Cross Breeds

The Irish Terrier should be powerful athletic and of moderate

Summary: The Irish Terrier should be powerful athletic and of moderate build It is graceful and must not be heavily built as that would interfere with working ability Its appearance should reflect its spirted yet kind temperament Irish Terriers are coloured golden red red wheaten or wheaten The coat should be wiry in texture never soft silky curly wavy or wooly It should be quite dense and so that when parted with the fingers the skin is hardly visible to quote the CKC breed standard It should lie flat agaist the skin and though having some lengh should never be long enough to hide the true shape of the dog The dogs can become large and grow up to 46 to 48 cm 18 19 in with a weight of 11 to 12 kg 25 27 lb The Irish Terrier is intelligent and a specialist in hunting rabbits and otters due to its very good sense of smell Because of its breeding as a terrier it should not be trusted with other small pets as it will kill small animals without hesitation It is bold couragious and detirmined and will rarely back down from a challenge Because they were used in dog fighting in the past they are often aggressive with other dogs and some poorly socialised individuals will start fights with minimal if any provocation particularly with dogs of the same sex Thus early socialisation is a necessity Irish Terriers often make exellent companions for children and are playful and curious by nature They can have strong guarding instincts and when these intincts are controlled make excellent watchdogs Irish Terriers are strong willed and thus can be difficult to train They respond best to firm consistent training They are dominant by nature and training is very difficult if dominence is not firmly established and reinforced They are also very intelligent and can learn complex tasks with relative ease The Irish Terrier is an active dog and loves to be challenged mentally and physically Because of this it excels at dog sports particularily agility and Earthdog trials Its wiry coat is fairly easy to groom pet dogs rather that show dogs needing grooming only once or twice a week It should be bathed as infrequently as possible as shampoo destroys the coat s texture The breed s origin is not known It is believed to have descended from the rough haired Fox Terrier Its selection began only in 1870 The Irish Terrier Club was founded in 1879 and the breed was displayed for the first time in Glasgow in 1920 At one point in this breeds history it was used for dog fighting It has been used through out its history as a general purpose farm dog and besides ratting it has also been used to a limited extent as a soft mouthed retriever IRISH TERRIER

Image Dimensions: 250 x 396