Yorkshire Terrier Dog Breed Information

The Yorkshire Terrier sits comfortably in the NZKC top 20 by toy-group registrations and is one of the most common small dogs in Auckland CBD and Wellington apartment buildings. The “Terrier” in the name traces back to the breed’s origin as a 19th-century working ratter in Yorkshire textile mills, but Dogs NZ classifies the modern Yorkie within the Toys group, alongside the Maltese, Pomeranian and Chihuahua.

Adults stand 18 to 23 cm at the shoulder and weigh 2 to 3.2 kg. The coat is single (no undercoat), silky, fine and grows continuously, much like human hair. The breed standard colour is steel blue on the body and tan on the head, chest and legs, with puppies born black and tan and the adult colour developing over the first two to three years.

The Yorkie is one of the longer-lived breeds, with 12 to 16 years typical and 17 not unusual for a lean, well-bred dog with good dental care. Plan a 14 to 15 year time horizon when committing to a puppy.

Personality and behaviour

Yorkies are bold, busy, opinionated and deeply attached to their primary owner. The temperament is often described as “a working terrier compressed into a lap dog”, and that captures the trade-off well. The breed will sit on a couch with you for an hour and then patrol the front window for the next hour, barking at couriers, possums and any movement in the lobby.

Around the wider household, Yorkies tend to bond closely with one or two people and remain selective with everyone else. Most are moderately friendly with regular visitors after a slow introduction, and most are sceptical of unfamiliar adults until they’ve seen them three or four times. The breed is alert rather than truly fearful; the bark profile is more “watchdog” than “anxious”.

The behavioural surprise to new owners is the willpower. Yorkies are smart and quick to learn cues, but they have strong opinions about routine, food, sleeping spots and which family members count, and they will hold those opinions firmly. They are not pushovers because they are small. Owners who treat the dog like a fragile accessory and don’t apply training rules end up with a 3 kg dog running the household, snapping at visitors, and unwilling to tolerate handling.

Around children, the Yorkie is a poor match for toddlers. The small frame is fragile, an accidental fall onto a Yorkie is a vet visit, and the breed will defend itself with a bite if grabbed. With calm, school-age children who handle small dogs gently, Yorkies can do well. Most NZKC-affiliated breeders avoid placing puppies in homes with children under seven.

The bark profile is loud, frequent and easily reinforced. In an Auckland CBD apartment with shared walls, council bark complaints are a real outcome for owners who don’t manage this from puppyhood. Picking up a barking Yorkie to soothe it is the single most common reinforcement of the problem. Quiet-on-cue training, ignoring nuisance barks and rewarding calm behaviour are the practical fixes, and the breed is one of the more apartment-suited toys when these are in place.

Care and exercise

Plan on around 30 minutes of exercise a day, split between two short walks and indoor play. The legs are short; an hour-long forced march doesn’t suit the breed, but the working-terrier ancestry means most Yorkies are happy with more activity than the size suggests. A 15-minute morning walk, a 15-minute evening walk plus zoomies in the lounge meets the daily need; add a 10-minute training session and a snuffle-mat feed and the breed is content.

Grooming is the defining ongoing commitment. The single silky coat grows continuously like human hair. It sheds little, but it mats fast at the ears, armpits, behind the legs, around the collar and under any harness friction point. A full long show coat needs 15 minutes of brushing every day, every day, plus a bath every 2 to 3 weeks. Most NZ pet Yorkies are kept in a short “puppy clip” trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks at a professional groomer for NZ$70-110 a session, which reduces home grooming to a quick brush every few days, regular face wipes and weekly ear checks. A topknot or hair clip keeps face hair out of the eyes between trims if the head is left long.

Dental care is the second daily commitment. Toy-breed jaws crowd teeth, retained baby teeth are common in the breed (often 12 deciduous teeth still present at 7 months), and dental disease is the most common health issue across the lifetime. Daily tooth brushing slows the build-up. Most adult Yorkies need annual scale-and-polish under anaesthetic from age four or five (typically NZ$500-1,000 per visit), and many need extractions of retained baby teeth at the desexing surgery. Insurance dental cover varies between NZ pet insurers; read the policy wording before signing.

The dietary watch-out is portion control. A 3 kg adult eats 60 to 100 g of food a day. Treats need weighing against the daily allowance, not added on top.

Use a Y-front harness, never a collar. Tracheal collapse is common in toy breeds, and the Yorkie’s reverse-sneeze episodes (a brief, alarming snorting cough) are easily confused with tracheal symptoms. A vet check distinguishes between them and rules out a more serious cause.

Climate fit across New Zealand

The Yorkie’s single silky coat is comfortable in NZ summers but offers little insulation against winter cold. A fitted coat for outdoor walks below 10 degrees is the rule almost everywhere except Northland.

• Auckland and Northland. A natural fit. The single coat is comfortable in summer, and indoor air conditioning suits the breed. Avoid the 1 pm to 4 pm walk window December through February. A light coat for the coldest winter mornings is enough.
• Wellington. Apartment-friendly with one caveat: a fitted insulated coat for winter walks. The wind chill cuts through a single coat fast at 8 degrees. Indoors, Yorkies are happy in any heated home, and the small footprint suits a CBD one-bedroom flat.
• Christchurch and Canterbury. Cold winters require a coat for outdoor walks below 8 degrees. The single thin coat doesn’t insulate against frost. Summer is comfortable. Grass seed in long grass is a real risk for long-coated dogs; check coat and paws after walks.
• Central Otago and Southland. The hardest fit. A proper insulated coat for winter walks, a heated dog bed and an indoor toilet option (pee pad in a laundry) for the worst weather days. Yorkies adapt to cold climates indoors but don’t thrive in them outdoors.

Where to find a Yorkshire Terrier in New Zealand

Three reasonable paths.

1. Registered NZKC breeders. The Dogs NZ breeders directory lists Yorkshire Terrier Club of NZ affiliated breeders, with most clustered in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. Expect a 6 to 12 month waitlist for a litter and NZ$2,000 to NZ$4,000 per puppy. A reputable breeder will show patella scores for both parents, eye certificates, bile-acid tests on puppies (liver shunt screen), and ideally cardiac clearance. Ask about the parents’ temperament, dental health and lifespan in previous litters. Walk away from breeders selling “teacup Yorkies”; the term has no breed standard meaning and the dogs typically have severe health problems.
2. Yorkie and small-breed rescue. Yorkshire Terrier Rescue NZ and similar small-dog networks regularly take in surrendered adult Yorkies, often from owners who underestimated the grooming or the bark. Adoption fees usually run NZ$300-700. An older Yorkie (8+) makes an excellent companion dog for a retiree who wants a settled, affectionate dog without the puppy work.
3. SPCA NZ. Pure Yorkies in SPCA centres are uncommon; Yorkie-Maltese (Morkie), Yorkie-Poodle (Yorkipoo) and Yorkie-Chihuahua (Chorkie) crosses appear regularly and are worth considering. Standard SPCA adoption fees run NZ$300-600 and include desexing, vaccination, microchipping and parasite treatment.

Avoid pet shop puppies and Trade Me listings without health screens. Toy-breed puppy farms remain a problem in NZ; volume breeders cut corners on patella, dental, liver-shunt and Legg-Calve-Perthes screening that show up later as expensive vet bills. The breed’s popularity makes it a particular target for designer-cross breeding and for “rare colour” claims (chocolate, parti, blonde) that have no NZKC standard recognition.

Council registration is required by 12 weeks under the Dog Control Act. The DIA national dog database holds the record; your local council issues the tag and the annual fee. Microchip details flow through the New Zealand Companion Animal Register.