The Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers are easy going dogs. Hereafter are listed a few of their traits. These dogs have so many qualities, that is not possible to list them all, it would be too long....
Wheatens are very attached to their family and they are wonderful four legs furry friends for children. Add a Wheaten to your home and every day your Wheaten will light your life.
Statistics published by the OFA on December 2018 concerning hip dysplasia in Wheaten Terriers showed a rate of 5.1%.
Based on an all breeds database, the rate of cancer in dogs is slightly higher than in humans and 50% of the senior dogs (aged 10 years and over) will decease from cancer.
While prospecting for information about the breed and for a puppy, you will hear of the "Irish coat" and the "American coat" and maybe other names. Sometimes you could read that two varieties do exist in the breed and you could see by yourself that they are very different in texture.
The Irish coat is the only one officially recognised by the Irish Kennel Club and the F.C.I. Any breeder claiming that the American type of coat is correct, would show its incompetency whether from ignorance or through dishonesty.
As mentioned in its breed name, the Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is an Irish dog, why would it wear an American coat ?....
To breed dogs with seriousness is much more than to acquire one male dog and a female one and then to mate them together. It is important to first have a good knowledge of the breed and the lines. This knowledge comes with experience, lots of work, the desire to breed in the respect of the breed standard and always through guidance of people who have been working the true type for a long time.
Be careful while looking for a puppy. Remember that only one coat type is recognised by the breed standard, the Irish coat one. Be also aware that there are mixed lines. A specimen out of mixed lines has in its pedigree one or several American coat ancestors. It means that although a dog has an Irish coat, if out of mixed lines, this dog can genetically carry the fault and pass it on to its progeny.
If you wish to welcome a puppy out of an Irish type line, do not hesitate to contact breeders working these lines. They will help you to find one.
The breeder's task is not to change a breed but to help the country of origin to promote its breed by maintaining it true to type. Here at Wheaten Barn we conform to the breed standard. Our bloodline is out of the oldest Irish lines and we keep breeding in the true type of the Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier.
All our puppies have an Irish coat. We do not use dogs out of mixed lines.
Ireland hold a seminar in Dublin on October 2011 and clearly stated its point of view over the problem, calling breeders and judges to respect the standard of the breed :
"Judges and breeders should be very aware of the fact that in Europe the Irish standard from the country of origin of this breed is acknowledged by the F.C.I. Judges and breeders should stick to these rules. F.C.I. in its rules clearly states that judges must always judge according to the F.C.I. standard which is the one of the country of origin. Without the proper coat there can be no discussion, the dog must be disqualified. In the F.C.I. standard it says : eliminating fault. A dog with an untypical expression, a woolly thick coat, etc... may be a spectacular animal to some but it is certainly not an Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier".
It's up to us to think and know what we want. To buy a dog breed or to buy a breed name ? Because to love a breed, it means to love it the way it is and not to want to change it. It's to be able to appreciate it in its true type. The one registered by the breed standard and established by the country of origin, Ireland for the Wheaten Terriers.
Only Ireland is the owner of the breed and its standard. It is legitimate that Ireland wants to protect it and to keep it true to type. We love our genuine Wheatens, help us to protect them. Thanks.
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