Posts tagged grooming

The rust-coloured tracks under a Yorkshire Terrier's eyes are tear stains. They are common on light faces, easy to stain further if you clean them badly, and sometimes a sign that the eye is irritated rather than just "how Yorkies look."

The brown is not dirt. It is porphyrin, a pigment in tears and saliva that oxidises on the hair. This guide covers why it happens, how to clean it without making the skin worse, and when it needs a vet instead of a wipe.

Yorkshire Terriers shed very little, and that's genuinely unusual among dogs. The reason is that Yorkies have hair rather than fur: a single-layer coat that grows continuously, much like human hair, instead of growing to a set length and being released in seasonal cycles.

What that does not mean is that Yorkies are hypoallergenic. No dog is, and the distinction matters a great deal if someone in your home has allergies.

Yorkshire Terriers have hair rather than fur, and it never stops growing. That's why they barely shed, and also why they need more routine care than almost any other small breed. Left alone for a few weeks, a Yorkie coat mats close to the skin, and mats have to be cut out rather than brushed out.

The good news is that most of the work is simple once you have the right tools. This guide covers daily brushing, bathing, trimming, nails, and how to tie a proper topknot.

To promote healthy Yorkie hair growth, there are several things you can do — but it helps to start with one piece of context that changes how you approach all of them.