Rat Terrier

The Rat Terrier grew out of the small hunting dogs American settlers called feists, themselves descended from British working terriers - Manchester Terriers, Smooth Fox Terriers, and the old Bull and Terrier types - brought over by immigrants in the nineteenth century. Farmers were not breeding for a standard; they were breeding for dogs that killed rats, went to ground after groundhogs, and stayed sound on a working farm.

To sharpen particular qualities, breeders crossed in Whippet and Italian Greyhound blood for speed on open ground and, in some lines, Beagle blood for nose and pack tolerance. The result was a versatile small hunting dog rather than a specialist. Rat Terriers were among the most common farm dogs in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, before mechanised agriculture and commercial rodenticides reduced the need for a resident ratter.

The name is popularly credited to President Theodore Roosevelt, an enthusiast of small working terriers, and a distinct short-legged variety still carries the Teddy Roosevelt Terrier name. Formal recognition came late: the United Kennel Club registered the breed in 1999, and the American Kennel Club admitted it to the Terrier Group in 2013 after a period in the Foundation Stock Service.

The breed survived largely because rural families kept breeding it for its own sake. That long stretch outside the show system left a healthy, functional dog with a wide gene pool, and modern breeders have generally tried to preserve that rather than exaggerate anything.

The Rat Terrier is a compact, muscular dog of moderate everything - moderate bone, moderate length of leg, no exaggeration anywhere. The AKC divides it into two varieties by height: miniature dogs stand roughly ten to thirteen inches at the shoulder, and standard dogs above that up to about eighteen inches. Weight runs from around ten pounds in a small miniature to about twenty-five pounds in a substantial standard.

The coat is short, smooth and dense, lying close to the skin with a slight sheen. It is a single coat, which means grooming is simple, but it also means the breed feels the cold and appreciates a coat in a hard winter. Ears may be erect, tipped or button, and all are correct; tails may be naturally bobbed, docked or full length.

Colour is one of the breed's pleasures. Any variety of pied patterning is accepted, meaning white in combination with black, tan, chocolate, blue, lemon, apricot or isabella. Bicolour and tricolour dogs are both common, and a solid white dog or a dog with no white at all is not typical of the breed. The overall impression should be of a small, keen, athletic dog that looks ready to work.

Rat Terriers are cheerful, sociable and intensely attached to their household. They tend to pick their people and then stay close, following you from room to room and settling on the sofa beside you at the end of the day. Owners often describe them as far more cuddly than the terrier label suggests.

With strangers they are usually watchful before they are welcoming. A Rat Terrier will announce a visitor, weigh them up, and then normally accept them once its people have. That reserve makes for a genuinely useful little alarm dog, but it also means early, varied socialisation matters if you want a dog that is relaxed in cafes, on buses and around unfamiliar children.

The prey drive is real and it is not a training failure. This is a dog bred to kill rodents, and squirrels, rabbits and next door's hamster all read as legitimate targets. Secure fencing and a reliable recall are not optional. With cats raised alongside them many Rat Terriers are perfectly civil, but small pets should not be left unsupervised.

They are clever, sensitive and stubborn in roughly equal measure. A bored Rat Terrier digs, barks and rearranges your garden. A well-exercised one with a job to do is one of the easiest small dogs to live with.

The original job was vermin control, and the breed still does it. Rat Terriers work barn hunt, earthdog and go-to-ground events with obvious enthusiasm, and rural owners still use them exactly as their great-grandparents did. Their speed and agility also suit them to agility, flyball and fast CAT lure coursing, where the smaller dogs are often surprisingly competitive.

As a household dog the Rat Terrier makes a good watchdog without being a guard dog - it will tell you someone is at the gate, but twenty pounds of terrier is a deterrent only by volume. Its size, low grooming needs and adaptability make it a reasonable apartment dog provided the exercise happens, and it travels well. Some lines have done useful work as scent detection and therapy dogs.