Licketysplit Yorkies
Raising Happy Healthy Yorkies!
Stages of a Yorkies Coat
This is Stage 1- Sleek
Yorkshire Terrier puppies are born with sleek short soft coats. Brown and black, resembling the look of a Rottweiler puppy. Yes, they are born with tails. The Veterinary Association in British Columbia, voted against tail docking, so all my puppies will have long tails.
Stage 2- Curly
As their coats begin to grow out, they become curly, and fluffy. Their coats are still dark, but if you pull up their fur, as they get older you can see the colour is starting to change. Not many yorkies stay dark. It is about a 2 - 3 year process. You will also see, that some of the dark colours on their faces will grow out, and they will become lighter as well. That is why some of the pictures don't look like the same dog.
Stage 3- Long- Growing out
As you can see the curls are growing out, and the coat is becoming straight, and sleek again. Some coats will still have a bit of curl, but a CKC standard coat should be straight. They are still dark, but this is going to change. Then colours under the coat as they grow are changing. The 2nd yorkie in this lineup is the same as the 2nd yorkie in the lineup above. You can see the front of his coat is lightening up.
Hard to believe it is the same dog, and he is still going to change.
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Stage 4 - Colour Change
So here is Merlyn once again, you can see his coat has changed drastically!
You can see at the age of one year, along his back, that it is in the process of turning into the blue silver, and then by the time he is 2 years old, his coat has morphed from the dark to the blue silver colour, which is the CKC standard. When you glance back up at the picture of him in the puppy coat, and the blue ribbon in his hair, you do not expect he will turn out to be the adult he has turned out to be. Something to keep in mind when purchasing a puppy.
On the left Carmalita, Same Yorkie.
She has lost all the dark colouring and is much lighter in colour.
On the right Pippa, These pictures are over a year apart, You can see she has lost all the dark colouring in her face. So far her coat has stayed a darker blue colour, but I would wait till she is 3 before I would confirm her coat is staying dark.
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The changes to the Yorkshire Terrier dog goes through is unique to the Yorkshire Terrrier. There are not any other breeds that I know of that go through this extensive of a process. The Yorkshire Terrier is one of the breeds that are considered a "hypo alllergenic breed, because they grow hair similar to a human. So if you are going to shave your Yorkie down, you should consider the weather conditions when they are going to be outside , and dress them accordingly. Remember they can sunburn in the Summer as easily as become too cold, in the winter.
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