BULL TERRIER BREEDING 



Ancestry of the Breed is a Cross between White Bulldog and Black-and-Tan 



Terrier — Modem Standards Are Peculiar and Exacting — An Interesting 



Case of Intensified Line-Breeding 



Robert Duncan Coombs 

 Longmeadow Farm, Ridgewood, New Jersey 



IN THE early part of the nineteenth 

 century the name of terrier was 

 applied indiscriminately to a number 

 of breeds, as well as to a number of 

 crosses and mixed breeds. The bull 

 terrier of that period had a combined 

 ancestry of bulldog and black-and- 

 tan terrier. The current type of pit- 

 bull or fighting terrier would seem to 

 bear a closer resemblance to the Vic- 

 torian-era bull terrier than does the 

 modern bull terrier. This is due to 

 the fact that careful breeding has 

 established the standard bull terrier 

 breed as an all-white short-haired dog 

 fairly regular both in bodily type and 

 mental characteristics. 



It is unfortunate that the terrier used 

 for fighting has been so frequently 

 confused in the popular mind with the 

 bull terrier. This misconception is so 

 general that almost any short-haired, 

 white, strongly built dog, which resem- 

 bles the breed, will be called a bull 

 terrier, however mixed its ancestry may 

 have been and however bad its disposi- 

 tion. As a matter of fact the breeding 

 of the better class bull terriers shows 

 a pure ancestry for very many genera- 

 tions, as is proved by the standard all- 

 white color. 



The "standard of the breed" calls 

 for a dog of rather definite character- 

 istics and of a type readily distinguish- 

 able from other breeds. Without exag- 

 geration of any feature the animal 

 should combine strength and agility. 

 The head should be long, with the fore- 

 face filled up to the eyes, the mrizzle 

 wide, yet tapering; under jaw strong, 

 lips tight and teeth meeting evenly. 

 An overshot or undershot jaw is a bad 

 fault, as is "lippiness." Neck medium 

 and shoulders muscular l)ut without 

 314 



distortion or heaviness. Shoulder 

 blades wide, flat, and sloping well back. 

 The ribs should be well s]:)rung and the 

 chest deep and wide. The legs big- 

 boned with straight but not stilted 

 forelegs. Feet "cat footed" and straight 

 toed, tail straight, tapering, medium 

 length and not carried above the level 

 of the back. Coat dense, short, stiff 

 and glossy. The color of the hair and 

 skin white except that the nose and 

 eyes should be black. Eyes "triangular" 

 (sic), small, set close together and 

 obliquely. 



[ 



"OLD DUTCH" 



He is one of the iiillars of the Bull Terrier 

 stud book, although his legs were "all 

 wrong." His claim to greatness rested 

 largely on the shape of his head, 

 which was much admired by connois- 

 seurs. After Watst)n, The Dog 

 Book. (Fig. 14.) 



From the above description it will 

 at once appear that the typical bull 

 terrier possesses very marked char- 

 acteristics. It will also be noticed 



