- Hi guys, I'm Megan Graham, and today I'm going to tell you the story of how I got my Yorkie puppies. I've realized that I've
made a lot of videos about Yorkshire terriers;
how to take care of them, what to feed them, and I often show my
three Yorkshire terriers, and their names are Alfie, Lola and Poppy, but I haven't really explained
how each of them came to be. And I know a lot of you have
been asking me questions about how old they are,
how much they weigh, where I got them and things like that. So I just wanted to
put this video together for those of you that might be curious about how my dogs came to be. The first Yorkshire terrier
that I got was named Teddy. And when I was looking for
my first Yorkshire terrier as an adult, I actually had one as a child but it was my mother's, I was looking for a girl and I really did not want
a male Yorkshire terrier, but I found a breeder through the Yorkshire Terrier
Association of America and she had one dog left and it was a boy. And at the time I said, "Oh,
no, no, I don't want a boy. I definitely want a girl. I want to dress it up and I
want it to be really small." And she said, "Well, he is really small. He'll be under seven pounds. And I think you would love
to have a boy just as much as you would love to have a girl." So I wound up actually taking Teddy home and Teddy lived to be
12 years old and Teddy, I'm gonna show some pictures, was the cutest Yorkie you have ever seen in your entire life. He was my best friend. He
went everywhere with me. He posed for pictures. He
was just a great, great dog. And I was never disappointed that I got a boy instead of a girl. Teddy looked a little
bit more, I would say, like a Yorkiepoo towards
the end of his life, which is a Yorkshire and poodle
mix, than an actual Yorkie even though he came from a show breeder. And one of the reasons why
Teddy looked the way he did is that he was actually, he was diagnosed with
an autoimmune disease at the age of seven years old, and this particular autoimmune
disease is called GME. And so for his treatment,
he needed to get steroids as well as a low dose of chemo to keep his immune system under control. The chemo changed his hair and it made him look a
little bit more like a poodle and eventually his hair was white. I kept him alive for a really long time and I was able to give
him all of the treatments that he needed because we had insurance. And for those of you that don't know, I have Trupanion pet insurance. They don't pay me to mention them. I just love, I love that insurance and they made the entire
stressful and terrible experience less stressful because they
took care of everything for me. I mean, they never gave me a
hard time and it was amazing. So Teddy was my dog for years and he was actually on his
own and I just felt like, especially when I started my own business, which is a hair salon on
Newbury Street in Boston, Teddy just seemed really lonely, so I got a Lola who is
almost eight years old to be his companion. So for about a year and a half, I had Teddy and Lola and Teddy hated Lola. When I first got Lola,
he couldn't stand her. He didn't want to be near her. It took six months for them to get along and become best, best friends. So I had two, and what happened
was actually the breeder that I had gotten both
of them from let me know that Lola's sister from the same litter had been held back to be a show dog and she just turned out to be too small for the breeder to feel
comfortable breeding her. She's very ethical and she
takes great care of her dogs and she said that she just
didn't feel right about it. So she asked if I knew anybody that would like to adopt Lola's sister, and being the crazy Yorkie lady that I am, I actually said that I
would like to meet her and consider adopting her. So as soon as Lola and
poppy saw each other, it was so clear that they knew each other. They touched noses. Lola usually barks at every
single dog that she sees and she didn't bark at Poppy. They just immediately started playing. And so that was how I got Poppy. So Poppy came to live
with us and she definitely has a very different
personality than Lola does. She's more quiet. She's
almost more cat-like. She's very beautiful. And she does not like anyone to touch her when she's sleeping. She's a little bit touchy about that. I had that three, I had
Lola, Poppy, and Teddy. Teddy's autoimmune disease did get worse and two years ago in December, Teddy actually passed
away from his disease. It was a very, it was actually a decision that I had to make. We did everything we could
for him and we just, there's, I guess everybody always tells you that there's a point when you know, and you know that the time is right and I just, I knew that the time was right and there was no other
treatment I could do for him and his quality of life was not good. So Teddy passed away. It was, it was very, very sad. I will miss him for my entire life. He was the dog of a lifetime. And what happened is I called the breeder because she has been extremely supportive. And when Teddy was
sick, every time I would have a question for her, she
always picked up the phone. It didn't matter what day
or what time of the day or what time of the night it was, she always picked up the
phone and I was usually crying because he was my best friend and I just wanted him to be okay. So I called her to tell her
that I was so extremely thankful for everything that she had
done and also to let her know that even though she would probably think that I was crazy, that
my husband and I wanted to get another male
Yorkie in the springtime. She said it was really
funny, but she said, "I actually have a show champion and his name is Alfie and he's my dog." But she said, "You've taken
