Hello
I'm after some advice, I brought a Yorkshire terrier puppy yesterday she is 12wks old, the lady i brought her from didn't bred her she said she was selling her because she wasn't getting along with her other dog.  Anyway I asked if she had been vet checked and she said she had and she was fine, I have since got her home and notice her jaw isn't level, the bottom jaw is slightly longer then her top, the teeth don't bite together.  I would say its about 3-4mm isn't a huge gap but I'm worried.  I'm disappointed too because she is for my 10 year old son and as you can imagine he is over the moon with her and got attached to her quickly.  My question is will it improve, will it effect her long term she has been brought purely as a pet but my main concern is in the long run this may cause problems.  I'm taking her later to the vet for her first vaccination and to be checked over, thank you in advance.

If she wasn't bought for show then an undershot jaw (if not extreme) will not cause her any real issues eating etc, after al many breeds are actually required to have undershot jaws.

I was given a yorkie pup by a grateful patient many moons ago, she had the same problem, looked like she was smiling, didn't have any problems till later when she had to have some teeth extracted age 10 because the wrong bite caused them to rot.

As a pet just love her

At 12 weeks there is still a lot of growth to go including bone so it may improve or it may become worse but as has been said if unless you wish to show or breed the mouth should not be a problem to you or the dog, the other problem that is common with Yorkies are retained canine teeth so lots of hard chew objects required when she starts to loose teeth.

As a 12 week old pup, her jaw hasn't stopped growing yet, and her adult teeth are not present.    It could well be that her upper jaw will catch up, it may not.   Is it that the lower jaw is longer, or that the teeth are pointing forward and not meeting the upper teeth? 

As a pet, this has no bearing on her being an excellent pet and living a long happy life.

Thank you for your replies the lady has offered to take her back, it is her bottom jaw that is longer then her top :-\

I brought a Yorkshire terrier puppy yesterday she is 12wks old, the lady i brought her from didn't bred her she said she was selling her because she wasn't getting along with her other dog.

Just have to ask -do you know if the person you bought the pup from had been in touch with the breeder? Any GOOD breeder would be extremely upset if a pup they had sold to what they believed would be a permanent home ended up being sold on, without them being given the opportunity to have it back and find it a new home themselves and be able to keep in touch with the new owner.

I don't know she wasn't very forth coming when i asked where she originally came from, she said i could take her back but she's not home until 7, she said shes not there during the day makes me wonder why she got a puppy in the first place!  I am going to take her back, I feel sorry for her she is a lovely little dog but I have to think long term and it was a lot to pay out for a dog that isn't right

When you take her back, try to get the woman to contact her breeder first, just in case it's a reputable person who would appreciate involvement in the rehoming. :-)

You would be better putting you name down on the list of a breeder you trust, this pup could be from anywhere even imported from the far east on fake papers or a puppy farm in Ireland.

> because the wrong bite caused them to rot.
>
>

Actually even with correct bites the breed and many toy breeds tend to have poor teeth.

A slight undershot doesn't worry me as its quite common in my breed, I tend to look at the whole package rather than just one part. No dog is perfect some are to straight in the shoulder, some not enough angles, overshot or undershot bites etc even the top top show dog will have some part that is not perfect :)

Barbara's post is so true about toy breeds.  If you looked at the bite of many pet toys, you would be surprised at how often this is found.

Poor little mite, being homed yet again for just a cosmetic reason.  I understood she was bought as a pet, and don't understand "getting rid."

