| Appearance: The Irish Terrier should be powerful, athletic, and of moderate build. It is graceful, and must not be heavily built (as that would interfere with working ability). Its appearance should reflect its spirted, yet kind temperament.
Coat: Irish Terriers are coloured golden red, red wheaten, or wheaten. The coat should be wiry in texture, never soft, silky, curly, wavy, or wooly. It should be quite dense and so that "when parted with the fingers the skin is hardly visible". It should lie flat agaist the skin, and, though having some lengh, should never be long enough to hide the true shape of the dog.
Size: The dogs can become large and grow up to 46 to 48 cm (18-19 in) with a weight of 11 to 12 kg (25-27 lb).
Temperament: The Irish Terrier is intelligent and a specialist in hunting rabbits and otters due to its very good sense of smell. Because of its strong prey drive, it should not be trusted with other small pets, as it will kill small animals without hesitation. It is bold, courageous, and determined, and will rarely back down from a challenge.
They are often aggressive with other dogs, and some poorly socialized individuals will start fights with minimal (if any) provocation, particularly with dogs of the same sex. Thus, early socialisation is a necessity. Irish Terriers often make excellent companions for children, and are playful and curious by nature. They can have strong guarding instincts and, when these intincts are controlled, make excellent watchdogs.
Care: Irish Terriers are strong willed and thus can be difficult to train. They respond best to firm, consistent training. They are dominant by nature and training is very difficult if dominence is not firmly established and reinforced. They are also very intelligent, and can learn complex tasks with relative ease. The Irish Terrier is an active dog, and loves to be challenged mentally and physically.
Because of this it excels at dog sports, particularly agility, and Flyball. Its wiry coat is fairly easy to groom, pet dogs (rather that show dogs) needing grooming only once or twice a week. It should be bathed as infrequently as possible, as shampoo destroys the coat's texture.
History: The breed's origin is not known. It is believed to have descended from the rough haired Fox Terrier. Its selection began only in 1870. The Irish Terrier Club was founded in 1879 and the breed was displayed for the first time in Glasgow in 1920. It has been used through-out its history as a general purpose farm dog, and besides ratting it has also been used to a limited extent as a soft-mouthed retriever.
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