~ American Hairless Terrier History in Canada ~

In 1999, Canada imported the first two AHTs, and our story begins here! Since 1999, Canada has grown from one, to many breeders throughout Canada, and a population of over 250 AHTs throughout the Country. We look forward to our future with the breed.

Timeline of Canada's History with the AHT

September 1999 - The first two AHTs were imported into Canada by Valley AHTs

November 1999 - AHTs were recognized and shown in Canada for the first time with two Rare Breed Clubs. Canadian Rarities and Southwestern Ontario Rare Breeds recognized the American Hairless Terrier in the Companion group, and the first two AHTs in Canada are shown in conformation.

February 2000 - A third AHT was imported into Canada by Valley AHTs

January 2001 - Canada's first litter of AHTs was born, all hairless

June 2001 - One of the first imported AHTs into Canada receives his Level 1 Search and Rescue certification

August 2001 - Heritage Hills imports their first AHT from a foundation kennel.

2001-2003 Valley and Heritage Hills work together to import more foundation AHTs and breed Canadian born AHTs

November 2001 - Monuwkawa AHTs obtains Canadian born F1 AHTs and imports AHTs from the US for their breeding program

April 2002 - The first hairless AHT/RT outcross litter is born in Canada at Monuwkawa AHTs

June 2002 - Karling Mountain imports AHTs and starts an outcross program with a Canadian born Rat Terrier

The number of AHTs in Canada is now over 50 individuals

March 2003 Mallory Farms imports their first AHT to breed with Canadian born F1 AHTs they had obtained from a fellow Canadian breeder

August 2003 Linden Farms joins our association and begins an AHT breeding program with F1 Canadian born AHTs and an imported Rat Terrier for outcross purposes

November 2003 - Lorne Hill imports AHTs into Canada and begins a breeding program

March 2004 - Hairless Terrier Kennel is founded and they obtain their first AHT, a Canadian born F1 female

April 2004 - TICA Kennel is founded and they obtain their first AHT, a Canadian born stud.

June 2004 - Deerland Falls joins our Canadian AHT breeding program with 2 imported Rat Terriers and begins an outcrossing program with Canadian born F1 AHTs

July 2004 - December 2004 - Valley, TICA, Heritage, Linden Farms, Karling Mountain all import more AHT bloodlines

January 2005 - TICA has one of the first F2 litters

March 2005 - Linden Farms has 4 hairless outcross puppies from an F2 hairless outcross and an imported Rat Terrier

2005 - 2006 Serenity, Asha's, Island Terriers and all join us and begin breeding programs in Canada

2005 - 2006 - Deerland, Lorne Hill, TICA, Hairless Terrier import more AHT bloodlines

May 2006 - The first coated AHT/RT outcross litter is born in Canada at Serenity

August 2006 - Heritage Hills and TICA both have F2 generation litters

Today, Canada has over a dozen breeders in all parts of the Country and a healthy outcross program, and we are soon approaching our first F3 generations.

History of the American Hairless Terrier in the USA

The American Hairless Terrier is a relatively new breed of dog and is the first entirely hairless dog to come along in many centuries. There is little real written information on the breed history. Most is still only known by word of mouth. If you speak to the right people, you will get as much information as exists about this very rare and unique breed. This is a brief history of the breed's origin in the United States.

The American Hairless Terrier began from a chance mutation. In 1971, a Louisiana farmer named Pipes acquired two mid-sized Rat Terrier littermates from a Missouri breeder. When bred together they produced the first American Hairless Terrier, which died in puppy hood. A second breeding of Pipes two dogs produced another American Hairless Terrier on August 2nd, 1972. This puppy named Josephine was given to Willie and Edwin Scott. Breeding between Josephine and her father, who was still owned by Pipes, resulted in a litter of four puppies, one of which was a hairless female named Gypsy. Unfortunately Gypsy and both of Pipes dogs met with accidents and were killed. The Scotts didn't give up though, and continued to breed Josephine with Rat Terriers but none of these litters produced any hairless puppies. At the age of 9 for her last litter, Josephine was bred to one of her sons, and gave birth to two hairless puppies, a male and a female, and two coated females. Through breeding between these siblings, and further crossings of their descendants to Rat Terriers, it has become possible to establish the American Hairless Terrier as a breed.
The National Rat Terrier Association (NRTA) first recognized the American Hairless Terrier as a breed on October 10, 1998 but has always allowed for crossings to be made to the Rat Terrier. The United Kennel Club (UKC) followed a similar method when it first recognized the Rat Terrier as a breed in 1999. At that time the American Hairless Terrier was recognized as a strain of the Rat Terrier under the name of Rat Terrier-hairless variety on January 1, 1999. Both the NRTA and UKC allowed crosses to be made to increase the size of the American Hairless Terrier gene pool. In 2001 the breed was recognized as the American Terrier by the NKC. In 2004, the United Kennel Club recognized the breed as the American Hairless Terrier, with a sanctioned outcross program to continue to allow outcross breedings with American Rat Terriers.

Around the World

The AHT is recognized in many parts of Europe and Asia with their respective kennel clubs since the early 1990's.

Outcrossing

It is universally felt that hairless to hairless breeding over several generations, degrades the quality of the dogs due to the small gene pool of this breed. For this reason we place equal emphasis on the Coated and Hairless American Hairless Terriers, and selectively outcross to the American Rat Terrier. This outcrossing program will continue until the breed can be established as having enough genotypes to cease the program and maintain low inbreeding coefficients within the breeding population of AHTs in Canada. Only purebred Rat Terriers of exceptional quality are included in the outcross program to ensure that we are enhancing the gene pool with healthy Rat Terriers free of known genetic faults and of ideal conformation.

AHTs in Canada are registered with CLRC, the federal registry for purebred animals in Canada.