Norfolk Terrier Profile

history

The Norfolk was originally bred to hunt and kill vermin in barns. Both the Norfolk, and the Norwich Terrier, were once both called Norwich Terriers, distinguished only by their ears--the Norwich's pricked ones and the Norfolk's dropped ones.

The breed that would later come to be the Norfolk was developed in near the towns of Norfolk and Norwich in England in the early 1800s as a general farm dog and hunter. Many believe it was developed by crossing Border Terriers, Cairn Terriers, and Irish Terriers.

In the late 19th century, the reputation of the small terriers as ratters grew. Students at Cambridge University brought some to help with their rat problems and the little dogs became known first as Cantab Terriers, and later as Trumpington Terriers.

One of the early breeders of Norfolk/Norwich terriers was Jodrell Hopkins, a Cambridge student who had a livery stable on Trumpington Street after he graduated. Along with "Doggy" Lawrence, a Cambridge dog dealer, he bred and sold the lively little dogs to Cambridge students. At that time, most of the little terriers were red.

Several breeders began to refine the breed: Frank Jones, who was responsible for giving the breed the name of Norwich, and R.J. Read, one of the first exporters of the breed and the first president of the Norwich Terrier Club in England.

One of the dogs they used in their breeding program was a red dog named Rags, who belonged to Frank Jones' boss, Jack Cooke. Rags had been given to Cooke by Jodrell Hopkins, and he turned out to be a very dominant sire, siring red puppies like himself.

Around the same time, the son of a Norwich veterinarian, Lewis Low (nicknamed "Podge") acquired a smooth-coated, prick-ear white female who was reportedly a hunt terrier/Dandie Dinmont cross. Her owners brought her to Low's father to be destroyed, but Low liked her coat, long legs, erect ears, and what seemed to him to be an "old" expression, so he kept her and named her Ninety.

Ninety was bred to Rags, and several of the puppies were bought by Frank Jones. When Jones left his employment with Cooke, he took his terriers with him and continued to breed and sell the small red dogs.

He also sent some of them to America, calling them Jones Terriers until in 1904, when he was asked the name of the breed and impulsively answered, "Norwich Terriers." Jones and his employer at the time supplied many of the early breeders of Norwich Terriers with their foundation stock, both in England and America.

Over the next several years, many breeders worked to perfect the breed, sometimes trying crosses with different breeds. One of these breeders is R.J. Read, who became interested in the breed around 1908. He purchased a Rags daughter from Podge Low in 1909 and experimented with cross-breeding with other breeds, such as the Bedlington Terrier, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and the Irish Terrier.

By 1929, he had finally bred the dog that he was trying to produce. It was a small red terrier, no more than 10 pounds when mature, with a harsh red coat, dark eyes, short legs, and gamey personality. The dog's name was Horstead Mick, and his name appears in many of today's pedigrees. Mick was used a great deal as a stud and was the grandsire of one of the Norwich Terrier's first champions, a drop-ear female named Tinker Bell.

Another influential breeder is Phyllis Fagan, who acquired a red female named Brownie. Many of today's Norwich and Norfolk Terriers are descended from her dogs. She showed her dogs and they did quite well in the show ring, as well as in earth trials.

The breed was officially recognized in the 1930s in both the United States and Great Britain. Within the breed were dogs with prick ears and drop ears. Until this time, both prick-ear and drop-ear dogs were interbred because they were considered to be the same breed.

When the breed was recognized by the English Kennel Club, however, the ears became an issue. Read liked the prick ear and wanted the breed standard to insist that all dogs of this breed have this type of ear. Proponents of the drop-ear dogs insisted that standard include both. In the end, the advocates of the dropped ear won and the standard was written to include both.

For a few years, breeders continued to breed dogs with prick ears to those with drop ears, but then the ear carriage became erratic in both types and breeders decided on their own that this was not a good idea.

After World War II, breeders stopped interbreeding the two different types of dogs. In September 1964, England's Kennel Club allowed separation of the prick-eared and the drop-ear dogs, with prick-ear dogs remaining Norwich Terriers and the drop-ear named Norfolk Terriers.

In 1979, the Norfolk and Norwich Terriers were recognized as separate breeds by the American Kennel Club. Aside from the ears, the breed standards are very similar.

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