Fox Terrier Best Hunter Dogs Grooming and Rescue

The Fox Terrier comes in two varieties. Both varieties of this one Fox Terrier breed developed in England to hunt fox. They were first written about in the 18th century as able hunters that could "gallop and stay and follow their fox up a drain." To put this in lay terms, it means the Fox Terrier could keep up with the hounds and horse while it had a fox on the run. It then (because of its body size) could follow the fox into a hole to chase it out for the hunter. Both the smooth and wire varieties of this breed have been in the show ring in the United States for over 100 years. Because of their history as a hunting dog, Fox Terriers were shown in the sporting breed group. They were recently placed with the terrier group.

Fox Terrier

Like most teams, American Fox Terrier Rescue‘s (AFTR) volunteers are fam-ily in many re-spects. We share a love of all Foxies (not just our own) and a joy in being part of the miracle of rescue. Each volunteer no matter what his or her role is part of the continuum of rescue: finding a dog on Petfinder or Craigslist, or after being contacted by an owner; getting a dog out of a shelter before the last day‖; transporting a dog to a foster home; loving a fos-ter Foxie like you love your own; successfully rehabili-tating a dog with medical needs; watching with de-light a Foxie play some-times for the first time; the thrill of handing a leash over to a new owner (even when you have tears in your own eyes); and the joy of hearing from our adopt-ers over the entire life a Foxie, telling us about their happy times and then the ultimate sor-row. It all starts with a Foxie in need and a volunteer that says I‘ll help.

The goal of every AFTR volunteer is to find high-quality, forever permanent homes for Fox Terriers. It takes love and skill to do that as placing a dog into the  right‖ forever home is as much of an art as it is a science think of it as matchmaking for Foxies. When people hear that I volunteer for American Fox Terrier Rescue, they think it‘s all about sad dogs and tails‖ of woe. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you look at the photos of dogs, AFTR volunteers, and for-ever families, you always see the smiles and the joy and that‘s what moti-vates our volunteers. We are about wagging tails and happy endings. We love Foxies with our whole hearts.

Toby wasn‘t very different from many of the Fox Terriers who come to AFTR: He had health issues, was coming from a sad circumstance and lacked that bouncy Fox Terrier tude. The difference between the Toby we first saw and the Toby adopted by Scott shows the impact of what our volunteers and a loving home can do. The photograph below of Toby, when he first left is owner‘s apartment, shows a dog with obvious health prob-lems and without proper grooming.

Fox Terrier

Besides badly infected eyes and respiratory infections, Toby was signifi-cantly under-weight, had a severe cough, and had mild seizure activity prompting concerns of epi-lepsy … or worse. What his photograph couldn‘t show was that Toby‘s owner had died sud-denly, and there was no one there to help immediately. Circumstances then forced Toby to spend days in the apartment with his deceased owner, and he was found in a fearful and traumatized condition. How horrific for this loving little dog to suddenly be so very, very alone. Even the brav est of Fox Terriers would have been scared.

Having survived near starvation, in-fections, and the aftereffects of ne-glect (his elderly owner was unable to care for him properly), Toby was placed in a loving AFTR foster home. His foster Mom, Lisa, advocated for his health. She ensured that he had quality food and clean water, exer-cise, play time, and plenty of love. During his rehabilitation, Lisa made a wonderful video showing his gentle soul and happy nature. It took some time for him to heal physically and emotionally, how-ever, Toby‘s health and appearance dramatically im-proved. He started to look and act like a Foxie a bit of attitude, a lot of playfulness, and a whole lot of loving.

Fox Terrier

When it was time to find him a for-ever home, Lisa, once again, took the lead. She carefully reviewed applica-tions and interviewed prospective families to find Toby a forever home where he would be loved. Today, Ivan (once Toby), is a happy dog with a tail that vibrates like a humming-bird. He lives with his dad, Scott, in a NYC dog-friendly building and walks to work every day, where he spends his time snooz-ing on the sofa and being petted by clients.

For the Fox Terrier I recommend foods that contain beef, horse meat, and grains of oats, wheat, and yellow corn. However, I also recommend you avoid feeding a Fox Terrier any ocean variety of fish, soy, or white rice. Native food supplies for both varieties of this breed would have been the grain crops of England; those that would grow in the rocky soil in a damp climate, and meats from the fox, badger and other borough land game they hunted.