Don’t we all just love Yorkies but it would be rare if you would have seen a White Yorkie.
White Yorkies are the Yorkshire Terriers that are white in color. Fully white Yorkies are quite rare and not recognized by major kennel clubs like AKC.
Most of the time you will see Parti Yorkie which are mostly white in color with patches of other colors. We will discuss about Parti Yorkie later in this post.
About Yorkies
Yorkshire Terrier are the most popular toy breed dog in USA. They are small dogs having bravado of terrier. So don’t get fooled by their size, they have bug attitude. They don’y like strangers and can be a watch dog :).
Their bravado may lead them to difficult situations so keep a watch.
Yorkies are known to have long silky coat which is perfectly straight. They have single coat and do not shed much.
Yorkies are brown in black color and as they grew to one or one and a half year, the color of the coat transforms in to two colors. Typically it would be Blue and Tan. Other color combinations approved by AKC are Black & Gold, Black & Tan, Blue & Gold.
Can you find a White Yorkie?
Most likely No. They are very rare.
Most of the times you may find a Parti Yogi, Biewer Yorkshire Terrier which we will discuss later in this post or other dogs like Maltese or West Highland Terrier confused like a White Yorkie.
You may also get a Yorkie with white patches due to genes.
Dogs are basically have coats from patterns of:
- Eumelanin — black, chocolate brown, grey or taupe pigment;
- Phaeomelanin — tan pigment, including all shades of red, gold and cream pigment
This is then altered by the genes associated with them forming different colors.
Yorkies may get their white color due to genes like M-locus and S-locus.
S Locus – This gene determine the degree and distribution of white spotting on an animal’s coat. This gene can cause deafness.
M Locus – Dogs with two copies of the merle gene (homozygous merle or “double merle”) can be white in color but have high chance of being deaf .
How you can get a close to White Yorkie?
White Yorkies with genetic breeding by focusing on recessive genes are not recommended choice. They as discussed are prone to a lot of health issues like deafness etc. The closest you can get to white Yorkie is with the below choices.
Parti Yorkie
Parti yorkies are pure bred Yorkshire terriers having three color tone instead of two tone. They will have traces of white as well along with black and tan color. For parti pup, both the parents should have the parti gene.
Parti Yorkies are accepted by AKC as purebred Yorkies with some limitations. They can only have a patch of not more than 1 inch at the chest.
Biewer Yorkshire Terrier
Biewer Terrier is a pure bred breed created by Mr and Mrs Biewer who instead of raising children, raised Biewer Yorkies. They have irregular patches due to piebald gene. They are recognized by AKC. The Biewer Terrier puppies are born black, white and tan.
Morkie – Cross breed similar to white yorkie
Here comes a cross breed of a white small dog Maltese and Yorkie. They get a lot of white color from Maltese and looks similar to white Yorkie.
Concluding
White Yorkie are great looking but be sure to be aware of how they were bred. Getting to know the genetics of the parents would help to ensure that you avoid health issues later.
Also keep in mind, yorkies have long hairs and white yorkies would have long silky snow white hairs. This would mean you need to spend time on grooming your white yorkie.
Want to check out about Blue French bulldog – https://yourdogsworld.com/b/blue-french-bulldog/