Alice White
The Kerry Blue Terrier is a temperamental bearded man with hipster bangs, who brings confusion and chaos to any dog pack but radiates endless good nature in the company of the owner. To make friends with a shaggy “Irishman”, no superpowers are required – representatives of this breed are loyal to any person with whom they have to share territory. However, if this is your first time visiting a Kerry Blue Terrier, precautions will not hurt – dogs are reserved and cold in communication with strangers and do not try to disguise suspicion of strangers.
#1 The Kerry Blue Terrier is a dog with an impressive, but not very intelligible history.
Experts still cannot establish the real ancestors of animals and are limited to unconfirmed guesses about the degree of relationship between Kerry Blue Terriers and other breeds. For example, it is generally accepted that the first bearded dogs were born from the mating of Irish wolfhounds with black and tan English terriers, which were later replaced by Bedlingtons and Wheaten Terriers. At the same time, the Irish, greedy for legends and sensations, continue to believe that the progenitor of the breed was a blue Portuguese water dog, who escaped from a sinking Spanish ship and was picked up by the farmers of the Emerald Isle.
#2 In the 19th century, the possession of a Kerry Blue Terrier was a must for Irish peasants.
However, the practical villagers did not want to keep the animals "for their beautiful eyes", so the four-legged pets were forced to do any work they could - catching water rats, grazing flocks of sheep, guarding the owner's property. The Kerry Blue Terriers began to master breed exhibitions at the very end of the 19th century. Along the way, the dogs were involved in field trials, in which they achieved good results. As a result, it got to the point that the dog, which did not show its success in catching and feeding the animal at the exhibition, could not claim the champion title. But enterprising breeders got their bearings here as well, beginning to deliberately cultivate malice in their wards, for which the Kerry Blue Terrier received the nickname "blue devils".
#3 In the 1920s, Kerry Blue Terriers were standardized, and their owners began to unite in clubs.
In 1922, the "Irish" were registered in England, and two years later the American Kennel Club followed the same procedure. The breed penetrated into the USSR in the 60s. Basically, these were individuals from Germany, which periodically flashed at all-Union exhibitions and even brought offspring. As for the formation and development of Russian carry lines, it is customary to call the Soviet pedigree specialist A.I. Kozlovsky the pioneer. On his initiative, the first collective kennel of the Irish Hippie breed was created in the USSR, from which several generations of healthy, spectacular outwardly, and mentally stable champions emerged.
