American Hairless Terrier Dog Names

The American Hairless Terrier is a breed that was created in the United States directly from the Rat Terrier. The first American Hairless Terrier was born in 1972; it was a little female puppy in a litter of purebred Rat Terriers. The female puppy was born without hair and as she grew, it became obvious she would never develop hair. After several trips to various veterinarians, and no answers as to why she was hairless, her breeders Edwin and Willie Scott named her Josephine or Josey for short. The Scott’s gave Josey to a friend of theirs so they could monitor her as she grew and matured. As Josey grew, the Scott’s quickly realized that while she was a normal Rat Terrier with the exception of hair, she did have some special needs that had to be addressed. Because Josey lived in Louisiana, the summer sun was especially hard on her and she would sunburn easily. Therefore, Josey had to be slathered with sunscreen to keep her from burning when outside in the sun. While it is not overly cold in Louisiana, without hair Josey did get cold easily and had to have a warm coat on to keep from getting a chill.

As the Scott’s watched Josey mature they realized there were many good things about having a hairless Rat Terrier, such as being hypoallergenic and not having a doggy odor. They oversaw the breeding of Josey to a purebred Rat Terrier and then the resulting hairless puppies were held back to become the foundation of the American Hairless Terrier breed. Josey’s first litter produced four puppies and one of those puppies was hairless. The puppy was a female and she was named Gypsy. Gypsy was deemed too small to breed, was spayed and placed in a pet home with Scott’s friends. Josey was bred several more times but no more hairless puppies were produced. At age nine, Josey was bred one final time and in December of 1981, she produced four puppies. A hairless male and female were born.

It was always Scott’s intentions to have the hairless dogs be recognized as a separate breed from the Rat Terriers, but in 1999, the United Kennel Club (UKC) recognized the Rat Terrier as an official breed and the hairless dogs were allowed to be registered with the UKC as Rat Terriers. The breed did eventually separate from the Rat Terrier and all hairless dogs or dogs with an extremely fine coat were recognized in 2004 as American Hairless Terriers. The American Kennel Club (AKC) has accepted the American Hairless Terrier into its Foundation Stock Service (FSS). All American Hairless Terriers can have their pedigrees traced back to the early to mid-1970s right to Josey, that anomaly of a Rat Terrier born without hair.