one of my puppies, your going to think they are an adorable puppy 10 years from now. I don’t like to breed the yorkies that go silver or blue when they are older, even though that is the standard. I breed the gene that causes them to go silver as adults out of my lines. My parents still have black coats as adults. Except for Duke, he’s my champion boy. So he’s blue and tan. But thats the dilute gene. And all the females have black coats. I don’t care if you spend the extra $1,000 with me or with another breeder. Get the dog you want, its more than worth it and many times pays for itself many times over through the life of the dog.