Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

History

Originating hundreds of years ago in Ireland, the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is known for their wonderful abilities helping farm owners get rid of unwanted vermin and animals. This breed is from the bloodlines of the Irish Terrier and Kerry Blue breed. This breed is very popular in the United States, both as a hunting dog and companion.

Appearance

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is a medium sized dog breed with males and females measuring 17-20 inches in height and weighing 30-45 pounds in weight. This breed has a large, broad shaped head that is rounded at the sides and forms into a very broad, rectangular shaped muzzle. The space between their ears is very wide, as their two ears are medium in size, pendant shaped and fall gently alongside of their face. Their two eyes are small in size, almond shaped and generally a dark brown to black in color. Their general body build is lean, tall and compact. Their tail is generally cropped to about two inches in height, is thick and stands firm at the end of their hind legs. When left natural, their tail is medium in length and tapers to a point. Their single layer coat is slightly wavy in appearance, thick and is available in all shades of wheat.

Temperament

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is like many Terrier type breeds; they require a firm and confident owner who is able to remain pack leader at all times, set early rules and boundaries within the home and most of all, a daily job and task to complete in order to remain happy and calm. This breed is best suited for Canine only homes due to their natural instincts to hunt. The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is wonderful with children of all ages that they are able to grow up around and socialize with. Early obedience and socialization classes are recommended. This breed is an excellent hunter, watch dog, companion and even does well with competitive obedience. An active family or owner who is able to commit daily time and training to their new dog is ideal for this breed. This breed over all is very friendly, hard working, active and happy. The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is known for barking when seeing anything suspicious or strangers on the property.

Grooming

This breed sheds heavy once a year. Daily brushing and bathe when needed. Professional grooming recommended about twice a year.

Special Notes

Please fully educate yourself about the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier prior to adding one to your family to ensure you are able to provide life long physical and financial care to your new family member. This breed requires a properly fenced in yard to roam freely within while outdoors. When not within the fenced in yard, this breed requires a properly fitting harness and leash at all times; remember this Terrier breed like many Terrier breeds, is a natural hunter for small animals when outdoors and will track scents and dig. This breed is prone to flea and skin allergies. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders. Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2017. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.