Complaint Review: Petland

This is a common misconception. Just because a dog does not meet standard does not mean it is not purebred, it means it will not win, or sometimes can not be shown. And actually, I believe that a yorkie which 100% meets standard does not have a black coat, it is blue (ummmmm, kinda sorta in between the black of the puppy and the silver of the original poster's).And yes, a great deal of yorkie's exceed 7 lbs. And yes, some yorkie's ears won't go up. And yes, some stay black and tan, and some turn silver, and all of that in between. And some don't have perfect bites. It does not however, mean that they aren't yorkie's. It just means that they are pet quality yorkies.
I am very sad at what is happening with this breed, people are buying them only in consideration of their size, and forgetting that they were meant to be a companion and not an accesory (other breeds as well). They also forget, or are not aware, that they are still terriers, and all that word imply's desprite their size.

I just want to go on record by saying that NOT ALL PET STORES GET THEIR PUPPIES FROM BROKERS AND PUPPY MILLS. I know for a 100% fact (as I was an employee there for 5 years through school) that good, smaller, family-owned pet stores like Jack's Aquarium and Pets do NOT get their pets from those sources. All of their dogs and cats come from people who bring their litters into the store. All of the pets are vet-checked and the breeders are checked out by the company. SO...do not generalize and say that all pet stores get their dogs from puppy mills, because it is not correct.
ANYWAY. I think it is really unfortunate that the original poster is being harrassed about not being careful enough or just having 'remorse' for the purchase when they were in fact cheated and lied to.
A person looks at the price and 'quality' of a place like PetLand and believes that they will get the best pet their money can buy. Their pets are advertised as "full blooded" and "AKC registered" when a majority of the time, the pets are not full-bred, or even in-bred and in no way meet the AKC requirements for the breed.
As one person said, yes, genetics differ. However, if the parents of the dog that was purchased were too large or a different color, they should not have been able to be registered...which would then mean that their puppies also could not be registered. Without a "mutation" in the genes of the parent, the puppies should be the correct color and size required by the AKC regulations in order for that dog to be properly registered.
People do not know the full story about puppy mills and how pet stores like PetLand and getting their dogs from them, so how would they know better?
Yes, people should go to a breeder for the best, show-quality dog. I would also recommend that people see the parents of the puppies before they purchase a dog, so that you can see what you are in for.
I just do not think it is fair is blame the purchaser. Yes, they should check out other resources and places before they commit to purchasing a dog. HOWEVER, when people see the "AKC registered" tag on a dog and see that the dog costs $2000, they think they are paying for a high quality pet.
Those are my thoughts :)

As to your complaint about your puppy's color I've done some research and several places are saying the same thing. Some Yorkies never turn the usual tan and continue to be grey. There should be no dark hairs intermingled with any of the tan in adult dogs. Many Yorkies do not conform to the standard for coat color; the tan may range from a very light blonde to a darker brown, while the body may be black or silvery gray.

As to the size of the puppy how tall are your parents? How tall are you? How about your siblings? Genetics are wacky and you never really know what you're going to end up with. My mother has groomed for more than 20 years and I worked for her for most of them. And in that time I have seen yorkies of many different sizes and weights. Now that I work at a Petland, I see that we usually get in the teeny tiny ones because that is where the demand is. However, a fourteen pound yorkie is by no means an indication that he's not a purebred.

Temperment? It's a crap shoot. You apparently liked him enough when he was a puppy to take him home. But puppies, just like humans grow up. Your training, home environment and demeanor are what have shaped this puppy's personality so maybe the blame lies somewhere other than where you are placing it.
Do you love him? If you don't, I'm sure there are many people out there who could give him a much more loving home. You obviously don't deserve him.

For someone who did so much research as you claim, I find it strange that you would not be willing to wait for a breeder to have pups available, and instead ran to the nearest pet store to buy a pup immediately. Surely you would have learned through all the research you did that pet stores are NOT good places to buy animals. What was the hurry? Were you giving the pup to someone as a birthday or holiday gift?

At any rate, it sounds as though you got exactly what you paid for -- a puppy-mill quality puppy that, as it is growing, isn't such a cute adorable pup anymore, much to your chagrin. This is hardly a rip off, just buyer's remorse. I hope that you can see past the pup's physical characteristics and provide a good home to him, regardless of your personal prejudices.

Hi. Just to give you a little insight into why i'm posting this... I am a show breeder of Boston Terriers and am just getting into the Toy breeds with Chihuahuas. I have had many customers come to me in the past and i'm sure they will too in the future, with similar complaints to yours. They bought their first dog from a petstore, puppymill, or unscrupulous breeder- and now they don't know why their pup didn't turn into their dream dog and want to buy a puppy from me.

I think probably your first pitfall was passing up on the breeders ex-show prospects in the first place.

Yes they were not housebroken (most of the time), but neither was the puppy you bought from Petland.

Breeders often keep promising puppies well into 6 months of age to evaluate them as to what they might become. Often a lot of these promises of greatness pan out and then the breeders look for good homes for the pups. They're not poor quality dogs, they're just not the top 2% that every breeder is looking for to improve their BREEDING lines.

You wanted pet quality- thats what those puppies are. Extremely superior pet quality! The difference between pet and show can be the bite going off by a milimeter... A foot that turns out funny... A pup being 1/2 of a pound too heavy.

This is just a little notice to anyone who is in a similar situation- don't pass up the show breeder's show prospect "rejects". They're not really rejects, they're just extremely high pet quality.

Additionally: I hope you learned a lesson from buying from pet stores. Their puppies are brought in from brokers, and prior to the brokers your pup probably came from a puppymill. In puppymills it doesn't make sense to have the small, typey dogs. They don't fare well in the inhumane situations they're asked to live in. Larger dogs also produce more puppies and tend to have an easier time at it, thus making more profit for the puppymiller.

Your dogs final weight, by the way, will probably be in the 16-17lb range if he is only 9 months old.