Skye terrier

Skye terrier is a medium-sized, low-legged dog with an elongated body. It has a long, hard coat and a dense woolly undercoat. Although it looks funny, like a hairy sausage with large, standing ears, it is a smart, dominant animal that likes to engage in fights with other dogs. It is not overly mobile. A typical dog of one master, distrustful of strangers, an excellent guardian.

Nature

It is impossible to react indifferently to the sight of this dog. Some will seduce with appearance and elegance, others will amuse. According to the pattern, his body is twice as long as the dog’s height at the withers, he is covered with elegant long hair, and the image is complemented by large, standing, luxuriant hairy ears. However, the brave terrier’s heart beats the brave heart of a determined character.

Skye terriers are very attached to the owner. At home, they are calm, but they bark when someone turns around the door. A typical feature of skye terriers is distrust of strangers. This does not mean that they are aggressive, but they keep their distance and do not scared of every person they meet.

If the stranger wants to pet Skye during the first meeting, he will move away. There are exceptions to this rule, however, because some dogs of this breed have friendship all over the world

When it comes to relationships with other animals, males don’t always get along well with same-sex kinsmen, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep several males at home. They can form relationships and coexist peacefully. When it comes to attitude towards cats, Skye chases cats outside, but he can get along with domestic purrs.

Skills

Today, skye terriers are primarily show and companion dogs, but abroad some still arrange them for hunting.

Skye terrier. Training and education

As terriers quite independent and endowed with a strong character skye are not very easy to lay. Positive motivation and consistency are the keys to success, but you can’t expect absolute obedience in every situation.

Who is this race for?

Skye Terrier is not suitable for the elderly, because it is a strong and not so small dog, and sometimes you have to wear it, or for pedants who like perfect cleanliness at home. In addition, it will be great in every home.

Skye terrier. Advantages and disadvantages

Disadvantages

• sometimes independent and stubborn
• distrustful of strangers
• conflict with other dogs
• requires systematic care
• he brings a lot of dirt on a long coat

Advantages

• very attached to the owner
• good watchman
• friendly towards children

Health

Skye terriers usually enjoy good health, although sometimes angina torments them, especially when they get wet and freeze. In old age, unfortunately, internal organ cancers are quite common.

When it comes to genetic diseases, you should be aware of kidney dysplasia, which can be detected during ultrasound by a specialized veterinarian. There is also a liver disease of unknown origin specific to this breed that resembles Wilson’s disease. 

Hypersensitivity to ivermectin is also possible, but in this breed, the gene was not recognized (it is a different gene than the one associated with this hypersensitivity, e.g. in collies). In addition, premature closure of growth plates and dislocation of the patella occurs.

Feeding

Skye terrier is not demanding in terms of nutrition. You can feed him with ready-made food of good quality or self-prepared food.

Care

Skye terrier care does not require as much work as it might seem at first glance. It is enough to bathe him in a good shampoo once a month, apply conditioner and comb the hair after partial drying. Combing completely dry hair is absolutely inadvisable, because it can be pulled out a lot. The coat must be sprayed with water or a special combing agent.

You need to remove sticks, leaves, turnips and other gifts of nature on a regular basis, because smelt can form around them. It is usually easier to keep a coat of light-colored dogs because it is harder.

Skye terrier. History

Skye Terrier is considered the oldest Scottish Terrier breed. Its origins date back to the fourteenth century. The name comes from the largest in the Inner Hebrides of the Isle of Skye located on the northwest coast of Scotland. Terriers originating from there were considered in Great Britain to be the best for hunting and exterminating pests. The history of the beginnings of the breed is preserved only in oral communications.

Legend has it that the skye are descendants of local terriers and survivors from a crashed Spanish ship that was part of Armada, which, fleeing in 1588 from the English, crashed on the rocks off the coast of Scotland. These dogs were to pass on the gene for long, silky hair. It is true that some ships met with such a fate, and some shipwrecks settled on the surrounding islands. However, it does not seem that many dogs were kept on warships.

The presence of terriers on the Isle of Skye is confirmed by documents from before 1588. Mention is made of the Mokstadt, Drynoch or Camusunary terriers, whose names come from the estates where they were kept. Dogs from Drynoch gave birth to cairn terriers and considered as excellent utility quadrupeds waterish terriers had their share in the creation of cairn terriers and Australian terriers. Some of them looked like working skye terriers.

In the nineteenth century, we come across the mention of skye terriers in the newspaper “Highlander”. Skye Terrier breeding was led at Armadale Castle on the Isle of Skye by a representative of one of Lady MacDonald’s two powerful Scottish families. Several skye terriers belonged to the Scottish painter Horatio McCulloch, whose wife was from the Isle of Skye.

Although most skye terriers have upright ears, there is also a variation of the fold. Before the era of exhibitions in the second half of the nineteenth century, most of the skyes had covered ears and it lasted around the end of the nineteenth century. However, exhibitors preferred standing ears. As a result, the fold type has become much rarer, although such ears are not a defect, and are now returning to favor. Today, this variety is relatively the most popular in Australia. S

The breed is most popular in Finland. Also in the United States, she has a large group of fans gathered in her club. In the country of origin, she was entered on the list of breeds threatened with extinction. 

Skye terrier. Template

Skye terrier – group III FCI, section 2, reference number 75

• Country: Great Britain
• Character: one master’s dog, keeps distance from strangers, endowed with a strong character, can be stubborn, males can get into a fight with other
  males
• Size: 25-26 cm ideal height
• Weight: 12-18 kg
• Coat: long, two-layer; short and woolly undercoat; the coat is hard, straight and close, it should not be so long as to disturb the dog’s movement; shorter and softer coat
• Color: black, light or dark gray, fawn, cream – ears and muzzle always black
• Lifespan: 12-14 years
• Vulnerability to training: average
• Activity: moderate
• Resistance/susceptibility to diseases: generally resistant, but there is angina, and for genetic diseases, renal dysplasia, race-specific liver disease and patellar dislocation; there is also hypersensitivity to ivermectin with a different cause than a collie
• Possibility to buy a puppy: you usually have to wait for a puppy, because the breeding of this breed is scarce

Interesting facts

Legend has it that the dog Maria Stuart, who died of grief a few days after she was beheaded, is a skye terrier.

The most famous representative of the breed is Greyfriars Bobby, or Bobik from the Franciscans. The dog was born in 1856, and its owner was John Gray, a policeman from Edinburgh, who died of tuberculosis in 1858. He was buried in the cemetery at the Franciscan church, and the dog watched his grave for several years.

Bobby would look after, among others family of Trail restaurateurs. He spent nights at their old age and died there at the age of 16. He was buried at the cemetery gate, near the grave of its owner.

In Edinburgh there is a monument and a memorial plaque dedicated to the faithful dog. Bobby’s story was described by Eleanor Atkinson in the best-seller “Greyfriars Bobby”. In 1960, Walt Disney made a film based on it.