A Pup Named Pendle! (Yorkshire Terrier)

Member Name: loulou22

Product:	Yorkshire Terrier
Date:	12/04/06 (4120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Playful & Don't Need To Much Exercise!

Disadvantages: Very small and can be yappy!

I have already written a review about my poodle Max, so I thought it was only fair to write one about my other little dog Pendle.

*Yorkies*

Yorkshire Terriers are also known by the name “Broken – Haired Scottish Terrier.”

Yorkshire Terriers were originally bred as ratting dogs and were used to go down small holes and chase out anything in there such as rats. This instinct is still clearly visible in these dogs as we can tell from our little yorkie who is always squeezing into small gaps and he will chase anything that moves!

The Yorkshire Terrier breed was developed in the 1800’s and results from various crosses of the Dandie Dinmont, Maltese and Skye Terriers.

Yorkies are very small dogs and are usually around 9ins (23cm) tall (short!) and they weigh in at around 7lb (3kg)

Yorkies are usually black and brown in colour. Their colours and markings come out more as they grow up. When they are born, yorkies are mostly if not completely all black.

*Pendle*

Pendle is my 3 year old yorkie. He is tiny and extremely cute.

We got Pendle when my family went up to Manchester for the day. My parents went to a dog’s home to show my little brother all the dogs, but while they were there my mum fell in love with this 8 week old fluffy ball of cuteness!

I had always imagined yorkies to be yappie and snappy little dogs that you trip over every 5 minutes. So my initial reaction when they showed him to me was along the lines of “what’s that” and “Why do you want one of them?”

However before you start thinking that’s really nasty, within hours of watching this little dog playing and trying to get our other dog to play with him, I had fallen completely in love with him!

As Pendle started to grow, so did his hair! Yorkies are known for their grooming requirements, and are often seen with long silky hair and occasionally the stereotypical bow in the top of their hair. As he grew Pendle changed his hairstyle more often than me! He has had it long but it flopped over his eyes, so my mum thought it was great to put a little bobble in to hold it back, Pendle had other ideas about this though and he went into the garden, straight under a bush and managed to get the bobble out! The other disadvantage of the longer hairstyles I they can get very dirty, very quickly and that’s when they start to smell. Pendle has had his hair short and spiky in a variety of styles. At the moment he has it longer on his body and short and spiky on his head, with longer ears.

*Grooming*

As I mentioned in my poodle review, it is my mum who grooms our dogs. Yorkies don’t require loads of grooming, but they do require some on a regular basis. We give Pendle a brush once a week and trim his hair every few weeks to keep it under control. We also found that he is calmer the more often we groom him. At first he used to try and chew the brush or the scissors, or he would just fidget a lot. However he is much calmer now, and you can cut his hair with ease and he will quite happily sit on your knee and go to sleep as you brush his hair.

*Dinnertime*

I have heard mixed things about yorkies and their eating habits, some are very picky eaters and others will eat anything!

Pendle can only be described as the doggy version of the “human dustbin” and that is a “doggy dustbin” he will eat anything in sight. I have a feeling this is to do with our other dog as he will eat most things so Pendle seems to copy because he doesn’t want to be left out. The only strange thing we have noticed about Pendle’s eating habits is he will not eat out of his bowl or even go near it if you are in the same room, but if you are in a different room he will get a mouthful of food and bring it into whatever room you are in and happily eat it in front of you! Luckily we feed both the dogs Iams dry dog food, so it’s not too messy!

Yorkies can have very sensitive stomachs so you will need to be careful what treats and snacks you give them. We have found if you give him a plain rich tea or digestive biscuit he is fine and enjoys it.

Chocolate is a big no no! Human forms of chocolate contain an ingredient which is said by vets to be poisonous to dogs, so as well as this reason we don’t give him chocolate as the one time we did.... Lets put it this way.... cleaning up was not a nice job! The doggy Chocolates you can get are fine as an occasional treat but in small quantities.

*Training*

Yorkies are very intelligent dogs and they are very quick and willing to learn almost anything you want to teach them.

Pendle mastered sit, lie down and shake paws within a week and walking on a lead was simple as we took him out with our other dog and he happily walked alongside him.

House Training was a problem at first, but with some patience and a little help from puppy training scented spray from the pet store this was soon mastered too!

As with all dogs you will need to spend time with them and have some patience to train them properly, remember this is all very new to them and they don’t speak your language!

*Exercise*

Being small dogs yorkies do not require much exercise, a short walk each day is quite sufficient or even a lengthy game of fetch in the garden!

If however you do feel like a long walk, yorkies will quite happily walk all the way with you. I take both our dogs for a walk around our local area and up to the local field and this takes around 40 minutes, by that time the poodle is very tired and will sleep all night, but Pendle always seems quite eager and ready to carry on further!

*Playtime*

Yorkies are very playful dogs if you are willing to spend time playing with them. If you leave them to play on their own they won’t play, they will come and sit with you.

Pendle loves to play ball games and chase anything around the garden. His favourite two games at the moment are chasing balloons around, we got these really small balloons for my little brother to play with at Christmas, but I think Pendle prefers them, he will chase them around for ages, barking at them and jumping on them until they burst, then he will come and bark at you until you either give him another one or pick him up and fuss him until he forgets! His other favourite game is chasing your foot around; if you slide it around the floor he will chase it for ages!

*Other Dogs*

Pendle mixes fine with other dogs, especially his best buddy Max. We have also introduced him to friends’ dogs which are much larger, such as a Labrador retriever and they played happily together. I would always recommend that you fully supervise your dog when they are playing with strange dogs just in case they are not quite as playful as they seem!

The only problem we did have with Pendle and Max living together was because they are both male they are very territorial, so we did have the problem of little legs being cocked where they shouldn’t be. My mum solved this by getting a special cleaner which deters them and is not harmful to them or us.

*Temperament*

Yorkies are commonly mistaken for being quite snappy little dogs. I would say this is very out of character for Pendle. The only time you could ever question this is when he gets way too over excited, so we try not to let him get that excitable as we don’t want him to get snappy as we have my little brother who is only 2 and loves Pendle to bits.

*Lifetime*

At the moment Pendle is only 3 so he is still a baby. I am however led to believe that if looked after properly yorkies can have very long lives. A lady I used to work with had a yorkie who lived to be 19 and her elderly neighbour had one who was around 20 when he died. So from the sound of it we’ve hopefully got Pendle for a long time yet.

*Is This The Dog For You?*

At the end of the day I would defiantly recommend a yorkie to anyone who is prepared to look after a dog. They are very loving, loyal and playful dogs. They are not snappy unless you really tease them, but if you want to have a dog to tease I would say don’t bother getting a dog at all, they are not toys!

Yorkies are very intelligent and quick and willing to learn, so you won’t have to spend ages on the same thing. They require little exercise and due to their size they are great if you don’t have a big house.

As with any pet I will say research into what you are buying into, and realise this is a long term commitment. Be sure this is the pet for you and you have the time and patience to look after it and if you do decide to get a yorkie then congratulations you now have a new best friend for life!

Ok, that’s about it now, so I’ll end with this cute little rhyme someone told me when I was little.

A Little Dogs Prayer.

“A master who is firm and kind,
And understands a doggy mind,
A walkie and a meal each day,
That’s all I ask for when I pray.”

Summary: Extremely small dog with an exremely big heart!