Yorkshire Terrier Lookalike Finder: 316 in the Pool

To find your Yorkshire Terrier's lookalike, upload one clear photo to PetMatch and the model compares your dog's face against the 316 Yorkshire Terriers already in the pool, returning the real dog whose face sits closest to yours. Every adult Yorkie wears the same two colors, so the coat settles very little. The match leans on the small, flat skull, the short muzzle, the erect V-shaped ears and, more than for most breeds, on how the hair on the head has been cut.

A small flat skull under a lot of hair

The American Kennel Club standard describes a long-haired toy terrier whose blue and tan coat is parted on the face and from the base of the skull to the end of the tail. The head is small and rather flat on top, the skull not too prominent or round, and the muzzle not too long. The nose is black, the eyes are medium, dark and sparkling, and the ears are small, V-shaped, carried erect and set not too far apart.

Weight must not exceed seven pounds, and the breed page in the pool lists a typical adult at around 3 kg. A face photo shows none of that size.

One color scheme, two ages

Yorkie puppies are born black and tan. The adult coat is a dark steel blue from the back of the head to the root of the tail, with no fawn, bronze or black hairs mixed in, and the head is a rich golden tan, deeper at the sides of the head, at the roots of the ears and on the muzzle. Because the standard allows only that one scheme, color does almost nothing to separate one adult Yorkie from another. It does split the breed by age: a black-and-tan puppy and a cleared steel-blue adult read as different dogs, and a young Yorkie's closest matches are usually other young ones.

Topknot, show coat or puppy cut

The standard asks for a glossy, fine, silky coat, perfectly straight, with the fall on the head tied with one bow in the center or parted and tied with two, and very long hair on the muzzle. A show-coated dog has a topknot and a fringe around the eyes; a pet Yorkie in a puppy cut reads as a small pointed terrier with prominent ears.

That haircut is the single biggest driver of a Yorkie match. In a short cut the model sees the actual skull, muzzle and ear set, and the twins it returns are other short-cut Yorkies. In full coat it is matching the topknot outline and the tan-to-blue boundary across the face, and the twins are the dogs groomed the same way. The similarity score guide explains the number that comes with each result.

Yorkshire Terrier or Maltese?

The Morkie cross means the two breeds meet constantly in a Yorkie's results. The Maltese standard calls for a pure white coat, a slightly rounded skull, a fine muzzle of medium length, very dark round eyes, a black nose and drop ears that are set low and heavily feathered. On a face photo the ears decide it: a Yorkie's are small, V-shaped and erect, a Maltese's hang. The Maltese twin finder covers that breed, and the Maltese pool holds 227 dogs, separate from these 316.

Yorkshire Terrier or Shih Tzu?

A long-coated Yorkie with a topknot shares an outline with a Shih Tzu. The Shih Tzu standard permits all colors, and the head is very different once you look past the hair: round and broad, wide between the eyes, with large round eyes placed well apart, a square short muzzle, and large, heavily coated ears set slightly below the crown. The Yorkie skull is small and flat and the ears stand up. The Shih Tzu lookalike finder covers that face, and the Shih Tzu pool holds 141 dogs.

Yorkshire Terrier or Cairn Terrier?

In a short cut a Yorkie's nearest non-Yorkie neighbor is often a Cairn. The Cairn Terrier standard describes a broad skull, small pointed erect ears, wide-set eyes under shaggy eyebrows and a hard double coat in any color except white. The Cairn head is broader and the coat is harsh rather than silky, but both are small dogs with erect ears and a pointed muzzle, so a clipped Yorkie can score close to one of the 126 Cairns in the pool. The Cairn Terrier lookalike finder covers that breed.

When the twin is a mix

A Morkie, a Yorkipoo or a Chorkie that kept the Yorkie's flat skull and erect ears can place ahead of the purebred Yorkshire Terriers, because the model is matching the face in the photo, not guessing at a pedigree. Mixed Breed holds 10,187 of the 53,124 pets across 70 breeds, and the mixed-breed twin finder explains why a mix at the top of the list is a real answer.

A photo that shows the ears and both eyes

Steel blue photographs badly: warm indoor light turns it brown or grey, and a phone flash throws highlights off the silky coat that wash the blue out. Shoot in open shade or soft daylight, head-on at eye level, with both eyes, the nose and the base of each ear in the frame, and tie back the fringe so the eyes are visible. Keep the tan on the head and the blue on the body reading as two distinct colors, because that boundary is a feature the model uses. The best photo for a pet lookalike guide covers the rest.