FALL 2021
Letter from our President
Dear Fellow Members,
It is hard to believe the AHTCA has existed since 2008. Time certainly flies. We have seen tremendous growth in our registry; however, it is up to the members to continue to make this registry grow. Being diligent about registering your dogs and your litters is an integral part of our registry. If you are currently looking for a hunt terrier, make sure you ask the litter owner for a current litter registration of your pup AT THE TIME OF PICKUP or before. That ensures you are getting your registration. Please send me names of owners who are not providing these for their new owners.
There are some beautiful hunt terriers being registered now which indicates we are traveling in the right direction. We must continually strive though to improve the breed where ever we can and continue to add new blood lines here in the US and from overseas. We cannot close our gene pool for quite a while, hence we are still accepting litter registration with a jack russell terrier from an approved registry when bred to a registered hunt terrier. That is, I feel, the downfall of many breeds. Too small a gene pool will only cause problems for the future.
When Wendy and I formed this registry, we had no idea chocolate hunt terriers existed. I think had we known this, we would have listed the chocolates as a color into the registry. The standard states that the pigment around the eye and muzzle of the hunt terrier should be black and when we did this, chocolates did not exist to our knowledge. I am open to welcoming the chocolates into our registry. Another new color is the blue gene which has been imported from Europe. This is an extremely rare gene, so the occurence of it here in the US is still quite rare. These can range from true blue to lilac. It does NOT include the merle gene. Merles are not allowed in our registry as well as brindles. The new bloodlines have something to offer in our country. Some breeders will prefer not to add the chocolate or blue gene to their lines and it is their own decision to make. Many times the dilute gene in dogs has proven to go hand in hand with deficiencies in dogs; however, this has not been the case with the hunt terrier as long as breeders are acting responsibly in their breeding program. Hilde Dekkers has researched this topic and has not found where it is detrimental to the breed. Again, it is a matter of choice for the breeder. If they choose to breed the chocolates or blues, that is allowed into our registry. If they do not, that is ok too. You must remember, too, that you can only produce chocolates or blues if the gene is in both parents. It will not show up if one parent is not a chocolate or blue gene carrier. The code for the blue gene is “d”. Two small “d’s” are needed to be the gene color. The code for the chocolate gene is “b”. Two “b’s” must be present for the chocolate and/or chocolate sable gene to be present.
On another note, as more hunt terriers are bred in the US, the hunt instinct appears to be stronger in these dogs than in the regular shortie jack russell terriers. My husband has trained quite a few as well as Jace Morgan and some others. It is a new venture for the hunt terriers and one that we welcome into our registry.
I want to welcome you to our world of hunt terriers and hope you will join us in the journey.
Sincerely,
Jana Crawford
President, AHTCA