Two small breeds, both convinced they are larger
The Chorkie crosses a Chihuahua with a Yorkshire Terrier, and to make sense of the cross you really only need to know what each parent was doing before it became a companion.
The Yorkshire Terrier was made in the north of England in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it was made by working people. Scottish weavers moving south for jobs in the woollen mills brought their terriers with them, and those dogs were crossed and re-crossed in the mill towns until something small, silky and very game came out the other end. The work was keeping vermin down around the mills and the mines, and it wanted a dog small enough to get into the corners and bold enough to want to. The name Yorkshire Terrier was settled on in 1870, and the American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1885.
The Chihuahua comes from Mexico and takes its name from the northern state where American travellers first bought the little dogs in the 1800s. Its ancestry is generally traced back to the Techichi, a small companion dog kept in central Mexico long before Europeans arrived, which makes it one of the oldest companion breeds in the Americas. The AKC recognized the Chihuahua in 1904.
So one parent brings terrier enterprise and one brings a very old talent for attaching itself completely to a person. A Chorkie is both of those in a package small enough to ride in a bicycle basket.
Size, coat and colour
A Chorkie is a toy dog by any measure. Most finish somewhere around five to nine pounds and stand seven to nine inches at the shoulder, though a cross widens the range at both ends and littermates can end up a pound or two apart. The two parents standing behind a particular puppy tell you more than any figure printed on a page, and our staff can tell you what those were.
The coat is the part that varies most, and it is worth looking at before you fall for a face. Yorkshire Terrier hair is fine, glossy and perfectly straight, with the texture of human hair rather than fur, and it keeps growing instead of dropping out. Chihuahua coat comes two ways: short and close to the body, or longer with feathering on the ears, legs and tail. A Chorkie can land anywhere across that spectrum, and you can usually see which way a puppy has gone by the time it is old enough to come home.
Colour follows the same rule. The Yorkie side brings steel blue over gold, and a habit of changing — puppies are born dark, and the black clears slowly toward blue while the tan on the head and legs brightens. The Chihuahua side brings fawn, cream, chocolate, black, white, sable and every parti-coloured combination of those. What you end up with is a very small dog whose markings are effectively individual, and whose colour at four months is not the colour at two years.
Grooming, decided per puppy
Because the coat varies, so does the routine, which is why it is worth asking about the individual puppy rather than reading about the cross.
A long, silky, continuously growing coat wants a comb through every couple of days to keep it smooth and a trim at the groomer every six to eight weeks. Most owners keep it in a short, even cut, usually called a puppy trim, which suits the dog, suits the weather here, and turns the whole business into a five-minute job. A shorter, Chihuahua-leaning coat is simpler still: a soft brush or a rubber curry once a week lifts the loose hair and brings up a shine at the same time.
Everything else is the same either way. Hair around the eyes gets tidied so the dog can see out from under it. Ears get a wipe with a soft cloth while you are already combing. Nails grow quickly on a light dog, so trim a little and often rather than waiting. And brush the teeth from the first week, the way you would for any other breed, so a Chorkie decides early that the toothbrush is simply another thing that happens. Ten minutes across a week covers the lot.
What owners actually notice
Chorkies are busy in the best sense of the word. They investigate, they follow you from room to room, and they take a close interest in whatever is happening in the kitchen. Nothing set down on a countertop goes unregistered.
With their own people they are devoted and physically affectionate. Most pick a favourite lap and hold it with quiet conviction, and a Chorkie would generally rather be on you than near you. They are lively company for adults and a great deal of fun for older children who enjoy a dog with something to say.
They do have something to say. A Chorkie will let you know when someone is at the door, when the mail arrives and when a squirrel oversteps. Most owners settle into the same routine: go and look together, thank the dog, and get on with the day. Taught from the first week that reporting is followed by a thank-you and an end, a Chorkie keeps the whole business brief.
They also like company. Short absences are worth building into the routine from the first week, with a stuffed chew to work on, no ceremony on the way out and none on the way back in.
Training a clever toy dog
Chorkies are bright and quick, and the terrier half means they work best when the lesson feels like a game. Keep sessions to two or three minutes, use treats cut small enough that twenty of them still amount to nothing, ask for one thing at a time, and finish while the dog is still keen.
Two things repay real attention in the first months. The first is getting the puppy comfortable being handled, combed, held and having its nails done, because a dog that enjoys the grooming routine makes the next fifteen years easy. Start with ten seconds and a treat and build from there.
The second is house training, which goes best when it is boring and predictable: out first thing, after meals, after naps, after play, and a proper celebration every single time it goes right outdoors. A small dog wants the schedule a little tighter than a big one, and once the rhythm is set it stays set.
Socialization is the rest of it. Take the puppy out through the first year to meet ordinary things — different floors, umbrellas, wheeled bins, calm adult dogs, people in hats. A Chorkie that has met a hundred ordinary things before six months finds the world a very manageable size, and grows into the confident, unbothered little dog the cross is known for.
What a day with a Chorkie looks like
The exercise needs are modest and the interest in going out is not. Two short walks a day suit a Chorkie well, and the walk is more about the news than the distance, so let the dog read the hedge properly. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones for both of you, and a shaded route is worth going out of your way for.
Indoors, a Chorkie fills the gaps. Five minutes of fetch down a hallway does as much for a dog this size as a long route march, and a food puzzle, a handful of kibble scattered in a rolled towel, or a treat hidden under one of three cups keeps the terrier brain occupied. Give the puppy a bed or an open crate of its own in a quiet corner, somewhere it can take a chew and doze with nothing else going on.
Evenings are for company. A Chorkie that has walked, played and been included spends the evening tucked against someone, with one ear still up in case the mail comes late.
Come and meet the Chorkie puppies
Chorkies vary more than most crosses, which is exactly why meeting them beats browsing. Coat, colour and finished size all sit somewhere on a range, and you cannot judge any of the three from a photograph.
Our Chorkie puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s coat is likely to want and how it has been getting on with people. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor and let a puppy come to you before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.