Yorkshire Terrier's color from the very beginning of the breed till now, has always been BLUE AND TAN. Any other color is considered a fault.
A FAULT THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BREED.
I frankly don't understand why some people trying to make virtues out of faults.
Faults not in minor traits but in THE ULTIMATE trait in our breed : color and texture.
I don't understand the reason why they are quoting old books with the history of our breed in order to convince their audience that these traits were desirable. These traits were FAULTS then and are FAULTS now.
No dog is perfect. Actually no living creature is. Every dog, even grand and multi champions, have faults. Faults and of course virtues.
A purebred Yorkie is any yorkie bred by purebred parents. This doesn't mean that it possesses all the desirable traits - according to the standard.
Its the breeder's responsibility to evaluate these traits (faults and virtues) and respect the gene pool. Disrespecting the standard and breeding faults simply leads to something else, similar to yorkie, but certainly not the breed we are striving for.
All these off color yorkies carry faulty genes, genes that a Yorkshire Terrier should not have in its genotype. And because they express these faulty genes in their coloring they do not model the standard and they are not correct in TYPE.
Many "breeders" advertise them as "RARE" in order to sell them more expensive. Merles, Goldens, Chocolate, Creamy and God knows what else they will come up with in order to make money. The problem at least in my point of view is that all these people, are not just breeding to supply an unhealthy demand, but they support these breedings with theories to fool their audience. And thats even worse.
There is a huge difference between imperfection and wrong genes that have no place in the Yorkie's genotype like the sp, the si allele or the e allele.
A yorkie should be SS in S Locus and EE on E Locus. Furthermore you don't breed these faults in, but you try to breed them out. Its the breeder's responsibility to do so.
There will always be group of people that like super tiny yorkies, chocolate yorkies, double merle yorkies, orange yorkies or maybe someday green yorkies. Whats that suppose to mean? That breeders should follow the masses and breed what these people want? Of course NOT.
The breeder, the dedicated breeder, the one that respects the breed that he/she is committed to, should breed to the standard. The standard of the breed, not the standard of the masses.
And maybe this is a bit extreme, but if we continue to disrespect the standard and breed what ever trait we want, like, or is convenient to supply the demand, we are gonna loose the breed.
A blue and tan unsound dog with structural faults is as wrong as a sound purple, white, chocolate or whatever off color "yorkie".
Both "breeders" that breed in these faults, are equally wrong. An off color yorkie does not represent a TRUE YORKIE.
The dog that reflects the vision of those who originated the breed. This vision is written in the standard.
The standard is a written description of the ideal yorkie. The PERFECT dog that does not exist and never will. The standard was written in order to serve as a guide to dedicated breeders. Breeders that will strive for perfection in every aspect. Conformation, health and temperament. This is the healthy purpose of breeding dogs. Without these breeders the breed wouldn't survive and be admired as it is in our time.
Joan Gordon wrote that "The standard abides as a GUARD. If we loose the concepts tailored by those who originated the breed's identity, we wind up with dogs that -albeit sound - are lacking in the qualities that distinguish them as Yorkshire Terriers."
Color and texture historically were of prime importance. BOTH were the "trademark" of the breed. Long, straight, silky hair, blue and tan in color.
Ann Seranne, wrote a wonderful book in the 80s called "The Joy of breeding your own show dog".
Like Julia Gasow, I was also touched by her unselfishness when I read that :
" The challenge before us is to capture all the qualities in one gorgeous, animated package and lock those genes into our genetic lines so that our dogs will eventually breed true. We may not be able to accomplish this in the remaining span of our lives, but we hope that we will be able to leave the foundation for such a dream to an equally interested person who will be able to accomplish in his lifetime what we will attempt to strive for in ours. "
Why can't we just strive for perfection and keep this wonderful breed alive?
Why can't we just respect the breed that some dedicated breeders entrusted us with?
Why can't we just BREED TO THE STANDARD???
WE keep in our hands the fate of Yorkshire Terriers.
The future of the breed.
Its up to us to keep this breed alive and hand it to the next generation better or at least the same as it was entrusted to us.
Mike_