Welcome

Energetic, Affectionate, and Trainable

Rat Terriers are an energetic breed who are highly intelligent and deeply affectionate to their family. They exhibit high drives for prey and hunt. Despite the high energy they also have a “dimmer switch” that allows them to listen and learn. This differentiates them from similar breeds who can be a little over the top and a bit snappy. This along with their love of family explains their reputation for being good with children.

Rat Terriers are easily trainable for many disciplines. They excel in activities such as flyball, agility, barn hunt, lure coursing and racing. Their small size and extreme agility allow them to literally go anywhere. This along with their trainability has attracted the attention of law enforcement and emergency responders. Rat Terriers make fabulous detection or rubble dogs.

These little dogs are so intelligent that they understand conversational language and respond with a variety of barks, growls, and whistles. Their bond with their families are strong. They are great little alert dogs. No one will ever sneak up on your house with a Rat Terrier in residence. These guys are big dog brains in small dog bodies.

Sturdy and Long-lived

As a breed their overall health and sturdiness is excellent often with life spans into the late teens. Rat Terriers were developed from several dog breeds and types which accounts for their hybrid vigor. Most important was the popular farm dog of the middle 1900’s, the Fiest. The Fiest was not so much a breed as a type bred for varmint hunting and family companionship. This accounts for their athleticism and high energy level while being a wonderful house dog.

The rare major genetic health concern is Primary Lens Luxation (PLL), which is a autosomal recessive heritable trait. Breeding individuals should be tested for the trait or have two negative parents. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals also recommends testing for

• cardiac health
• hip health
• patella luxation
• Legg-Calve Perthes (hip disease)

Our puppies are negative by parentage of both PLL and patellar luxation genes and the parents have healthy hearts and hips on physical exam by a veterinarian.

Registrations

As you may know Rat Terrier’s are a fairly new breed to the American Kennel Club. They had been registered by the United Kennel Club for many years. Most of the younger dogs in the breed today will be double registered with both organizations and they can show and compete with both as well. We broke into the AKC show world with Korie with Joy Roth of Summerfield North Carolina as handler. Korie quickly accumulated enough points and major wins to earn her Champion title. Diego (K2’s Black Ice) is already a UKC Champion and an AKC Champion.

We are a small family kennel, located in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina. Our Rat Terriers are our show dogs, our performance dogs and our family. They live with us, travel with us and perform with us.

Dr. Robert Oglesby and Janette Oglesby have been involved with dog and puppy care and training for many years. Dr. Oglesby has been in veterinary practice for over 32 years, initially an equine practitioner, he owned Stokesdale Veterinary Hospital, a mixed animal practice for 20 years. He also maintains the successful website www.horseadvice.com. Janette has been practice manager, veterinary technician, kennel manager and owner/breeder of von Kaltwasser German Shepherd Dogs. (www.coldwater-german-shepherds.com) for around 17 years.

Our daughter Robin Oglesby participates in the family business as Coldwater Canine Academy, a professional companion and sport dog training enterprise and the handler/trainer for our upcoming young dogs.