Boston Terrier

The popularity of blood sports in 19th-century England led to a mania for crossing terriers and bull-type breeds to produce dogs who could excel at pit fighting and ratting contests. In Liverpool, sometime in the late 1860s, a cross between a Bulldog and the now-extinct white English Terrier resulted in a tough, muscular dog named Judge. Judge's owner sold him to an American named William O'Brien, who brought his new dog home to Boston. In 1870, O'Brien sold Judge to a fellow Bostonian, Robert C. Hooper. Judge, from then on known in breed histories as 'Hooper's Judge,' became the patriarch of the Boston Terrier breed and the common ancestor of almost all true Bostons. A breed historian describes Judge as a 'strongly built, high stationed dog of about thirty-two pounds weight. In color he was a dark brindle, with a white stripe in the face. His head was square and blocky, and he resembled the present Boston Terrier in that he had a nearly even mouth.' Hooper bred Judge to a small white female named Burnett's Gyp, owned by Edward Burnett, of Southboro, Massachusetts. And, in the genealogy so familiar to Boston Terrier fanciers, Judge and Gyp begot Well's Eph, who begot Tobin's Kate, and on through the seminal generations of the Boston's U.S. history. During the breed's formative decades, selective breeding transformed the bulky fighter of Judge's time into a smaller, sweeter, and more attractive companion dog, originally called the Round Head by its partisans. In honor of the city where these happy-go-lucky dogs were so painstakingly developed, the breed name was changed to Boston Terrier. The Boston Terrier Club of America was formed in 1891, and two years later the AKC registered its first dog of the breed. To this day, Boston Terriers are a point of hometown pride. The Boston Terrier has been the official mascot of Boston University for nearly 100 years, and in 1979 the state legislature named the 'American Gentleman' the official dog of Massachusetts.