Teddy Roosevelt Terrier

The Teddy Roosevelt Terrier is a short-legged American hunting terrier, and the name is a twentieth-century tribute rather than history.

History

It shares ancestry with the Rat Terrier — both come from the terriers American farmers used on vermin — and was separated from it in the 1990s as the shorter-legged, heavier-boned type. The name honours Theodore Roosevelt, who kept hunting terriers, though the claim that he created the breed is a later embellishment rather than a fact.

Temperament

The breed is known for being confident, affectionate and closely attached to its people, alert to vermin and calmer indoors than most terriers.

Care and training

It needs regular exercise and a secure garden, since it digs. The short coat needs almost nothing. It trains readily.

Health

Generally robust and long-lived, with patellar luxation and Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease among the known tendencies. These are patterns for the breed rather than a forecast for one dog; the measured facts are in the panel.