better care of my dogs than anyone has ever taken of any dog that I placed with them. So if you would like to
take this dog, Alfie, you can have him." And I said, "Well, I'm
really, I'm not ready. I just lost my dog." And she said, "That's okay because he will always be here for you. So if you would like him
in two years from now, he will still be available and
he will still be your dog." And so I decided to go and visit, thinking that I definitely
wouldn't take him. And this is Alfie. I did take him. He is such a love. He's
a little cuddle bunny. He really needs a brushing as you can see. It's really hard to get
ready for videos sometimes and set up my camera and things like that. So they're not always at
their best on my filming days but he is just a great, great dog. The only bad habit he has is
he has really bad potty habits and there's no way to fix them. He's not neutered because
part of the agreement is actually that she is a show breeder and he became a champion his
first show, so he is still, part of the deal is that
he still fathers puppies about once every two years. So he's not able to be
neutered and I suspect that that probably has an
impact on his house training but I think it's also just that
I didn't get him as a puppy so I didn't actually get to train him and do all the things that I need to do. So that is the story of Alfie. I love him very, very much. And he's actually related a little bit to my Teddy that I lost in the past. Like, this is, what dog does this? Just the most special dog ever. You're good. You are
mama's good, good baby. So that is how all of my dogs came to be. And a funny part of the story
is that when I actually talked to her about getting my third dog, which was originally Poppy, before Alfie, the breeder said, "If you get three dogs, you're never going to find a husband." And I remember laughing and saying, "Well, I think if that is enough for a man to not want to marry me, then
I'd rather not marry that man because a man that I should marry should also love Yorkshire terriers." And so funny thing,
but probably six months after I got Poppy, I went
skiing and I met my now husband. And he, when we met, he
asked me if I had any kids and I said, "I have three
Yorkshire terriers." And as it turns out, Yorkshire terriers are
Jeff's favorite dogs. So it did not keep my
husband from marrying me when he found out that I
had Yorkshire terriers. He actually, he loves
them just as much as I do. And he, I'm always really grateful, he was in Teddy's life
for quite a long time and he took care of Teddy
so gently when Teddy was ill and just was the, he was
the ideal man in my life. So that is the story of how
I got my Yorkshire terriers. And one thing that I just
want to say about that story, a lot of people, so my, I get a few very popular
questions on YouTube and one of the most popular questions is people asking me where I got my dogs. Now, I will say that the breeder has asked me not to share her information because she is already really, really busy and it's hard enough for
her to have enough puppies to place for people, so I do keep that information private. But the thing that I want to tell everyone is that of the three dogs that I have now, I only had one as a
puppy and that is Lola. And I wondered when I got an adult dog if I would bond with
an adult dog as quickly or as much ever as a puppy. And I have to say that it's
amazing how fast you bond with your Yorkie. So what I would really
say is two of my dogs, I consider them to be adopted. I didn't go to the shelter. They did come from the breeder but you would be just as happy
with a dog from the shelter. You will fall in love with it right away. It does not need to be a baby. And that you will always have this feeling of really bringing that dog
home and giving it a home. Alfie had a very nice life with a breeder but it wasn't a pet life. And he, I mean, when we
first brought him home, we did almost bring
him back to the breeder because he, when I tell
you he peed on everything, he peed on the dog stairs, he peed on my favorite
modern chair, the couch, my husband's pillow, he gets a little bit
jealous of my husband, and various places, and I did want to bring him back at first because it was sort of like, how am I going to untrain these habits? And my husband said, "Megan,
he's never been in a home. He he's been in basically a show kennel and he doesn't know what
all these things are and it's going to take some
time for him to settle in." So I hope that that story
doesn't convince you not to bring home an adult dog. The point is that a dog
that hasn't had a home or that hasn't had a regular home is going to be so incredibly appreciative. And it was just this, guy's,
like, he'll sit with me, he'll sit on my shoulder,
he's such a little gentlemen other than his body habits. So don't be afraid to
bring home an adult dog because you will not love
your adult dog any less. I mean, I could not love
this dog any more than I do and I never get tired of his face. So I hope that you enjoyed
this little Yorkie story time. I just wanted to kind
of give you guys an idea of how all of these babies came to be. Each one of them is so
special and so lovable. If you are enjoying my videos, please go ahead and do
subscribe to my channel. I really appreciate every subscriber and it makes such a big difference. And also leave me a comment below. Do you have a Yorkshire terrier now? Do you only have one Yorkshire terrier or do you have more than one? And how did you get
your Yorkshire terrier? I'm really interested in knowing the story of how your Yorkies came to be. And I look forward to
talking to you guys soon. Thank you so much for
listening and have a great day. (light music)
