How Colorful Yorkies Came to Be ...

Many skeptical Yorkie owners and breeders, absolutely refuse to believe that the parti, chocolate and golden colored Yorkie is anything other than a recent "behind the kennel bred" mutt. They say: "The only color that yorkies come in is blue and tan" or "There is NO record of any Yorkie ever breeding to a white, parti, chocolate or golden colored dog."  This article will try to educate you about color genetics, recessive genes and how these unique colors remained hidden in the Yorkshire terrier breed for years.

We know from our yorkie history, that early records were not kept on the foundation breeding stock. I seriously doubt, that back in the days where spaying and neutering was not done, that the farmers and working class families didn't have the "occasional" unplanned pregnancy in their canines. If anything, it happened more then, than it does today.  

It's documented in some of the earliest records that the foundation stock of our breed, were cross-bred dogs and dogs without pedigrees (who's heritage is unknown). Even if these dogs didn't look parti, chocolate or golden colored they could very well have harbored the recessive genes in their DNA makeup. Whether their mother/father, grandmother/grandfather or great grandmother/great grandfather was parti, chocolate or golden colored, no one would really know, since record keeping at that time in history, was little to none.

The parti, chocolate and gold gene can only be expressed if a dog who carries one copy of that particular recessive gene (known as a carrier) is bred to another dog who also carries that same recessive gene. A carrier will look like a traditional colored Yorkie; parti carriers may have some white markings on their chest and feet but otherwise, the carriers will look like a black and tan yorkie puppy.  When a carrier is bred to another carrier, 25% of the offspring will be traditional yorkies (not carrying the gene), 50% will be traditional colored yorkies who do carry the recessive gene and 25% of the offspring will be actual parti, chocolate or golden colored yorkies - these dogs carry 2 recessive genes, one from their mother and one from their father.  It's only been approximately 5 years since AKC has allowed these beautiful colored yorkies to be eligible for registration. Prior to that time, parti, chocolate and golden colored offspring were normally kept quiet, given away without papers or destroyed (yes, destroyed). 

In this day of scam artists and people looking to make a fast buck, my suggestion is to buy from reputable breeders who have their dogs DNA'd or their dogs come from known color producing lines.  So do your research, get references and have an open mind. These genes have been in some of our Yorkie bloodlines for years and years and years ... and if you think it's not possible, don't be surprised if one day your own purebred Yorkie produces a different color!

My Personal Biewer Yorkies are from a LONG history of Biewers from Germany they are purebred Biewer Yorkies. The correct name is pronounced Bee-Vair.

This breed was developed in Germany where they are recognized by over 50 clubs and registries.  In the United States the Biewer so far is recognized by these dog show venues:



Biewers and Partis

As far back what can be traced, the parti color has been in the Yorkshire Terrier.  It is a recessive gene that can be traced back to the 1800's:

Now as to  the difference of the two tri-colored dogs, The Biewer Yorkshire a la Pom Pon and the Parti Yorkie. There is tracing of two lines of tri-colors , Mr Biewers line and  Nikkos line. Both the Nikko's and the Biewer line of Tri color yorkies trace back to Streamglen Shaun.The Biewers started in Germany with Mr. Biewer purchasing a stud dog in 1975 from Streamglen Kennels, Streamglen Richard.   At the  time Streamglen was producing Champion status yorkies and were selling yorkies across the world and the United States.

Mr Biewer started breeding Ch. Streamglen Richard to all his Female Yorkshire Terriers trying to  make his own mark by producing Champion quality  yorkies that would come from his kennel. In his quest for champions, he did a lot of line and inbreeding. Then in January of 1984, a tri-colored Yorkshire Terrier was born from 2 of his Champion dogs line bred from Streamglen Richard. Darling and FruFru.

