american hairless terrier dog

American Hairless Terrier UK
dogs for allergy sufferers from Naked Heart Kennel

The American Hairless Terrier is unique in the dog world; what began as a chance miracle of nature has turned into the genetic basis for an entire breed.

Hairless Dogs
It is the only truly hairless dog. . .totally hair free. No other breed can make such a claim. Only during it's first weeks of life does it have hair. By 6 weeks old it has all gone.

Hairless Litters
The reason these dogs are hairless is due to a recessive hairless gene; a litter of puppies from dogs who both possess the gene will contain only hairless puppies. Again this is unique. Other breeds that exhibit varying degrees of hairlessness possess a different gene: a dominant hairless gene. Chinese Crested and Mexican Hairless are such examples; hairless parents from these breeds will produce a mixture of coated and hairless puppies.

How The Breed Evolved
Obviously a breed cannot evolve overnight. It took the Scotts around 25 years to develop the breed. A knowledge of genetics was the key; they conferred with geneticists to evaluate the possibility of stabilising and fixing the hairless trait into the breed. With time and patience they were successful.

Litter Predictions
To understand the likelihood of producing a hairless puppy we must first understand what building blocks we have.

Coated Carrier | A dog that has the recessive hairless gene but is not hairless itself.
Coated Clear | A dog that does not have the recessive hairless

25%
Hairless pups can be produced if both parents are coated carriers. Maybe 25% of the litter will be hairless.

Josephine the first American Hairless Terrier would have been the result of this type of breeding.

50%
If one parent is hairless and the other is a coated carrier then the percentage of hairless puppies goes up to 50%.

When Josephine was bred with her son they produced 2 hairless (Snoopy & Jemima) and 2 coated puppies.

100%
The 100% hairless litter comes when 2 hairless dogs are bred together.

When Snoopy & Jemima bred they produced an all hairless litter.

neo running

Genes | are the things that determine physical traits - how a dog looks - and lots of other stuff. They carry information that helps make a dog have curly or straight hair, long or short legs, even how they bark: all passed through generations and breeding.

Recessive | Every dog has two copies of every gene, one from mother and one from father. If a genetic trait is recessive, a dog only needs to inherit two copies of the gene for the trait to be expressed. Thus, both parents have to be carriers of a recessive trait in order for a dog to express that trait. If both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance with each dog to show the recessive trait.

Dominant | Every dog has two copies of every gene, one from mother and one from father. If a genetic trait is dominant, a dog only needs to inherit one copy of the gene for the trait to be expressed. Dominant traits have a 50% chance to pass from parent to puppy.

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