Irish Terriers, type and breed standard

As newly elected honorary member of the Netherlands Irish Terrier Club, I felt that I would like to write down some of my thoughts on the Irish Terrier as it is today and as it used to be. This article was first published in the club magazine of the Netherlands Irish Terrier Club.

We bred our first litter of Irish Terriers in 1974. 35 years later we have bred 42 litters, numbering a total of 229 pups. Since 1976 we have had on average four to six Irish Terriers in the house, so this number of pups is comparatively small. We have tried hard to retain the type of Irish Terrier that we started with and we are very proud that we have succeeded in this, so far at least.

The two principal dogs from which our dogs are descended are the dog International Champion Gnomeshalt Irish Legend (1974) and the bitch Netherlands Champion Gnomeshalt Coven Chief (1973), both bred by Joan Simcock (UK) and owned by Ann Wortel-Waite, who impressed the type of Irish I will discuss in this article on my mind.

By looking at these two Irish Terriers, highly typical of the breed, by reading pedigrees, picking the brains of various breeders and studying the breed in general, we have succeeded in breeding dogs of this magnificent and original type.

Unfortunately, at today’s international shows this type of dog is few and far between. These days many Irish are far too slight in build and have too little substance, and while they may be slim and elegant they lack the required racy outline. The racy outline is the essential point which distinguishes the Irish Terrier from the Airedale, Fox, Kerry Blue, Lakeland and Welsh Terriers. These breeds may appear to be built on similar lines, but the Irish must never be short in back and hence cobby. The stifles should be moderately bent and the tailset should not be as high as it is in these other breeds. Speed and agility are essential characteristics and they should be immediately apparent at first sight of the dog. The head and expression are very important in the correct type of dog, which is, in my opinion, the only type worthy of the name IRISH TERRIER.

All these distinguishing characteristics are laid-down in the breed standard. The principal elements of the standard are self-evident but with the breed standard in mind, I would like to try and explain a few points. The text of the breed standard is printed in italics.

General appearance: an active, lively, lithe and wiry appearance, plenty of substance but free of clumsiness, as speed and endurance, as well as power, are very essential. They must be neither cloddy nor cobby but should be built on the lines of speed, showing a graceful racy outline.

The breed standard clearly states PLENTY OF SUBSTANCE, which is something sadly lacking in the modern type of Irish Terrier. POWER and ENDURANCE (the Irish Terrier is originally a working dog). I cannot visualize the modern Irish Terrier with his slight build and his thin coat accompanying the hunt in heavy terrain in the Irish climate.

Chest: Chest deep and muscular, neither full nor wide. Ribs fairly sprung, rather deep than round, and well ribbed back.

The modern Irish Terrier lacks the deep chest. They may be long in back but without the deep chest these dogs lack the racy underline which forms an essential part of the required racy outline.

Loin: Loin muscular and slightly arched.

The modern Irish Terrier has a straight back and the tail is set-on too high. As a result speed and agility are out of the question, because it is the slightly arched loin that makes the Irish Terrier so much faster than the other dogs in the Terrier group.

Skull: Skull flat and rather narrow between ears, narrowing towards eye.

Eyes: Dark, relatively small, not prominent, full of life, fire and intelligence.

This point is hard to explain (an Irish Terrier should look at you the way ours have been looking at us for 35 years) but I will try. Some of the modern type of Irish Terrier have an exaggeratedly long and narrow skull which is not flat. This skull is too high in the middle, the so called bumpy skull, as a result of which the eyes are not placed correctly. The foreface is often longer than the skull which leads to a completely different expression with expressionless eyes, which no longer look at you with the intelligence the breed standard stipulates.

When I look at an Irish Terrier with this type of skull it makes me shiver, as it is so very untypical of the breed.

Finally an element which is not related to type but nevertheless very important: the color.

Color: Whole-colored, most preferable colors being red, red/wheaten, or yellow/red.

The motto today seems to be: “The redder, the better”, which is nonsense of course, as a wheaten Irish Terrier with a good coat and slightly darker ears can have an expression that many red ones fail to match. Unfortunately, these days some exhibitors even go to the lengths of artificially enhancing the red color for shows, because red is the trend.

Furthermore, to my mind, show trim today is far too short. This makes it impossible to judge the structure of the coat: a working dog by origin should have a weatherproof, thick coat with an undercoat, a topcoat and dense, crisp hair on the legs. Formerly the Irish Terrier was shown in a much longer coat. This required a more sophisticated trimming technique but it was as it should be and the overall picture was much more appealing.

In former times judges were invited who were specialists in only a few breeds, Terrier breeds at that. Today it is cheaper to invite a judge who judges a great variety of breeds.

Let me give an example: at a CAC/CACIB show in the Netherlands next year, the all-round judge will be judging 19 different breeds in FCI-group 5 (Huskies, Spitz, etc.) on the first day, 9 breeds in FCI-group 3 (Terriers) on the second and 6 breeds in FCI-group 2 (Pinschers, Schnauzers, Mountain dogs etc.) on the third day. To my mind, it is impossible for this judge to have the standards of all these breeds in her head. That is why with these all-round judges the dog with the showy appearance, good movement, well-handled and often entered in Champion Class, tends to be the dog that wins.

Unfortunately, little can be done about this as the organizing committees are deaf to all protests, and that is how these all-round judges are determining the future look of the Irish Terrier. The breed standard seems to be important no longer and that is the core of the problem to my mind.

It would be so much better if the organizing committees of international dog shows became aware of the fact that cutting down on the expense of inviting specialized judges who really know a breed, can never justify losing the original, true standard of a breed.

We are fortunate in the Netherlands in that we still have several judges who know what an Irish Terrier should look like. The organizing committees should invite these experts far more often to judge at dog shows than the “interesting and all-round” judges from far-away countries.

Finally, to try and neutralize the somber tone of my story somewhat, I would like to emphasize that for the litters we breed nothing has changed, we remain true to the original breed standard of the only true Irish Terrier type, an Irish Terrier that is – most importantly – healthy and has a sterling character.

Peter Jaspers

Translated by M.J. Kamphuys-Scheffer