The craggy, beautiful Isle of Skye, off the northwest coast of Scotland, gave rise more than 400 years ago to the rugged yet elegant terrier that bears its name. With a form that has remained essentially unchanged over the centuries, the Skye Terrier today is still the good-natured, loyal, fearless companion that ferreted vermin out […]

There is, carved into a Scottish Highlands farm wall, the image of a short-legged, longheaded, prick-eared, cobbily built dog barking on a wheelbarrow. The image appears to date from around A.D. 200, and is about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, small enough that the viewer cannot make out if the dog is double-coated or […]

There’s an old Czech saying, “Like dog, like master,” and this applies to no one better than Frantisek Horak, the creator of the Cesky Terrier. Horak persevered through World War II and a communist revolution with terrier-like determination to create his vision of a new hunting breed, the Cesky Terrier— perhaps the only breed with […]

When shipwrecks have fantastical endings, they’re usually works of fiction. Think of Gilligan and friends, or the Swiss Family Robinson. But in our canine world, a centuries-old shipwreck is believed to have helped create a real-life dog breed – and one of the most eye-catching of the terriers, to boot. Now, full disclosure: This creation […]

Great Britain has given us a large and boisterous family of dogs called the terriers. Latin buffs know “terrier” derives from “terra,” which means earth. And this scrappy bunch is born and bred to go to ground to battle critters that defend themselves tooth and nail – literally. Today, many terriers have left badger holes […]

One of the most famous dogs in movie history is little Toto, following Dorothy along the yellow brick road to see the wizard of Oz. Toto was played by a Cairn Terrier named Terry. You might think every little wire-haired terrier you see is a Cairn, but in fact there is a similar breed called […]

English novelists of centuries past gave us timeless characters who hopscotched from the printed page into our cultural consciousness, from Daniel DeFoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” And in the dog world, there is one exceedingly rare terrier that owes its name – and arguably its continued existence – to a peripheral character in […]

Though we often don’t think about them in this way, dogs are really about people — those long-ago (or, sometimes, not so long-ago) figures who developed particular breeds for particular tasks. Some breeds — like the Doberman Pinscher, Teddy Roosevelt Terrier, and Cesky Terrier — owe their existence to just one visionary person. Other breeds were brought into being […]

With a true terrier temperament, Welsh Terriers are friendly and feisty, and can have a knack for trouble. Learn more about this black and tan breed.

Barbara Miller of Glen Head, New York, is synonymous with Norfolk Terriers. And not just those from her top-winning Max-Well Kennel. The 2007 AKC Breeder of the Year (and 2002 AKC Terrier Breeder of the Year), Miller was the president of the parent club when her breed amicably split in 1979, creating the drop-eared Norfolk Terrier and the prick-eared Norwich Terrier. However, her earliest years in […]