So you want a Yorkie. Tiny dog, ridiculous confidence, hair that looks like it costs more than your car insurance. Fine. Here’s the part that gets skipped in every adorable puppy photo thread: the Yorkshire Terrier has a short list of very specific, very expensive genetic problems, and the gap between a cheap puppy and a well-bred one is almost never the dog itself. It’s whether anybody actually ran the health tests, or just said they did.
This is the boring, unsexy, gatekeeping part of buying a dog. It’s also the part that saves you four grand in vet bills two years from now. Let’s get into it.
“Vet Checked” Means Absolutely Nothing
Every listing says it. “Vet checked!”, “Health certified!”, “Up to date on shots!” Here’s what that usually means: a vet looked at the puppy for ninety seconds, confirmed it has four legs and a heartbeat, and the breeder paid for a stool sample test.
That’s it. That is the entire certification. It tells you nothing about the parents, nothing about the lines behind the parents, and nothing about the genetic time bombs that show up at age three when the dog starts walking funny.
Real health testing is done on the parents before they’re bred, it’s done by specialists, and it produces paperwork with registry numbers you can look up yourself. If a breeder can’t hand you that, they’re not a breeder. They’re a reseller with a nice Instagram.
The Tests That Actually Matter for Yorkies
Yorkies are small, long-lived, and prone to a handful of problems that are genuinely common in the breed. Not rare. Common. Ask about every single one.
1. Knees (Patellar Luxation)
The kneecap slides out of place. It’s one of the most common orthopedic issues in toy breeds and it’s graded on a scale from normal up to severe. You want parents that have been examined by a vet and graded normal. Ask for the grade, not just a yes or no. A grade 1 on both parents is not the same as clear.
2. Liver Shunts (Bile Acid Testing)
This is the one people skip and it’s the one that kills puppies. A portosystemic shunt is a blood vessel that bypasses the liver. Mild cases look like a puppy that’s a little slow, a little picky, a little weird after meals. Severe cases go into seizures or just don’t wake up from a nap. The screening test is a bile acid blood test — cheap, fast, done twice (before and after a meal). Both parents should have normal results. If the breeder has never heard of bile acids, end the conversation.
3. Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease
The hip joint’s blood supply dies off and the bone collapses. It’s a toy-breed thing, it shows up between four and twelve months, and the fix is surgery that costs more than the dog. It runs in families, which means it’s exactly the kind of thing that lines should be screened for.
4. Eyes
Yorkies can carry inherited eye conditions including retinal problems and abnormal eyelash growth that scratches the cornea. A yearly eye exam by a veterinary ophthalmologist — not your regular vet — is the standard. Ask when the parents were last examined and by whom.
5. DNA Panels
There are breed-specific genetic tests now for clotting disorders and other inherited conditions. These are done with a cheek swab and mailed off. The results are binary: clear, carrier, or affected. A responsible breeder never pairs two carriers. Ask to see the actual report, not a summary email.
6. The Stuff That’s Not Genetic
Tracheal collapse, dental disease, and hypoglycemia are basically breed features. Small windpipes, crowded teeth, and a body that runs out of blood sugar fast. None of these are testable, but a breeder who knows the breed will talk about them unprompted — what food they feed, how often, how they handle tiny puppies. If they shrug, they don’t know the breed.
How to Verify Instead of Trusting
Here’s the quiet trick: health test results in this country generally live in public databases. The orthopedic registry publishes hip and knee results by dog name and registration number. Eye exam results are searchable too. You don’t need the breeder’s permission to look anything up.
- Get the parents’ registered names and numbers.
- Search them yourself in the relevant registries.
- Check that the dates line up with the breeding.
- Check that the same dogs show up in the pedigree as the ones in the photos.
Breeders who fudge this stuff absolutely hate being asked for numbers. That’s useful information on its own.
The Questions That Make Bad Breeders Go Quiet
Ask these in order. Watch how fast the tone changes.
- Can I see the mother in person, on your property?
- Where’s the father, and can I see him or at least recent photos?
- What health tests have both parents had, and can I have the registration numbers?
- What’s the mother’s age and how many litters has she had?
- How old will the puppy be when it leaves? (Anything under eight weeks is a hard no.)
- What does your health guarantee actually cover, and what do I have to do to claim it?
- Will you take the dog back at any point in its life if I can’t keep it?
- What are you feeding, and what’s the puppy’s vet history so far?
- Can I talk to two or three people who bought puppies from you before?
Question nine is the killer. Good breeders have a list ready. Bad ones act like you just asked for their social security number.
Red Flags, In No Particular Order
- Meeting in a parking lot, a gas station, or a “convenient halfway point.”
- Multiple breeds available, all at once, all sizes.
- Puppies available “right now” at any age you want.
- “Teacup” or “micro” anything. These aren’t breed varieties, they’re the runts of runts, and they come with a higher risk of liver shunts, fragile bones, and lifelong vet bills.
- No contract, or a contract you’re told not to read closely.
- A health guarantee that requires you to return the dog to get your money back. That’s not a guarantee. That’s a refund policy you’ll never use.
- Deposits accepted before you’ve seen the mother.
- Anything involving shipping a puppy to you without a health certificate.
Read the Contract Like a Landlord Wrote It
Health guarantees are written by the seller, which means they’re written to be unclaimable. Look for the window — usually 48 to 72 hours for a vet visit, which is absurdly short. Look for what’s excluded: almost always anything genetic, which is the entire reason you’re paying a premium. Look for a clause requiring the dog to be returned or euthanized before refunding.
The breeders worth your money offer a two-year genetic guarantee, keep the dog’s registration limited until you prove you’ve spayed or neutered, and stay reachable for years afterward. That’s the whole signal.
After You Bring It Home
Book a vet visit within three days, bring every piece of paperwork you got, and ask specifically about a bile acid test if the breeder never mentioned one. Feed small meals more often than you think you need to for the first few months — hypoglycemia in tiny puppies is real and it’s fast. Get pet insurance before any diagnosis exists, because pre-existing conditions are excluded forever and toy breeds are a claims factory.
The Short Version
Papers from a kennel club prove the dog is a Yorkie. They prove nothing about whether it’s a healthy Yorkie. That’s on you to check, which means asking uncomfortable questions, demanding registry numbers, and walking away from anyone who gets weird about it.
It feels rude. It’s not. You’re about to spend fifteen years and five figures on a ten-pound animal that will absolutely try to fight a Rottweiler. The least you can do is make sure its knees work.