On the other side of the ocean  in the United States Nikko’s Kennels(The Lipmans) were doing the exact same thing, breeding  for Champion Yorkies. Nikkos Kennels purchased a couple of females from Streamglen, One being Streamglen Milady. Nikkos purchased their Champion male(Ch. Quarnhill Fusspot) from Stoneybrook Kennels in 1971 and bred him to Streamglen Milady, the female they obtained from  Streamglen Kennels.  Nikkos then began producing Champion Yorkies and continued to line breed also.   In the 80’s tri- colored Yorkies started showing up in Nikkos kennels also, Gloria couldn’t  bear to put the pups down so she passed them out the back door as pets and told them not to say where they got them(her own words).  Mr. Biewer  registered  his tri colors at first with VDH/KFT but they designated them wrong color not for breeding  so he went in search of a club that would accept them as a variation of the  yorkie. The ACH was the first club to accept them as a variation of the  breed. The dogs were then registered as Biewer Yorkshire A la Pon Pom. They originally had docked tails but Germany passed a law against docking so the tails then remained long.In the USA, Summit and Crownridge both got tri colored pups from  Nikkos kennels and wanted their tri colored dogs registered with AKC,  as they were out of registered dogs and they wanted the right color to be shown on the papers( Black , white and tan), so in 2000 after 18 months of DNA testing, AKC accepted the tri- colored Yorkshire Terrier. AKC papers state they  are Yorkshire Terrier/Parti color on the papers so the name parti yorkies has stuck with the tri color yorkies in the last few years. During this time each  country (USA and Germany)went its own way in developing and registries of the tri color, but both are true yorkshire terriers. In December of 1976 Wildweir Kennels had a tri-color puppy born from two traditional color yorkies. She said her sister and her had heard of it  in England but it was the first one they had  gotten. They registered him as Wildweirs Triplicate "Trippy".This was 8 years before Mr. Biewers Tri- colors were born and Mrs Gordon said that the tricolor was imported into Germany from England. Joan Gordon of Wildweir Kennels writes that yorkies can be born tri-colored in her book in 1976 When you hear people quote that Biewers have a standard and Parti's do not, this is not true. Parti's go by the Yorkshire Terrier Standard except for color. The Biewer clubs also state that their standard has color specific placement and the partis do not. You cannot predict the piebald gene, you cannot predict where the black or the white will be so therefor you cannot be  color specific.. 

A PIEBALD patterned dog has a white BASE coat with colored spots. Piebald means "WHITE SPOTTED" so  you use the other colors on the dog and piebald as the pattern by which it is marked up. A black/tan Piebald would be a dog with a base color of white with colored spots and tan markings on the face, legs and around base of tail. Piebald is not a breed or a type but a color pattern. Piebald spotting is a pattern of spots which occur randomly anywhere on the body, including the torso. They are not of consistent size or location therefore. Dogs that have piebald spotting (sp) can have very few colored spots or very many.The  Parti yorkshire terriers are AKC registered and the Biewers are not , AKC considers them both yorkies and not a rare breed as the Biewer Breeders have portrayed them.  They are not a RARE breed, they are just a tricolored yorkshire  terrier that  has been popping up thru the years and   the tri colored yorkies have gained recognition into  AKC,  but because Mr Biewer drew his dogs out of  VDH/KFT  they could not be registered AKC.  In the process of him hunting for an avenue to  breed and show his lovely tri colors he made a grave mistake by trying to pass them off  as a breed of their own so he could raise and show them,  So as of now  AKC will not recognize them as a breed of their own since they see them as nothing but a tricolor yorkie.. 

 The Biewer is not AKC registered, so keep this in mind if you are planning on purchasing one.  The Parti colored yorkie is AKC registered and  both are yorkies.  

Not all Parti colored Yorkies came from the Nikkos line, there are other lines of Parti-colored Yorkshire Terriers.

"His Name was Wildweir Triplicate for his tri colors. Joan states that this pup came from Champion lines. He was registered in AKC as a Black and tan because AKC did not have a color code for tri's in the 1970's.  Most pups born out of standard color were put down, or quietly dispersed."