Seven Key Facts About the Morkie Breed
If you’re looking for a small and playful yet lovable apartment pet, the Morkie is an excellent candidate. And even if you’ve never heard about the Morkie, you’ve surely heard of its parents – the Maltese and the Yorkshire terrier. These two famous and beloved toy dog breeds combine to form a unique designer dog breed with lots of lovable qualities. To find out if the Morkie is right for you, here we’ll list the 7 most important things to know about the Morkie.
What you should know about the Morkie
Aside from its crossbreed origins, the Morkie can easily be mistaken for either of its parents. That’s because, as a mixed breed, the Morkie can either look more like one parent or more like the other. Or, it can be an ideal 50/50 split. This lack of consistency is why most “designer” crossbreeds aren’t recognized by the major kennel clubs – it’s just hard to pinpoint an exact standard for the breed.
Fortunately for the Morkie, its parents are very similar in a whole lot of ways so the crossbreed is consistent in that sense. Both the Yorkie and the Maltese are small, lively, social, and opinionated, so the Morkie is the same. What few differences and deviations there usually boil down to the exact coat type and some minor personality quirks. But let’s look at the Morkie in a bit more detail.
1. This breed is small and fragile, as well as energetic but easily exhausted
With both the Yorkie and the Maltese being extraordinarily small, you wouldn’t be surprised that the Morkie is tiny as well. Most of the time you should expect these dogs to get taller than 4 or 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) and heavier than 7 to 13 pounds (3 to 6 kg). That makes the Morkie, like his parents, not just small but an outright toy breed.
Toy breeds are adorable and rightly desired by a lot of people. They do come with a couple of minor drawbacks to keep in mind, however – they are extremely fragile and they get exhausted very easily.
The first point is particularly huge as accidentally hurting a Morkie is quite likely if you’re not careful. That’s why, even though Morkies get along swimmingly with kids, letting them unsupervised with a toddler is risky – for the Morkie more so than for the toddler.
The second point is also important – Morkies are very energetic and playful for their size but, as a small breed, they can be over-exercised very easily. So, if you want to go for a longer walk or a hike with your Moxie, you should always have a carrier back or backpack with you.
2. This breed offers lots of love but needs to get lots of it too
Like the Yorkie and especially the Maltese, the Morkie is exceptionally lovable. This dog is the personification of the term “lap dog”. Particularly after a good and enjoyable playtime session, a Morkie will love nothing more than to snuggle in your lap while you work, read, or watch something.
And the Morkie has love to give for as many people are in your home too. These dogs can work great for single-person households and for large families. A Morkie will rarely prioritize the love it gives to some family members over others unless it gets drastically different treatments from them.
The big note to make here, however, is that the Morkie also wants to get love and attention almost non-stop. This is one of those breeds that are really predisposed to separation anxiety. That’s the feeling of extreme distress, anxiety, and even outright depression if left home alone and without human attention for too long.
This is normal for a lot of pet breeds but should be kept in mind especially if you live alone with your dog. With big families, you can almost always make sure that someone is with the Morkie. However, if you live alone and have to work away from home every day, your Morkie can get quite distraught.
3. Socialization is easy but also important
Another thing that makes the Morkie great is how social this crossbreed can be. All you need is a bit of socialization when the pup is still young, and a Morkie will easily learn that other people and animals are to be trusted.
However, if you don’t let your Morkie pup socialize when it’s young, it may grow wary, fearful, or aggressive toward strangers. This can make having guests or even neighbors somewhat of a problem. Getting a second pet can also be a problem if your dog has never interacted pleasantly with other animals.
4. The Morkie’s personality is as big as its size is small
Like most small breeds, the Morkie has no idea how size and physics work. So, they naturally feel as if they are as big as wolfhounds. Most of the time this is just cute and not a problem in and of itself. However, if you’ve skipped the socialization step we mentioned above, your Morkie can be a trouble to deal with in the dog park. In fact, the dog itself can be in trouble if it starts getting aggressive with a larger canine.
This is what we often call Napoleon Complex. People often think that’s something inherent to all small dog breeds but it’s actually the fault of most small dog breed owners. So, if you gloss over your tiny pup’s training and socialization – as small dog owners often do - it may develop this complex – otherwise, it’s unlikely.
5. Morkies can be a bit yappy but training can take care of that
Another aspect of the Morkie’s “big dog in a small body” personality is that it can get a bit too yappy. This is something that both of the Morkie’s parent breeds also share so it’s an inescapable part of the Morkie’s character.
Fortunately, like everything else, this yappiness is also manageable with good training and socialization. We already mentioned the latter but the former is equally important – good obedience training early in the dog’s life will make the next 15 years much easier for both you and your pet.
After that, if your dog continues to be barky toward the neighbor or the mailman, some good no-bark training should be able to take care of that.
6. The Morkie’s coat can come in lots of colors and is generally low-shedding
A very curious feature of the Morkie is its coat. While both its parent breeds have set-in-stone looks, the Morkie’s coat can vary between the two. So, some Morkies can have (almost) fully white and curly coats like their Maltese parents. Others can have mostly blue/black and gold wavy coats like their Yorkshire terrier parents.
Or, most tend to be somewhere in between and sport either a wavy or curly coat in a wide variety of colors – white, black, brown, blue, gold, tan, red, and any combination of them.
Fortunately, in almost every case, a Morkie will be very low-shedding. This, combined with the dog’s small size, means very little loose dog hair flying around your home. Keep in mind that even as a low-shedding breed, the Morkie won’t be hypoallergenic, however.
These dogs still need regular grooming, of course. Without a daily brushing and a nice monthly bath, the Morkie’s coat can start getting matted and entangled, and some skin issues can start appearing.
7. Morkies are healthy overall but still need good care
The average lifespan you can expect from a Morkie seems to be about 10 to 14 years. This is pretty good but also not something extraordinary for a toy breed. As a matter of fact, Morkies can suffer from some health issues if they’re the product of irresponsible breeding and/or if you don’t care for them well.
To avoid the first problem you should always ask your breeder for a health certificate. Similarly, if you’re adopting, make sure to ask for detailed health info for the dog. To avoid the second problem – just take good care of your dog. Quality food, regular exercise, and routine vet visits should keep almost everything in check. The few potential issues to keep an eye for include:
With all that being said, the Morkie is exactly what you’d expect it to be. The perfect amalgam between its two parent breeds, the Morkie benefits from the fact that Maltese dogs and Yorkshire terriers have pretty similar temperaments already.
In a way, you can view the Morkie as a Maltese with darker hair and a more headstrong temperament. Or, you can see it as a lighter-haired and more mellow Yorkie. Either way, these dogs make for awesome and adorable pets that need lots of loving and then gives even more of it back.
