What is a Boston Terrier?

SMALL body, LARGE personality

The Boston Terrier is a small to medium, short coated, compact, well balanced dog, with a square head, erect ears and a short tail (the tail is not docked).

The colour varies from bright brindle to black with distinctive white markings.

Bostons range from 5 to 11 kilos (12 to 25 pounds) and stand 25 to 36 cm (10 inches to 14 inches) at shoulder.

Further reading

• Boston Terrier entry on wikipedia
• Boston Terrier breed standard (from Dogs NZ)
• Photos of Boston Terriers at flickr.com
• Historic eBook, "The Boston Terrier and all about it" c1910 from Project Gutenberg (it even contains a reference to New Zealand in the first paragraph)
• Boston Terrier breed information at Animal World
• Boston Terrier video at Animal Planet

The Boston Terrier is the perfect pet. He is small and clean enough to live comfortably in an apartment or happy to have 10 acres he can call his own. He is a house dog and cannot be considered at any time to be a dog that lives in a kennel at end of garden. He is highly intelligent and full of fun. He will share what ever the family does whether it be a long walk over the hills or just curling up in front of fire. Boston Terriers are enthusiastic about life and can be excitable, though affectionate and good humoured so are best with owners that don’t mind being bounced on and licked a lot.

They can be stubborn if they see no point in what you are asking of them. They can be a little slow with house training but get there with patience. They can snore and snuffle. Care must be taken with a Boston Terrier if temperatures are either very high or very low.

But generally once a Boston owner you will always be a Boston Owner.