Raising dogs, in particular providing care for the yorkshire terrier, is nothing new for humans. Some zoologists say dogs were domesticated sometime between 12,000 and 25,000 years ago—and that all dogs evolved from the wolf. Since then, humans have selectively bred more than 400 breeds, which vary in size from 4-pound teacup poodles all the way up to Irish wolfhounds, who have earned the distinction of tallest pooch. But the most preferred pooches are the non-pedigree dogs—the one-of-a-kind dogs known as mutts. The yorkshire terrier is also a popular pick among dog owners. Many owners are oblivious, however, of many critical yorkshire terrier care tips.
General cost of care for your yorkshire terrier
The yearly budget for raising your yorkshire terrier—which includes everything from meals and snacks, veterinary care, toys and license—can vary between $420 and $780. This doesn’t even account for capital expenses for sterilization procedures, a collar and leash, a dog carrier and crate. Tip: Be positive you have all the required items before you get your yorkshire terrier home for the 1st time.
General yorkshire terrier Care
How To Feed the yorkshire terrier
- yorkshire terrier pups between 8 and 12 weeks need four meals in a day.
- Feed yorkshire terrier puppies three to 6 months old three meals daily.
- Feed pups 6 months to 1 year 2 meals each day.
- When your yorkshire terrier hits his or her 1st birthday, 1 meal each day is usually adequate.
- Many times adult yorkshire terriers might do better with 2 smaller helpings. It’s your responsibility to learn your yorkshire terrier’s eating habits.
Excellent-quality dry dogfood ensures balanced nutrition to grown yorkshire terriers and can mix with canned food, water, or broth. Your yorkshire terrier may also have a taste for fruits and vegetables, cooked eggs, and cottage cheese, but these foods should be less than ten pct of her daily allowance. yorkshire terrier puppies need to be given premium-quality, name brand puppy food. Please try to cut down on “people food”, though, since it can result in vitamin and mineral imbalances, tooth and bone issues, and might cause some very finicky food choices as well as obesity. Clean, potable water should be available always, and be certain to clean food and water dishes daily.
yorkshire terrier Care Tips: Your yorkshire terrier needs exercise daily
yorkshire terriers need exercise to stay in shape, recharge their minds, and keep healthy. Exercise also seems to help yorkshire terriers avoid boredom, which often has the potential to lead to to naughty behavior. Exercise can appease most of your yorkshire terrier’s instinctual urges to chew, dig, chase, retrieve and herd. Individual exercise needs can vary based on your yorkshire terrier’s age and his or her level of health—but ten minutes in the backyard and merely a couple of walks around the block every day probably will not suffice. If your yorkshire terrier is a six to 18 month adolescent, her requirements will probably be much higher.
Grooming tips for yorkshire terriers
Frequent brushing will help reduce shedding and keep your yorkshire terrier clean. Inspect for fleas and ticks every day during the summer or other warm weather. Most yorkshire terriers don’t need a bath more than a few times during the year. Before a bath, cut out or comb any and all mats from the yorkshire terrier’s hair. Rinse all soap out of the coat, or the dirt will stick to soap residue.
How to Handle Your yorkshire terrier
Pups are obviously easier to manage. To carry your yorkshire terrier puppy, take one hand and place it under the dog’s chest, either with the forearm or other hand supporting her hind legs and rump. Never attempt to lift or grab your pup by the front legs, back of the neck or tail. If you must pick up a larger, full-grown yorkshire terrier, pick it up from underneath, bracing her chest with 1 of your arms and rear end with your other arm.
How to House your yorkshire terrier
Your yorkshire terrier needs a comfortable peaceful place to be able to relax away from all drafts and away from the ground. You may want to buy a doggie bed, or make one from a wooden box. Place a clean blanket, sheet, comforter, or pillow inside the bed as cushion. Wash the yorkshire terrier’s bedding frequently. If the yorkshire terrier will be outdoors much, be sure he has access to shade and plenty of cool water in hot weather, and a covered, warm, dry shelter in the cold.
yorkshire terrier Licensing
Follow your city’s licensing regulations. Be sure you connect the license to your yorkshire terrier’s collar. The license, along with an identification tag, could help you recover your yorkshire terrier should she get lost.
yorkshire terrier Temperament Info
Training yorkshire terriers
Well-behaved, companion yorkshire terriers can truly be a blessing to own. However, when left untrained, your yorkshire terrier may be troublesome. Teaching your yorkshire terrier the fundamentals—”Down”, “Heel”, “Off”, “Sit”, “Stay”, “Come”, and “Leave it”—will bolster the relationship both with your dog as well as your relatives. If you’re the owner of a puppy, begin training him on the right responses ASAP! Use doggie snacks as a lure and recognition. Puppies can begin obedience courses when they are sufficiently immunized. Call your community humane society or SPCA for details on training class recommendations. It is best to walk your yorkshire terrier on a leash in public, even as a puppy. Just be positive your yorkshire terrier will come to you when you say so. A disobedient or aggressive yorkshire terrier shouldn’t play with other people.
Knowing Your yorkshire terrier’s Health
yorkshire terriers should visit the vet for a complete screening, innoculations and heartworm exam annualy, and promptly when she is sick or hurt.
yorkshire terrier Oral Health
Although we may object to our yorkshire terrier’s foul breath, it’s important to be aware of what it might be a symptom of. Foul breath usually means that your yorkshire terrier requires a dental examination. Plaque caused by bacteria creates a terrible stench that can only be eliminated by treatment by a professional. Once you have given your yorkshire terrier a cleaning done by a professional, his mouth may be maintained in a healthy state by brushing the teeth regularly, feeding a specially formulated dental diet and treats, and avoiding table scraps. The veterinarian can provide you with other info on eliminating dental diseases as well as bad breath. You can easily clean your yorkshire terrier’s teeth with a doggie toothpaste or a homemade paste made of baking soda and water twice weekly. You can clean them with a piece of nylon stocking wrapped around your finger, a sterile gauze pad, or a child’s soft toothbrush. Periodontal disease,which is an infection between the teeth and gums, often affects yorkshire terriers. This dreadful affliction can possibly initiate loss of teeth and also spread diseases throughout his body. The vet can brush her teeth as a regular part of your yorkshire terrier’s health appointment.
