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About Us Dylan and Shanda Foster are small scale hobby breeders of Rat Terriers located in beautiful, Natural Bridge, Alabama.
In 2008, Shanda got a little Rat Terrier puppy from an old hunting breeder. She fell in love with the breed through the feisty little dog named Trudy.
We were able to enjoy her for 14 years. She traveled with us all over, and was always up for a game of fetch until her last day with us.
Trudy lost both eyes to lens luxation, but was still able to play fetch, quite to everyone's amazement. She remains an inspiration to us.
We got our second Rat Terrier, Moses in 2015. Moses is still with us, and is a cherished pet.
As interest and motivation for the breed grew, we knew we wanted to start our own breeding program with our own goals in mind, in honor of our feisty Trudy girl.
Our goal is to produce Rat Terriers that are functional in their purpose as all around farm dogs including hunting quarry above and below ground, and to bring that side of the breed closer to the standard you see in the show ring today.
We want to bring purebred Rat Terriers, that can hunt, back to their proper place in the breed. We want to breed away from the "Decker" influence within the breed, and stop perpetrating the myth that they can do anything a purebred Rat Terrier cannot.
》We live in Natural Bridge, AL located in the Northwest portion of the state near Haleyville. If you're flying in, the closest airport is Birmingham International, and we can meet you there. If you're driving, you will need to contact us for more detailed instructions.
You can contact us on any of our social media under the "Links" header below, or email us
crypticratterriers@gmail.com. |
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The History of Rat Terriers The Rat Terrier originated in England, back then it was more of a terrier mix than anything, starting with a combination of the Smooth Fox Terrier and now extinct English White Terrier. They made their way to America on trade ships where they really took hold.
American farmers began to make them their own. The dog was mixed with other terriers, landraces, hounds, and sight hounds, eventually chihuahua, and in some lines basenji. The end result was a breed that could hunt most prey including running rabbits, killing rats and other vermin, treeing squirrels, and trailing game.
As an all around farm dog, they were also a guard dog, and needed to be gentle and loyal with their families. The Rat Terrier was categorized as a feist, and as such was often mixed with other lines of feists including treeing feist and mountain feist.
The Rat Terrier fell out of favor in 1920s with more people moving to the city to work in factories, and would become a rather rare breed for the better part of the century.
Today it is no longer a rare breed, it has made its way to AKC recognition and is in the terrier group. Their feisty personalities and ingrained off switch make them fun family companions, and their popularity is again on the rise as both working farm dogs and dedicated best friends. |
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Puppies | Current puppies, waiting list, puppy policies, past puppies, and planned litters. |
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The Other Critters | Other dogs/animals that aren't a part of our breeding program. |
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