I know this is probably idiotic to ask?

I just got a yorky, his tail is very stubby and short, did they cut the puppy's tail off when he's born, and if so, why do people want to do that on the poor dog?
Answers:
Yorkies have docked tails - it's part of the breed standard. It probably originated for some purpose, as Cleoppa said. They probably docked his tail when he was very young. DP knows more about this. No matter what, if you got the puppy from a good breeder, there wasn't much pain involved.
Why would they want to do this? Tail injuries are very painful to dogs. At some point, Yorkies could have been very prone to them, so docking made the most sense. If it was merely cosmetic, it's like circumcising a baby boy - I'm not condoning or condemning it - or getting a baby's ears pierced. At the risk of sounding too pessimistic, life is painful.
How old is the puppy? He should still have a penis, it will just be small on a small dog. If he's missing his testicles, he's neutered. It would help if you'd just say which "thing" he's missing.

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Nope, not born that way. Someone somewhere decided they wanted their tails cut off...it is now the breed standard and I think it is silly myself. There are countries where it is illegal.

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If a dog has a short tail, that generally means it was cut off when it was just a few hours old. Some dogs are naturally born with a bob tail.
It has to do with the history of these dogs. Yorkshire Terriers originally worked as ratters. Have one less thing for the rats to grab on made it more effective in its job.

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Yea it's pretty ridiculous. If they want that look they need to try to breed that characteristic in opposed to surgically altering an animal.

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yeah they probably did but the reason they dock their tails is bacause some dogs are worth more that way

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I agree I think its not really necessary to dock a yorkys tail.
But a Rottweiler is ok.

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yes they do cut the tail of because on a yorkie it doesnt look right i think does lookok and also it sometimes will hurt the poor puppy

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As guard dogs and for dog fighting it is most effective for their ears to be taped down and trimmed and their tails to be cut off. (I do not advise of this by the way, I think it is very cruel and needs to be stopped). This way people or other dogs cannot bite, grab, pull, or do anything else to their tails or ears, which are parts that stick out and are easily messed with. Sadly, many people do it that are dog fighters or who are careless and want a good guard dog. The dogs also look more fierce and less friendly this way, so they are better for scaring off people. )=

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they may have "docked" the tail when it was 3-10 days old. (that means a vet tied some sort of string to the tail cutting the circulation off and the tails just fall off)..or they could have had it surgically cut off. Thats what I had to do to my puppy because when we got her she was too old to have it docked. So the vet put her under anesthesia and surgically removed her tail and clipped her ears. Its purely for cosmetic reasons. And sometimes its standards if you want to put your dog in a dog show or whatever.

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In some breeds the dogs as puppies are overly playfull and unfortunately will bite each others tails off in play and it does cause severe problems such as infections or worse, later and it is better to just take them as puppies as oposed to having worse problems later on.

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As Cleoppa said, since most terriers were ratters docking was done to save them the pain of having a rat knaw off their tail later.
It's also done to larger dogs that gaurd, not having a tail keeps the unwanted guests from grabbing at a weak spot.
Other than that it's purely cosmetic. If you're showing it's a must but otherwise I don't really see the need. But since most breeders have the docking done within days of birth they really don't have time to see if any of the litter will be good show dogs so better safe than sorry. The operation done later in life is painful and requires a lot more work. At days old the bone is still so soft the dog feels barely anything with just a bit of local.

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Are you sure it's tail was not just tucked between its legs lol :) Yeah the cut if the end of the tail, I have no idea why, I think it maybe to make the dog look cuter. It is kind of a mean thing to do. You mean the poor thing does not have a penis either?! Man I am feeling really sorry for this poor little fella. The cut his tail, they chopped off his balls and now you are saying the poor little guy does not have a penis! Maybe its just small and you just have not see it. Hey look at the good part if you ever want to get a funny one off on your husband when he is being mean just tell him the Yorke is hung better than he is, lol! I am so mean, I'm sorry. I do feel bad for the dog though.

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So you're saying he has a penis, but no testicles right?
How old is your puppy? His testicles may simply not have "dropped" yet. I'm pretty sure the person you got the pup from would have mentioned whether or not he was neutered.

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According to the breed standard the dogs tail should be docked. They are neutering pups at a very early age these days. This is an attempt to stop all the ML from breeding themselves.(at least I hope that's why) As far as part two of your question the male testicles in a dog do not drop until about five to eight months of age depending on the breed sometimes. My vet leaves the sacks intact, in earlier days they did not. However they will disappear ( shrink) as the dog ages. Did they tell you the dog was neutered? I would think that's a very important bit of information to know prior to purchasing a dog.