English White Terrier

Extinct

The name of "English White Terrier” was invented and adopted at the beginning of 1860 by a group of breeders willing to create a new breed of dog, inspired by the typical working Terrier but with greater hearing acuity. This premature intention was born later the Fox Terrier, the Jack Russell Terrier, the Sealyham terrier and, later, in United States the Boston Terrier and the Rat Terrier.

With the passage of time (and not much) the authorities of the Kennel Club they decided that the English White Terrier, should be considered as a race and was admitted, but the dog's myriad of genetic problems led to its popularity plummeting...

All these vicissitudes led to the life and history of the English White Terrier, it will last very little… at 30 years of appearing on the stage of the Kennel Club, the English White Terrier had fallen into extinction. But, before disappearing was crossed with the English Bulldog thus generating the first dawn of the races Boston Terrier and Bull Terrier.

In fact, working and small Terrier breeds have existed at least since the end of the century in United Kingdom 18. These dogs have always been very variable in size and shape, dogs could be found Terrier with a height at the withers that ranged from 25,4 and 31 cm., with floppy ears or straight ears, smooth coat or hard hair…

With the rise of the show ring over the years 1860, enthusiasts of the new races that were emerging, they made possible by naming them and improve them, the Terrier were the first of their lists. From there working Terrier dogs were born that we know today as Fox Terrier, Jack Russell Terrier, Parson Russell Terrier and Sealyham terrier.

In the vortex of creation and claim of new dog breeds, the different breeding groups competed ruthlessly, sometimes they put different names for the same breed, it was also common practice to make up stories about races—totally- fictitious they advertised as part of a campaign by declaring a new strain of a race, or a new race, that gave certain personal distinction and cachet to the breeder and of course... his sales went up. That was the real meaning...

In 1894, for as long as he English White Terrier finally disappeared from the scene of the canine clubs (who was always more of a companion pet and show dog, as a working dog) a scholar of the race, Rawdon Lee Briggs, noted that “the last specimens seen in London, they were of typeToy”, small dogs that were not above the 7 kg, with a rounded skull, or the so-called 'apple head', which would be due to an effect of inbreeding”. According to the official standard, the English White Terrier weighed between 6 and 9 Kg.

Lee described the English White Terrier as "the most fragile and delicate of all our Terrier. He is not the typical companion of an athlete, but it is an ideal dog to live in a nice house, in which he receives a considerable amount of pampering and care”.

Though 1894 the dog still existed, people linked to the canine world could see before their eyes that the possible extinction of the English White Terrier it was already a harsh reality... But lamenting the decline of the race, they consoled themselves with the thought that perhaps they should give rise to new races (assuming the inevitable)…, and they thought developing breeds better adapted to the needs and comforts of the historic present.

There was, a male specimen of the breed English White Terrier born in 1876, He was very famous, was owned by Alfred Benjamin, it was called 'Silvio’. Today it is considered a reliable and privileged sample of the breed..

In 1877, Silvio was the champion of an event of ‘Conformation Show’ (Demonstrations of conformation, also known as a demonstration race), is a competition, or… an event in which a judge familiar with a certain breed of dog, individually evaluates each specimen and determines which dogs are purebred or, which conform to the breed standard. Silvio I weighed nineteen kilos.

This exhibition was held at theRoyal Agricultural Hall" in the year 1878, in what we know today as the l "Business Design Centre” which is an exhibition center located in the Islington district, in London.