The English white terrier (also known as the English white terrier or Old English terrier) is an extinct dog breed of dog. The English White terrier is the failed show ring name of a pricked-ear version of the white fox-working terriers that have existed in the U.K. since the late 18th Century. The name “English white terrier” was invented and embraced in the early 1860s by a handful of breeders anxious to create a new breed from a prick-eared version of the small white working terriers that were later developed into the Fox Terrier, the Jack Russell Terrier, the Sealyham Terrier and later in America – the Boston Terrier and the Rat Terrier. In the end, however, the Kennel Club hierarchy decided the “English white terrier” was a distinction without a difference, while the dog’s genetic problems made it unpopular with the public. Within 30 years of appearing on the Kennel Club scene, the English white terrier had slipped into extinction. It was, however, crossbred with the English Bulldog giving rise to the Boston Terrier and Bull Terrier.