Thank you everyone for your replies, I did return her yesterday she said she had spoken to the breeder and she had been vet checked and she was "perfect", i did offer to show her but she wasn't interested, she took her off me on the door step and handed me back my money. 
She said she was taking her to her own vet today  for her first vaccination and she was in fact a toy yorkie, well I don't claim to be an expert but looking at the size of her I doubt that
  I felt very deflated when I left she was very rude and implied I was wrong and was inconveniencing her returning her even though she had offered to take her back !  and she did all this in front of my son, which really annoyed me.  knowing the fact she had been out all day and she doesn't seem to be home a lot made me wonder why she had brought her in the first place, I'm still unsure about the relationship she has with the breeder as she said she was selling her on because she didn't get along with her other dog and she hasn't had her long.  I guess i will never know, it wasn't that she wasn't a nice dog its just morally i wasn't happy to pay that sort of money for a dog that wasn't quite right and then you have friends and family in your ear saying you've been conned/ripped off, I felt very deceived by her I really can't see how the vet wouldn't of noticed.  Oh well live and learn!     

> she had been vet checked and she was "perfect"

She could, and probably was, still be in perfect health. The undershot jaw is just cosmetic, doesn't affect the dog having a long and happy life life as an adored pet :(

> she was in fact a toy yorkie

There is no such thing, one breed - yorkshire terrier, some may be smaller, some bigger.

> she did all this in front of my son

I'm not sure it's a good lesson for a child, if you're not perfectly beautiful in every way you're no good.

The defect wasn't pointed out before I brought her, If I brought a car or anything else for that matter and found it to have a fault less then 24hrs after buying it I would return it.  I want a healthy pet I don't think that's too much to ask for.  I'm not happy to purposely take on a dog that may have difficulty's further down the line, she was struggling to eat hence how i noticed her "defect" and it was possible it would get worse?  I did ring my vet and he also recommend I took her back, he also suggested I may have trouble getting her insured.  Anyway thank you everyone that gave advice, for taking your time to comment, I don't think I should have to justify myself so I'll be off now, I won't be returning to read any further comments feel free to delete this thread.

Carolineckc, from what you say this was not a good buy, the owner/breeder has no idea what they are talking about - you should probable do more research before buying again and make sure the pup you buy is from a good source, an experienced breeder who breeds in an ethical way and is more interested in their breed than their bank balance.

That said you could still end up with a well bred Yorkie, full of champions in the pedigree that goes undershot, it's a cosmetic fault and happens. 

It does not make the dog imperfect, any more than the coat colour being a bit off or the texture less than ideal, the dog grown too big or stayed too small for the ideal in the standard, unless it was destined to be shown, and/or bred from.

It does not make a dog unhealthy.  Boxers, and all manner of breeds who are bred for undershot mouths do not suffer ill health, otehr than thsoe where the top jaws are excessively flat.

Breeders have often been sadly disappointed that their lovely show prospect has developed an obvious cosmetic fault.

Now slipping Patellas, Encephalitis, bad temperament, that would be a reason to reject a puppy.

Carolineckc, from what you say this was not a good buy, the owner/breeder has no idea what they are talking about - you should probable do more research before buying again and make sure the pup you buy is from a good source, an experienced breeder who breeds in an ethical way and is more interested in their breed than their bank balance. Jackie H

Well said.  Slightly different I know but I had a pup with an overshot jaw and the worry we went through when the second teeth were coming through was nobody's business.  It could have ended up with massive and  costly dental work.  As it was I could never leave him to eat unattended and he had to have full bowls to drink from or the water went up his nose and he choked.

Undershot jaws are selectively bred for in some breeds but not in Yorkies.  Its a bad fault and one the breeder should take note of and IMO possibly not breed from the same parents in future.

Though not ideal a slightly undershot mouth is a cosmetic fault (a parrot mouth or badly overshot jaw is rather different), and extremely common.

I believe mouth faults are so common in toy breeds because of overcrowding in the mouth due to the miniaturisation, that in some mouths are often hardly looked at when judged, as they are universally poor.

I do not know how common undershot mouths are in Yorkies, but considering they occur not uncommonly in most normal size breeds, then I would think them pretty common, and not something to worry about or cause a problem unless extreme.

As for the quality of this particular puppy unless the breeder showed i doubt they would have taken much notice of dentition in the parents unless they had problems eating, and certainly would not have noticed anything in a puppy with baby teeth.  No-one can be sure of the mouth until the second teeth have settled, at around 9 months or so..