The breeds · companion
AKC Toy · UKC Terrier
Toy Fox Terrier.
AKC breed page: 'They began as barnyard ratters but are today beguiling companions.' AKC standard: 'truly a toy and a terrier'; AKC Toy Group. UKC: Terrier Group; immediate ancestor the Smooth Fox Terrier, the smallest 'runts' being the scrappiest and prized for temperament; 'above all, has the conformation, characteristics and personality of a terrier'. NTFTA: 'their instincts for hunting can be confirmed by almost every owner'; also trained as obedience, hearing, circus and service dogs. Wikipedia: used in circus shows; companion dog..
Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
Center blank: the AKC prints 9 to 11 as a preferred range, not a single ideal. The UKC upper limit is 11 in; the AKC upper limit is 11.5 in. Both stand.
Weight
Center blank: the UKC preferred weight is a range. Wikipedia prints 3.5-9 kg, which conflicts with every registry and club figure (all in pounds) and looks like a unit error; it is not used in low/high. A human should confirm.
Coat
Shedding
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Heat tolerance
Derived from the coat description (short fine smooth coat, no undercoat described = 5 on the ruled scale). A toy dog with a thin coat is cold-sensitive; that is not captured by the heat scale.
How long they live, and what they cost
Measured on real dogs, with the sample and the spread. Never a guess.
Median lifespan
UK pet population. AKC page life-expectancy band (13-15) is not a median and is not used.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Energy
AKC scores are the AKC's own 1-5 bands, not a measurement.
Grooming load
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming
AKC's own 1-5 bands. No Royal Kennel Club page exists for the breed, so no grooming_load number.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
The UKC page read (revised Jan 2 2024) does not name ratting or squirrel hunting in its history. The ratter statement rests on the AKC breed page alone.
Primary game
Single source (the AKC page's own intro). No standard names the quarry.
How common the problems are
Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.
Most common disorders
Editorial summary citing PetMD; no VetCompass paper or club survey read.
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
How to read this page
Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.
Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 5 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- American Toy Terrier, Amertoy
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour toy fox terrier, on the record.
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