The YTCA disqualifies any adult color other than steel blue and tan (if you read their standards). Accepted Puppy colors can be blue and tan, blue and gold, black and tan and black and gold BUT adult colors are dark steel blue and tan. In other words, any adult that is black and gold or light blue and tan, are just as off colored as parti, golden or chocolate. The YTCA writes the standards for showing but the AKC is a breed registry and registers offspring from it’s AKC registered dogs. Even some of the most highly regarded and well known breeders have produced parti and other off colors in their pure bloodlines, it just takes the right 2 dogs who carry the same recessive genes to produce the parti, chocolate or golden color.

“There was no scientific way at that time of recording. Some believe that since the breed was purposely for rat and vermin killing that required some elemental camouflage, thus the White Yorkies that resulted were considered failures in accordance to the need for camouflage.”

Some people felt that breeding white dogs was a good thing; they could be easily identified in the field and less likely to be mistakenly shot as the game they were hunting. The West Highland White Terrier is one breed that comes to mind.