Yorkshire Terrier: Size, Lifespan and Care Basics

The American Kennel Club (AKC) gives the Yorkshire Terrier a life expectancy of 11 to 15 years. The Royal Kennel Club (RKC) in the UK puts the breed in its “over 12 years” band.

Both figures describe the breed as a whole. They are ranges for typical dogs of the breed, not a forecast for any one dog.

Of the 30 breeds profiled on Pettify, 6 have a longer upper estimate than the Yorkshire Terrier and 17 a shorter one.

The RKC suggests grooming a Yorkshire Terrier every day and describes the coat as long; it lists the breed as one that does not shed. On the AKC’s scales the breed rates 1 out of 5 for shedding and 5 out of 5 for how often the coat needs care.

The coat is steel blue and tan, fine and silky, and the AKC compares it to human hair rather than fur. For as long as you keep it long, plan on a brush every day and a bath about weekly. Long hair on the crown is cut short or tied up in a topknot.

Show dogs take all this furthest. Early exhibitors set their Yorkies on a silk cloth or cushion, and the breed still has a stage of its own: the RKC says it is the only one shown on a decorative box. A pet coat can be kept simpler, but as long as it stays long, the daily brush stays too.

The RKC puts the exercise a Yorkshire Terrier needs at up to 30 minutes a day. The AKC rates the breed 4 out of 5 for energy and 4 out of 5 for mental stimulation needs.

There is more energy here than the size suggests. Two short walks a day will likely be enough, the AKC estimates, with the odd quick dash after a tennis ball in the yard for variety. Dog sports such as agility and obedience are worth a look too, because a terrier’s mind wants work as much as its legs do.

The AKC gives the adult weight of the Yorkshire Terrier as “7 pounds”. The height at the shoulder is 7–8 inches.

Behind the bows is a working-class dog. In the 1800s, Scottish workers who moved to Yorkshire and Lancashire for jobs in the textile mills and coal mines brought their small terriers along, and those dogs earned their keep catching rats. People joked that the silky coat must have come off the looms. The RKC traces the breed to the old Black and Tan Terrier, with Skye Terrier and Maltese added, and names a dog called Huddersfield Ben, born in 1865, as its foundation.

Recognition by the Kennel Club in England in 1886 changed the job. Yorkies became the lapdogs of fashionable Victorian ladies and were bred smaller to suit; in America, the AKC had already registered its first, a female named Belle, in 1885. The terrier never left. The RKC says a Yorkie can still deal with any household rodent, and in World War II a Yorkie named Smoky carried a communications wire through an underground tunnel for soldiers.

Its scores describe a confident little dog. It rates 5 out of 5 as a watchdog and 5 out of 5 for openness to strangers, so it raises the alarm at the door and then tends to make friends with whoever comes in. Barking rates 4 out of 5. With other dogs the score is a middling 3 out of 5, and the AKC describes a breed that can be bossy, so introductions are worth taking slowly.

City life suits it. By the RKC’s lines a flat or apartment is enough, a small or medium garden will do, and town or country makes no difference. The AKC rates adaptability 5 out of 5 and says city dwellers around the world have taken to Yorkies. They placed 13th in the AKC’s registration figures for 2025.