A small- to medium-sized American dog breed, rat terriers were traditionally used on farms and for hunting.
They have a smooth and shiny coat and a compact build. They stand just a little over a foot tall and weigh up to 25 pounds.
Their short, smooth coat comes in a variety of pied colors (white with large splotches of color), including tri-colored, spotted, red and white, blue and white, and black and tan.
One thing that stands out with this breed is that rat terriers not only like to bark, but they’ll also “talk” using a “ra-ra-ra” to get attention.
The rat terrier was developed as a working dog to hunt and catch pests, such as rats, on farms. The breed descends from other terrier breeds, including the fox terrier
In the 1910s and 1920s, new traits were introduced — for example, Midwestern farmers needed to control jackrabbit populations, so dogs were crossbred with whippets and Italian Greyhounds.
Rat terriers are so intelligent that they’re often used as police contraband search dogs, and they can be trained in as few as three weeks.