White English terrier | |
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Other names | White English Terrier Old English Terrier British White Terrier |
Origin | Britain |
Breed status | Extinct |
Dog (domestic dog) |
The English White Terrier (also known as the White English Terrier)[1][2] is an extinct breed of dog. "English White Terrier" is the failed show ring name of a pricked-ear form of the white fox-working terriers that have existed in Great Britain since the late 18th century.
The name was invented and embraced in the early 1860s by a handful of breeders anxious to create a new breed from a prick-eared version of the small white working terriers that were later developed into the Fox Terrier, the Jack Russell Terrier, the Sealyham Terrier and later, in the United States, the Boston Terrier and the Rat Terrier. In the end, however, the Kennel Club hierarchy decided the "English White Terrier" was a distinction without a difference, while the dog's genetic problems made it unpopular with the public. Within 30 years of appearing on the Kennel Club scene, the English White Terrier had slipped into extinction. However, in Britain it was crossbred with the Old English Bulldog to give rise to the Boston Terrier and Bull and Terriers.