GENERAL APPEARANCE
Shoulder height: Not to exceed 31cm (l2”).
Colour: White; or white with lemon, brown, blue or badger pied markings on the head and ears. Fault ticking. Coat: Outer coat - long, hard and wiry. Undercoat - water resistant and thick.
Gait: Brisk and vigorous with plenty of drive.
The general outline of these terriers is oblong rather than square, always giving the appearance of being a workmanlike strong dog carrying plenty of substance (weighing up to 9kg or 20lb). The slightly domed skull is wide at the backskull, and balanced in length with strong punishing jaws. The ears drop to the side of the cheeks. A long neck runs into a back, which is more flexible than the Scottish Terrier. The chest must be well let down between short, strong forelegs. The powerful hindquarters protrude beyond the root of the tail, and the thick feet face forwards. The docked tail is carried erect.
CHARACTERISTICS AND CARE
Agility is a hallmark of this breed. Bred for gameness and endurance in hunting badgers and foxes, in modern times, their value lies in them being an ideally sized domestic pet. When trained with a firm but kind hand, they become a perfect companion in the home. If choosing to exhibit the Sealyham in the showring, stripping the coat by hand will be required to look their best. Alternatively, owners can have neat looking dogs, by getting the local grooming parlour to clip him eyery two months or so.
HISTORY
Once known as Pembrokeshire Terriers, they take their modern name from Captain John Edwardes’ Sealyham estate in Wales. Perfected by Edwardes, as a breed suitable to work with his Otter Hounds, they needed to be small enough to go to ground and brave enough to take on polecats (a type of weasel). Edwardes evolved the breed from a blend of Welsh Corgi, West Highland White, white Bull Terriers and Dandie Dinmonts. Dogs who failed their tests of gameness, were discarded from his breeding programme. The result is a particularly smart, game little terrier.