Having been close to a very tiny Yorkshire Terrier all my life, I was so excited when I saw an advert in the back on 'Your Dog' magazine for pedigree Miniature Yorkshire terriers for sale.
I picked up a 9 1/2 week old 'miniature' yorkshire terrier, and at that time he weighed 2.2lb (thats 1kg).
I was told he'd grow to no more than 5lb (2.2kg) - he was sold to me as a miniature yorkie.

Almost 18 months on, I find myself at dog training with people jesting at my 'miniature' yorkie who now weighs 9.9lb (4.5kg).- double the weight I was promised as the absolute maximum.

This is infact well over the kennel club breed STANDARD of "no more than 7lb".

Please help, as I have been advised to contact the breeder regarding this asking for an explanation.
She says its simply "down to genetic variation".
However, I thought that pedigree dogs have very little variation in their genetics - this is the problem with pedigree dogs, infact - that there is hardly any variation atall.

What should I do? What can I do?
I have suggested to the breeder that she refund half of the sale price which was £450, but she wont budge - she says that if she did, she'd be admitting that she knew that he wouldn't turn out small.

Please help!!

Thankyou
Lisa

There is no such breed an miniature Yorkshire Terriers & the breed standard gives IDEAL weights not standard weights. & yes you can get big ones & small ones in the same litter & there is no guarantee that every dog will be a certain size or weight(one of my Cavalier Dogs weighs 15 lb dead in the middle of the IDEAL weight range & his sister weighs 19 lb-one lb over the IDEAL)

Enjoy your dog does it really matter that he is bigger than the IDEAL size ? He is still the same dog whether he weighs 6 or 16 lbs

Lisa,

I had a 19 pound Yorkie for nearly 13 wonderful years.  Not only that, but her ears never stood fully erect.  She was the love of my life and just thinking about her now I am in tears, she will have passed three years ago in August.  She was the most clever dog I ever owned.  She was the most manipulative dog I ever owned, which was part of her charm. She made me laugh out loud in the darkest part of my life.

If all you care about is how much a dog weighs, or how closely they comply with the breed standard, then never buy a puppy.  The only way anyone can be absolutely certain about those type of things is when a dog is nearly or in some breeds even fully grown.

Even if the breeder was to refund half of the purchase price, it's not going to change the size of your dog.  You will still be embarrassed because your dog is less than perfect in your eyes and if it really troubles you I suggest you contact breed rescue.  I'm sure there are many people that would love to have him.

Oh, as another poster said, there is no such thing as a miniature Yorkie. 

Stacey

Guest at 2 pounds over standard weight are you sure your dog is not simply overweight and if not it isn't that much over size compared to many poorly bred Yorkies I have seen.

Your best guide to the pups likely size (and the only one the breeder really had) is the size of the ancestors.  What size was the Mum and other relatives.  Were you provided with details of the sire?

My own breed gives height and a dog of two inches over height would be considered oversize but not particularly unusual (that is about 10%) so a bit more than that in a Toy breed where size is normally difficylt to keep down wouldn't be that much either.

If you wanted a exact size yorkie you would have been better of buying a adult then you would know what size it was going to be.  I can not believe that someone is moaning about the size of their dog.  You obviously know very little about your breed as you would know that Yorkies do not come in two sizes.  I have had two of them one from the very famous ozmillion line so was very well bred and he grew to be quite large not at all typical of his line I never once moaned because I loved him for himself. 

All pedigree dogs have variations whether well bred or not.  I own the daughter of the dog cc record holder for my breed and she has a very good pedigree on the other side it still hasnt stopped her being the spottiest dog in the world.  She is also a large bitch although not exceeding the standard and throws smaller children even though the stud dogs are good sized. 

If your only complaint is his size then you are very lucky!

You are right in that there is very little genetic variation in the dog as a species and particularly within breeds, but the small variation does account for a wide variation physically, particuarly in size, the dog having the greatest proportional span of all species. 

The genes controlling size in the Yorkie would be the same genes in the St Bernard so a small genetic variation in a Yorkie could account for a huge leap in size, whereas in the St Bernard it would be less noticable.  You would be hard pressed to find a St Bernard female double the size of her sire whereas this regularly occurs in Yorkies and other tiny breeds.  I do believe breeders use the larger bitches for breeding for health reasons, this then preserving the genes for larger size in the breed.  Also, size is not entirely under genetic control being influenced by environment.

I believe your breeder was wrong to advertise "miniature" and to guarantee a size.

Julie

We have Pomeranian's and a few years ago we bred two Pom's that were about 3 times the usual size!!  We knew the dams and the sires lines and the sire had quite a few champions in there.  All the lines had small to medium size Pom's in there.  Unfortunately a fluke of nature takes place and the odd over sized dog can appear. 

It was quite funny as they went to the same person and Indian family who absolutely adored their large Pom's.  One of them was also an unusal colour

You really should have done some research into Yorkshire Terriers before thinking of buying - then as others have said you would have known there is no such thing as a miniature (or a standard come to that as I have seen some described as)
Is he healthy & happy?? Surely that is the main thing.
My first Yorkie 22 years ago was the daughter of the first Ozmilion champion - she was 6 1/2lb. She was mated to a 4lb  champion stud dog - she had 1 pup who we kept and she grew to over 12 lb. My ex-husband still says she was the best dog he has ever known. My now 2 yr old Yorkie is 6lb and came from a well known "Show" line - her litter sister is much bigger. She is still as adorable as my Lacey.
Helen

i think the problem here is that the guest was told that he would be small.

i think howver my best advice guest is to love  your little (biggish) chap for what he is, & its probaley better hes not exactly like the other one (tiny) cos hes himself,yknow?

Unfortunately a pup can change a lot while it is growing, feeding will have an effect as well as the genetic make-up of the dog.  Some complete dog foods are very concentrated (and the feeding guides can be extremely generous ;) ) and with a small breed like a Yorkie it wouldn't take much over feeding for the pup to grow bigger/faster than expected.  No breeder can predict/guarantee what size a pup will turn out to be just as no breeder can predict/guarantee show success, much depends on the pups environment as it develops.

Enjoy your pup, as long as he's healthy and has a nice temperament what does it matter how big he is? :)