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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