Show vs. Working Size

The border terriers in the table below are from Walter J. F. Gardner's excellent book About the Border Terrier.

On page 30 Gardner notes that:

"Borders in those earlier days were somewhat different from the current show version. The earlier Border, who was bred for work rather than exhibition, was certainly smaller than many borders we see winning today, who can reach 16-18" at the withers and weigh 20-24 pounds. Ivo Roister, for instance, Mr. T. Hamilton Adams' famous Border is recorded to have weighed 14.5 pounds and to stand 12.5 inches at the withers. Jacob Robson's Flint weighted 12 pounds."

At the back of his book, Gardner gives the measurements of 29 winning show ring Border Terriers, the heights of which are recorded below.

Of the 29 Border Terriers measured, 12 had chests larger than 18 inches, 13 had chests that were 17-18 inches in size, 3 had chests that were 16-17 inches in size, and one had a chest that was 15.5 inches in size. Only the last 3 dogs -- the two with 16-inch chests and the one dog with a 15.5-inch chest -- were of a size small enough to follow a regular-sized vixen into a tight earth.

The dogs to the right in the table below are the first 29 dogs that worked red fox in the large table of working terriers to be found at www.terrierman.com/table2.htm Since this is an alphabetical list, and it includes American terriers of all breeds and registrations, the selection below is more or less representational of the size of fox-working terriers in the U.S.

Walter Gardner's Winning Show Ring Border Terriers Heights in inches	Dogs That Have Worked Red Fox (most are Jack Russells) Heights in inches
14	12.75
13	13
15	12.75
14.75	11.75
14.7	12.75
14.5	12.5
14	13.5
15	12.5
14	13
15	11.75
15.25	13
14	13.5
13.5	12
14.5	12.75
14	12.25
14.5	12
14.5	13.5
15	13.5
14.5	12.75
16	11.75
14	12.5
15	12.5
14	12
14.5	13
14	14
14.5	11.5
14	11.75
13.75	12.75
12.5	11.5
14.3	13.5
Average Height = 14.34	Average Height = 12.61

A 15" Border Terrier with a chest of 19 inches and an 11 inch Jack Russell with a chest of 13 inches.

This Border is a tough pull dog, but too large to easily go to earth. He is, however, a real demon at go-to-ground trials. When out hunting, these two terriers make a nice team, each with his or her own job.