Temperament

Border Terriers are friendly, smart, energetic and playful. They can make good family pets as they are generally good with children. If their owners cannot give them a lot of attention, they are best kept with other dogs of similar temperament. Some members of the breed make a highly effective alternative to a doorbell, due to their sharp hearing and the distinctive frenzied barking that results when they hear someone approaching the door.

Usually when puppies are first taken to their home, they, like other dogs have an opinion on the owner/owners. They especially like jumping a lot, and a lot of times, when owners first buy their Border Terrier they sometimes find that they are woken up by their dog licking them in their bed! Some Borders like to lick.

The key to training a Border Terrier is through its heart. They are big-hearted little dogs that love their owners and if they know that something pleases you then that is what they do. This trait, coupled with their highly intelligent mind, can sometimes lead owners, especially children, to unwittingly 'train' their Borders to do certain behaviours that are not necessarily desired in their particular household. For example, when an owner comes home and their Border is overjoyed at their return and jumps, runs and become excited, the owner often reciprocates that excitement with attention and praise - hence teaching their Border that running, jumping and acting excited is a good thing and to be repeated. The same goes for teaching Border puppies to jump at toys and swing off socks and sleeves.

The golden rule with a Border is that what you give them attention for, they will do more of. Their high trainability makes them amenable to command and discouragement from unwanted behaviours. Consistency is vital, if their owner gives in even once, for example patting a Border when it jumps up on the owner's return home, they will likely remember that owners don't always mean what they say about not jumping it can take some work to undo this. As with most dogs, it is important that owners establish dominance over their Border.

In terms of activity, many Borders will settle to the activity levels of their owners. They do not demand exercise, but do love it when they get it. If their owner is sick for a week they will likely curl up at their feet and not move. Rattle their lead however and they will be all ears, ready to go out for that walk, run or game.

Being bred to work with people, Borders do well in task-oriented activities. They have been successful in obedience, Dog agility, and working as therapy dogs in hospitals and rest homes for the elderly, and hearing dogs for the deaf.

Border terriers respond very well to obedience classes when young as it both establishes the owner's dominance and gives their intelligent mind something to do. If left alone for much of the time without mental stimulation they do not thrive and sometimes engage in destructive behaviours like digging.

Illness

An illness that a lot of Border Terriers catch is called "Kennel Cough". However, Border Terriers are at no more risk than any other dog that is not vaccinated against this disease.

Behaviour with other dogs

Border Terriers generally get on well with other dogs, and often develop strong friendships with dogs they meet frequently. However, if they dislike another dog, they do not hesitate to start a fight and, as with most terriers, it can be difficult to stop them. This behaviour is most common in un-neutered males. Border Terriers must be trained carefully from the beginning to learn proper social behaviour with other dogs, especially larger dogs.

Ideal canine companions include other Border Terriers, Collies, and most Spaniels. When kept in a group, they can have difficulty recognising that each dog has a different name (they occasionally respond to them all). Border Terriers have dominant personalities and often occupy a high position in the 'pack', subordinate to the owner. This is especially true for adult Border Terriers when a puppy is added to the group. If a large adult dog comes into the family, the Border Terrier will "test" his new companion, maintaining his leadership if there is no objection from the larger dog.

In the popular TV show "Crufts", Mini, a Border Terrier came second.

Behaviour with other animals

Border Terriers are generally unsuitable for homes where there are rabbits, they may, however, accept small animals they grow up with.

Chewing

Border Terriers are strong chewers and tend to destroy all but the most durable toys. They can remove the squeak from a squeaky toy within 30 seconds, and reduce such toys to fragments within a matter of minutes. Solid, tough rubber toys such as rubber rings are suitable. If a Border Terrier adopts a household object as a toy, the object will soon be ruined. It is therefore useful to teach a Border from an early age what he or she is and isn't allowed to chew.

Health

Border Terriers are generally hardy and long-lived dogs with few health problems. However, they have a very high resistance to pain and will very often appear healthy even when injured or sick. Consequently, any sign of illness should be taken seriously. Due to their low percentage of body fat, Border Terriers are very sensitive to anaesthetics. Therefore, Border Terrier owners should select a veterinarian that is aware of this and is cautious in administering anaesthesia.

Due to their instinct to kill and consume smaller animals, Border Terriers often destroy, and sometimes eat, toys that are insufficiently robust. Indigestion resulting from eating a toy can cause the appearance of illness. Typical symptoms include lethargy, unwillingness to play, a generally 'unhappy' appearance, lack of reaction to affection, and inability or unwillingness to sleep. These symptoms are generally very noticeable, however, they are also present just prior to Border Terrier bitches being on heat. Food-grade liquid paraffin is often an effective solution to digestive problems caused by the consumption of dog toys. This problem can be avoided by giving the Border Terrier only durable toys.