Halitosis (bad breath) in yorkshire terriers
If your yorkshire terrier has foul breath, gum disease might not necessarily be the only issue, as other more serious diseases also have that symptom. Intestinal or liver diseases may cause smelly breath, and a fruity, even pleasant smell can be indicative of diabetes. Kidney disease is a possible reason if your yorkshire terrier’s breath smells like ammonia or urine. Any time you determine your yorkshire terrier has foul breath accompanied by other indicators of ill health, such as diminished appetite, nausea, loss of weight, depression, too much drinking or urinating, schedule a checkup with the vet.
yorkshire terrier Tick and Flea Issues
During the warm seasons, it’s important for you to perform daily checks of your yorkshire terrier for fleas and ticks. Use a flea comb to remove and find fleas. There are several new techniques of tick and flea mitigation. Talk to your yorkshire terrier’s doctor about her recommendations.
Heartworm problems in yorkshire terriers
This parasite resides in the heart and is passed from a contaminated dog to your yorkshire terrier by way of mosquitoes. Heartworm infestations can be potentially deadly. It is wise to give your yorkshire terrier a heartworm screen every spring—this is crucial to catch infestations from the past year. It’s also wise to give your yorkshire terrier a once-a-month tablet throughout the warm, wet time of the year to help you protect him from heartworms. Your yorkshire terrier should be on heartworm medication throughout a winter trip to a warmer climate. There are some regions, usually the regions with hotter climates, where the vets recommend parasite medication be given all the time.
Medicines and Toxins
Don’t ever give your yorkshire terrier medication that hasn’t been prescribed by a veterinarian. For example, did you know that one ibuprofen capsule causes stomach ulcers in yorkshire terriers? Keep rat poison and other rodenticides away from your yorkshire terrier. When you suspect that your doggie has consumed a poisonous substance, notify the veterinarian or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 24 hours per day for instructions.
Spaying and Neutering yorkshire terriers
Female yorkshire terriers should be spayed—which is the extraction of the ovaries and uterus—and males neutered—extraction of the testicles—by six months of age. Spaying before maturity significantly reduces the breast cancer risk, which is a usually fatal and common illness of older female dogs. The chance of a sick uterus, which is another serious disease that affects more mature females, can also be removed by spaying when young. Prostate diseases, testicular cancer, some hernias and certain types of aggressions can be prevented by neutering males.
yorkshire terrier Vaccinations
- yorkshire terrier pups should be innoculated with a combination shot (called the “5-in-one”) at two, three and four months old, and then once each year. This shot immunizes your pup from distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, and parainfluenza. Your yorkshire terrier puppy’s immunization program cannot be completed before four months of age.
- If your yorkshire terrier has not been vaccinated and is older than 4 months, she will need two vaccinations as soon as possible, 2 to three weeks apart. Then you must vaccinate every year.
- Your yorkshire terrier pup’s vaccinations should coincide with his socialization program. You may take your yorkshire terrier pup to socialization courses as early as 8 to nine weeks old, as recommended by most veterinarians. They should have received their first innoculations by then.
Laws are so varied between different areas, the best thing is to call your community vet to get rabies immunization information. For example, New York City laws state that pets older than 3 months be immunized for rabies. After the first innoculation, she must have another immunization the next year, and then every 3 years after that. There are many immunizations that are right for your yorkshire terrier. Ask your yorkshire terrier’s vet for her recommendation. Also, if your yorkshire terrier gets ill because he is not vaccinated, do not give the innoculation until the dog has made a full recovery.
Worms in yorkshire terriers
yorkshire terriers are often exposed to worms—especially in rural areas. Eggs that carry intestinal worms are transmitted through a yorkshire terrier’s stool. Most puppies, from all environments, even those with healthy mothers, carry intestinal worms. The secret to treatment is correct diagnosis. Early, accurate diagnosis maximizes the possibility that prescribed treatment will be successful against your dog’s worms. A dewormer that eradicates hookworms, for example, cannot kill tapeworms. Your veterinarian can best determine the culprit—and decide the appropriate medication.
yorkshire terrier Care Tips: Additional Information
yorkshire terrier Supply Checklist
- Excellent-quality dog food and snacks specifically for yorkshire terriers and similarly-sized dogs
- Food bowl
- Water bowl
- As many safe toys as you can provide, especially chewable
- Comb & brush for grooming, including a flea comb
- Collar with license and ID tag
- Quality leash
- Carrier (for pups)
- Crate for training
- Dog bed or box with sheet or towel
- Doggie or child’s toothbrush
Warnings to be Heeded
The following items should never be fed to yorkshire terriers:
- Alcoholic beverages
- Caffeinated foods, like coffee, tea or chocolate
- Grapes or raisins
- Moldy or spoiled food
- Onions, chives or garlic
- Chicken, turkey, or any other poultry bones
- Salt & salty foods
- Tomato leaves, stems or unripe fruit
- Yeast dough
The “Bottom” Line
Keep your yorkshire terrier on a leash when you are outdoors, unless you are in a fenced-in, secured space. When your yorkshire terrier defecates on your neighbor’s yard, the sidewalk or any other public location, please remove it! Don’t forget to check out these other articles about yorkshire terriers
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