Getting Our Yorkie

Upon request, today's post is about how I take care of my seven-month-old Yorkie puppy, Jack.  I thought I would go ahead and make a series out of this because there is a lot of information involved in taking care of a puppy and I have plenty of pictures to share. :)

Today I'll explain why I came to choose a Yorkie in the first place.

I always thought that Yorkies were these tiny, fragile dogs with hair that would take longer to fix than mine.  Honestly, if someone would have asked me two years ago if I wanted a Yorkie as a pet, I would have laughed and said no way.  I don't like yippy teacup dogs.  I like small dogs, but dogs that have personalities.

My mom's friend got a Yorkie on a spur-of-the-moment purchase, from a pet store, of all places.  Everyone was shocked that she would actually buy a pet shop puppy, but he ended up being absolutely adorable.  I fell in love.

This other puppy wasn't the stereotypical Yorkshire Terrier I had always thought about.  He was tiny, yes, but he was as rambunctious and bold as a big dog.  He had a huge personality.  In fact, he was hilarious.

Since my little brother was finally old enough for my family to get a small dog, my family decided to start researching Yorkies.  According to what we read, they were clever and full of personality.  All of the resources said that we could teach Yorkies to not be yippy or scared and we didn't have to keep their hair long and girlie, like in the picture above.

We began our search for a Yorkie breeder and we found one who lived in a town nearby.  We spoke with the owners and then went to visit them.  They had a small litter of only two puppies.  There was a girl and a boy.  The little girl was trembling and shaking.  If any of us tried to hold her, she flinched away from us and tried to hide.  On the other hand, the little boy was chasing the other dogs in the room and playing tug of war with us and jumping into our arms to try to lick our faces.  He was adorable.  We went home with him that night and named him Jack.  After Jack the Ripper, interestingly enough.

I took the picture to your right the night we brought Jack home.  Wasn't he tiny and cute?  I loved his teddy bear face.

We actually probably took our puppy home a little too early at only six and a half weeks, now that I look back, but those specific breeders encouraged it, so we did.  I have to say though, if you get your puppy as early as we got Jack, be sure to socialize him and introduce him to hectic and crazy environments so he won't be a shaky dog when he grows up.  You're taking the place of his mommy.  It also helped that we have two older dogs who adopted Jack as their own after a few weeks of adjustment and taught him the way things go around our house.

I adore Jack.  He has the biggest personality out of all of our dogs.  He's bold and playful and intelligent.  He learns tricks like crazy and tries desperately to please me.  He can play for hours upon hours at a time, but when I sit down to read or watch TV, he'll curl up right next to me and fall asleep with his chin on my knee.  I love him.