Minor British Institutions: The Yorkshire Terrier
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference."Yappy" is the word that springs to mind when one meets a Yorkshire Terrier, possibly because of the gross disparity between their size and the noise these little fellows make.
The tiny, fancified examples seen poncing around at Crufts nowadays are some way away from the breed's original function, which was going after rats and other rodents for the purposes of sport and vermin control, especially in 19th-century Yorkshire, where it was "developed", if that's the right word for such a small animal. (The originals were about four times heavier than the ones we see snapping around our ankles today.)
The breed was given its unique status by the Kennel Club in 1886, having been known as the "Broken-haired Scotch Terrier". Somewhere along the line people decided to put bows on them, which was a little demeaning. The breed standard says they should be "spirited with even disposition".
Numbers peaked at 22,665 in 1990. They're still in the top 10 breeds, though in today's less genteel dog culture they have lost out to the likes of the pitbull, for which a Yorkie might make a nice snack.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments