Texas Terrier History

The Texas Terrier began its evolution in the late 1960s by an accidental mating of a registered Treeing Walker gyp that was left at home and a neighbor’s fence- jumping Schnauzer.

We were using a particularly gritty breed of Fox Terrier for trap line dogs to help hunt and trap in the Big Bend area of Texas, primarily for livestock killers, from raccoon to bobcats to mountain lions. The problem with the Fox Terriers was that they were too thin-haired and too small boned to handle the rough country and rougher varmint, so when these Treeing Walker/Schnauzer cross pups matured. I hunted with them and crossed the Fox Terrier over. This gave me a heavier muscled and boned dog. I then crossed a Patterdale Terrier over that cross, which improved the grit but produced a smaller dog than I wanted. I bought two registered Welsh Terrier gyps and crossed a purebred American Staffordshire Terrier over them. This produced a heavier muscled and boned, yet small structured dog and increased the Terrier tenacity on game. When this was bred back into the earlier crosses, it produced the present Texas Terrier.

The resulting “get” is predominantly a black and tan colored dog with a wire coat. Some have short hair and other longer hair that resembles a miniature Airedale. They are approximately 15 inches at the shoulder and weigh 20 to 30 pounds.

This calm, loving pet can go to the field and sit calmly with a hunter, then perform as a blood trail dog as well as a hound. They hunt snake dens, work as farm dogs by day and coon dogs by night. They work in packs on wild hogs better than large dogs.