Yorkshire Terrier Breed Guide: Common Health Problems

Published by Paw Multiverse (A.I.T. Multiverse Consulting Ltd) · Last updated 5 August 2026

This page exists because our cost page for this breed said out loud that it did not. It is built on two documents: the Royal Kennel Club breed standard, and the 2025 VetCompass study of Yorkshire Terriers in UK first opinion practice.

Between them they contain a number that ought to change how anybody thinks about this breed, and it is not the longevity figure.

What the breed standard asks for

The Royal Kennel Club standard, last updated April 2025, describes a “long-coated” dog, the coat “hanging quite straight and evenly down each side, a parting extending from nose to end of tail”, the whole “very compact and neat, carriage very upright conveying an important air”.

Characteristics: “alert, intelligent toy terrier”. Temperament: “spirited with even disposition”. The coat is specified as moderately long, perfectly straight, glossy, fine and silky in texture, and never woolly.

On weight the standard gives up to 3.2 kilograms. Source: Royal Kennel Club, Yorkshire Terrier breed standard, last updated April 2025 (read 5 Aug 2026).

Hold that 3.2 kg figure, because the study measured what these dogs actually weigh.

The weight gap, which is the centre of this page

The VetCompass study reports a median adult bodyweight of 5.06 kg, with an interquartile range of 3.81 to 6.49 kg. Source: O’Neill et al. 2025, Yorkshire Terriers under primary veterinary care in the UK, Companion Animal Health and Genetics (read 5 Aug 2026).

The breed standard says up to 3.2 kg. The median dog in UK veterinary practice is 5.06 kg. That is not a few outliers pulling an average around: the lower quartile, the point below which only a quarter of these dogs sit, is 3.81 kg, which is already above the standard.

So more than three quarters of the Yorkshire Terriers in this dataset are heavier than the breed standard describes. Whatever the show ring is measuring, it is not the animal most people own.

This site is not going to tell you what your dog should weigh, and it does not publish a body condition score. What it will say is that a prospective owner who has read the standard and expects a 3.2 kg dog has read a document that does not describe the population. That is worth knowing before rather than after.

What Yorkshire Terriers are actually treated for

The study covered 28,032 Yorkshire Terriers, 3.10 per cent of a study population of 905,542 dogs under veterinary care during 2016. The five highest prevalence disorders were:

• periodontal disease, 21.10 per cent (95% CI 19.71 to 22.49)
• overgrown nails, 6.47 per cent (95% CI 5.63 to 7.31)
• anal sac impaction, 3.99 per cent (95% CI 3.32 to 4.66)
• overweight or obesity, 3.72 per cent (95% CI 3.07 to 4.36)
• persistent deciduous teeth, 3.57 per cent (95% CI 2.94 to 4.20)

Source: O’Neill et al. 2025, Yorkshire Terriers under primary veterinary care in the UK, Companion Animal Health and Genetics (read 5 Aug 2026).

Two of the top five are dental. The study notes that the periodontal disease prevalence is “almost twice as high as the overall prevalence in dogs”.

Patellar luxation is the other finding worth naming: 3.42 per cent in this breed against 1.04 per cent previously reported in dogs overall.

The thing the breed standard does not mention

Go back over the standard. It specifies the coat in detail, the parting, the carriage, the texture, the colour and where the tan should and should not extend. It says nothing about teeth.

The single most common reason a Yorkshire Terrier is recorded as having a disorder, in a study of 28,032 of them, is periodontal disease, at more than one dog in five, at roughly twice the rate of dogs generally. Add persistent deciduous teeth at 3.57 per cent and dental conditions occupy two of the five top slots.

That is the gap this page most wants a reader to notice. A document that describes the breed in enormous detail is silent on the thing that most often brings the breed to a vet.

There is no dental routine on this page. Cleaning an animal’s teeth, at home or otherwise, is a procedure, and this site publishes no procedures. What it can tell you is that if you are choosing this breed, dental disease is the single likeliest ongoing clinical issue you will meet, and that is a conversation to have with a vet before you take the dog rather than at the first descale.

  Yorkshire Terrier, as the 2025 study records it
  ===============================================
  study population   28,032 of 905,542 dogs, during 2016
  median age death   13.56 years  (IQR 11.30 to 15.15)
                     range 0.06 to 19.08

  most recorded      periodontal disease      21.10%
                     overgrown nails           6.47%
                     anal sac impaction        3.99%
                     overweight/obesity        3.72%
                     persistent deciduous      3.57%

  patellar luxation  3.42%   against 1.04% in dogs overall

  bodyweight         median 5.06 kg (IQR 3.81 to 6.49)
  breed standard     up to 3.2 kg

Longevity

Median age at death was 13.56 years, with an interquartile range of 11.30 to 15.15 and a range of 0.06 to 19.08. Source: O’Neill et al. 2025, Yorkshire Terriers under primary veterinary care in the UK, Companion Animal Health and Genetics (read 5 Aug 2026).

That is a long life by dog standards and it is the reason the dental finding matters so much. A condition affecting one dog in five, in an animal that commonly reaches its middle teens, is not an episode. It is a decade of management, and it is the part of owning this breed that nobody costs in advance.

Note also the bottom of the range. 0.06 years is a dog that died at about three weeks. A range includes everything, and reading only the median is how people end up surprised.

What we could not source

Attempted on 5 August 2026 and written down rather than left as a gap.

• The PMC copy of the Yorkshire Terrier paper returned a reCAPTCHA challenge, so the figures here come from the publisher copy at the journal instead.
• No entry for the Yorkshire Terrier in the Teng et al. life tables, so this page carries no life expectancy at age zero and no cross breed comparison on that measure.
• No UK insurance claims dataset broken down by breed, and no published figure for the proportion of UK dogs that are insured.
• No published explanation we could reach for why this breed carries roughly twice the general rate of periodontal disease. Small jaw crowding is the usual explanation offered and we could not attribute it to a publisher, so it is not stated here as fact.
• The Association of British Insurers page on types of cover loads but its list did not render in any fetch. The wording obtained on 4 August 2026 is quoted on our pet insurance guide.

Questions worth answering before you take one on

Printable, and questions rather than instructions.

Related pages

The money side of the same decision is on Yorkshire Terrier costs, built on the same study. Other breed pages: Rottweiler, Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, French Bulldog, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Dachshund, Poodle. See also pet insurance and pet costs.