The Cairn Terrier Coat; History and Myths



A Deep Dive Into Correct Cairn Coats

  • INTRODUCTION: There exists a great deal of material which proves out that the cairn terrier was and remains the “original” terrier type of Scotland. The breeds registered as Scottish terrier and West Highland White terrier were both developed by selective breeding from the original cairn stock. The Skye terrier was developed from the crossing of cairn types with a Maltese type dog brought to the island of Skye through a shipwreck.
  • There are records of established kennels of cairn terriers reaching back to the mid 1700’s. The name “cairn terrier” was selected by the English Kennel Club in 1911 due to “dog politics” and bad feelings caused by many cairn fanciers calling their breed “short-haired Skye terriers”. Both cairns and Skyes were populus on Skye, both were somewhat long in body, but there the similarity stopped. Due to its crossbreeding with a long-haired foreign breed, the Skye had a long, silky coat, often had drop ears, and was bred for excessive length of back. It quickly lost the look of Skye’s indigenous terriers.
  • I would think that current fanciers would be proud of the cairn’s claim to antiquity and would strive to retain its original form. Alas, once a breed is drawn into kennel club registration and the show ring, the dogs are quickly changed by fads, fancies and the inevitable “more is better” mind set of judges and breeders alike.
  • Cairns did escape show-ring fads for a few decades; longer than most other breeds. As Edward Ash states in his book on the breed, “…as a show dog it has the advantage of being remarkably easy to show, as it is shown ‘in the rough’ and so does not need much preliminary preparation.” This book was written right after WW2 and illustrates that fanciers were proud of their cairn’s history as the rough and tumble working terrier of Scotland – and not a pampered show specimen. How sad that today this attitude is completely gone – and with it the “care-free” coat the breed had as a birthright.
  • In the show ring “more is better”, unfortunately. This is why today you see setters and Dobermans with their hind legs so over angulated and their necks so thin and long as to be ludicrous. Many breeds with proud working histories now have coats so long, soft and not weather resistant they are incapable of their jobs. Why? Because long coats can be sculpted by careful grooming to hide physical faults. Many people feel a long, flowing coat adds “beauty” to a dog without caring that it ruins utility. A dog show is a beauty show – and that is all. There is no judging for merit of intelligence, soundness or utility. Which is why those interested in working dogs have nothing to do with the conformation show ring.
  • Cairns survived as a “natural coated” dog up until the 1970s. After that heavy grooming, trimming, plucking and stripping became the norm. As soon as a judge, not familiar with the breed put up the “well groomed” cairn instead of the “tidied” cairn, the fight was over and the cairn became just another breed with too much coat and too much grooming.
  • When you look at these pictures of early winners of the breed you are seeing “natural” cairns as they are meant to be. This was definitely a breed where stripping was a no-no. (Stripping or plucking is the process of pulling a dog’s longer, outer coat out by the roots allowing it to grow back in so that the dog can be shown when the hair is the correct length before it grows out to a faulty length). These natural cairns had what the standard calls for “hard hair on the legs”, something you find on very few show ring cairns today. Note also the short hair on ears – today not a cairn enters the ring that doesn’t have long, soft hair clipped or pulled off its ears. Tail hair is trimmed to remove feathering. All these are things you will notice that early cairn champions had by nature – not be grooming.
  • Today’s cairn show breeders start “rolling” their puppy’s coats as early as 12 weeks. Rolling means pulling the long, soft hair out bit by bit over the entire body. Those old hard-bitten Scottish crofters and hunters are rolling over in their graves to see their hunting terriers turned into “powder puffs”. They bred correct coats – they didn’t correct coats by grooming.
  • I hope more cairn terrier breeders will join me in trying to reestablish the correct, original coat for our breed. It is difficult – the genetics are complicated and no, they won’t win in today’s show ring no matter how good the dog. But I believe our breed has the right to stand out as the original, proto-terrier of Scotland, perhaps the entire United Kingdom, with original coat and character.
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