Border Terriers occasionally have genetic health problems. Some of these include:

• Hip dysplasia
• Perthes disease
• Luxating patella
• Various heart defects
• Juvenile cataracts
• Progressive retinal atrophy
• Seizures
• CECS (Canine Eptiloid Cramping Syndrome [1]

Reliable breeders check all breeding stock for as many of these as possible before breeding.

History

The breed was developed for hunting vermin in the area around the border of England and Scotland.

Though some claim an ancient history for the Border Terrier, no breed of terrier is very old and the Border Terrier is no exception, first appearing around 1860, and being so undifferentiated from other rough-coated terriers that they were not admitted to the UK Kennel Club until 1920 -- after first being rejected in 1914.

The true history of the Border Terrier is exceedingly short and simple despite all the efforts to muddy the water with talk of Walter Scott, Bedlingtons, Gypsies, and dark dogs seen in the muddy corners of obscure oil paintings.

The Border Terrier was a kennel type of rough-coated terrier of the Fell type bred by the Robson family. John Robson founded the Border Hunt in Northumberland in 1857 along with John Dodd of Catcleugh who hunted his hounds near the Carter Fell. It was the grandsons of these two gentlemen -- Jacob Robson and John Dodd -- who tried to get the Border Hunt's little terrier-type popularized by the Kennel Club.

The first Kennel Club Border Terrier ever registered was "The Moss Trooper," a dog sired by Jacob Robinson's Chip in 1912 and registered in the Kennel Club's Any Other Variety listing in 1913. The Border Terrier was rejected for formal Kennel Club recognition in 1914, but won its slot in 1920, with the first standard being written by Jacob Robinson and John Dodd. Jasper Dodd was made first President of the Club.

For a terrier "bred to follow the horses" the Border Terrier does not appear to have been overly-popular among the mounted hunts. The Border Terrier Club of Great Britain[2] lists only 190 working certificates for all borders from 1920 to 2004 -- a period of 84 years. Considering that there were over 250 mounted hunts operating in the UK during most of this period (there are about 185 mounted hunts today), this is an astoundingly small number of certificates for a period that can be thought of as being over 15,000 hunt-years long. Even if one concedes that borders were worked outside of the mounted hunts, and not all borders got certificates that were recorded by the Border Terrier Club of Great Britain, the base number is so slow that adding a generous multiplier does not change the broad thrust of the conclusion, which is that Border Terriers never really had a "hay day" for work.

The relative lack of popularity of the Border Terrier as a working terrier is borne out by a careful review of Jocelyn Lucas' book Hunt and Working Terriers (1931). In Appendix I Lucas provides a table listing 119 UK hunts operating in the 1929-1930 season, along with the types of earths found (sandy, rocky, etc.) and the type of terrier used.

Only 16 hunts said they used Borders or Border crosses, while about 80 hunts said they preferred Jack Russells, white terriers or some type of fox terrier. Lakelands and Sealyhams, or crosses thereof, were mentioned by some, with quite a few noting "no preference" (hunts are double-counted if they mention two kinds of terriers or crosses of two types).

The Border Terrier does not appear to be faring any better today, with even fewer workers found in the field than in Lucas' times. In fact, there is not a single Border Terrier breed book that shows a border terrier with its fox -- an astounding thing considering the age of the breed and the ubiquitous nature of the camera from the 1890s forward.

To say that the Border is not popular in the field does not mean that it has fallen out of favour in the show ring or in the pet trade, however! Border terriers are among the top 10 breeds in the UK Kennel Club, and nearly 1,000 border terriers were registered with the American Kennel Club last year -- up about 100 dogs from the previous year.

Further reading

• A piece on the history or Lakeland/Patterdales/Border Terriers with photos of those dogs.

Earthdog trials

More Border Terriers have won American Kennel Club Earthdog titles than any other terrier. An earthdog trial is not true hunting, but an artificial exercise in which terriers enter 9" x 9" smooth wooden tunnels with one or more turns in order to bark or scratch at caged rats that are safely housed behind wooden bars. While earthdog trials are not a close approximation of hunting, they are popular in the U.S. and in some European countries because even over-large Kennel Club breeds can negotiate the tunnels with ease, dogs can come to no harm while working, and no digging is required.

Famous Border Terriers

• Puffy in There's Something About Mary
• Hubble in Good Boy!
• There were several border terriers in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
• The Dog in the Wall's Sausage adverts (UK) View adverts on Wall's web site
• There is a border terrier in the ad for Ambien CR sleep aid prescription medication.
• A Border Terrier can be seen on the lap of Old Monty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 film)
• Toto in the 1985 movie Return To Oz

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