Essentially the Sporting Lucas Terrier is a true hunting tyke, a working terrier a dog of the earth. A dog capable of going to ground even in these post-ban times and through exempted hunting work a game bird killing fox. The animal needs to fulfill the very basic requisites we should enjoy in all working terriers namely a good coat, a correct basic size, a decent level of fitness, a desire to work and to be termed a breed or type then certainly it needs to level out, does the modern SLT fit those very basic qualities? Well some do……. come on now lets be really honest a good 75% don’t. That many hey? Well yes thats if the recent SLTC show I was asked to judge is anything to go by?  Then again thats just one show, is it overall representative of the state of play within the “type” and I do use that term extremely loosely?  Too many dogs I saw at Hanslope near Milton Keynes were anything  but typey!!! Two years ago I watched Colonel David Hancock judge the SLT in Rugby Warwickshire. I was genuinely impressed with some of the dogs as I do think there is a very valid place for this Sealyham splinter type within our working terriers, I cannot believe that those two years have seen such a decline within the type. What has caused that? I personally believe several factors have been instrumental and I shall explain those now.  The first is… Continue reading this article.

Since the Sporting Lucas Terrier Club formed in mid 1999 approximately 300 SLTs have been registered with us. Whilst this is a tremendous achievement, bearing in mind that we started with only 35, and a number of these were well below breeding age. However, this figure would be higher if all litters bred had been registered. Although the club cannot force anyone to register their litters the importance of doing so cannot be stressed too highly. Not only will any progeny of unregistered dogs be ineligible for registration but entire breeding lines could be lost to us forever. With the already limited gene pool available to us this would be a tragedy. Bearing in mind this small gene pool, and the small number of SLTs around at the moment, every litter is important if we are to safeguard the future of the breed. Careful thought should go into not only registering the litter but a number of things prior to deciding to breed it in the first place: Why do you want to breed a litter? If it is for financial gain then forget it. Firstly it is the WRONG reason to breed any litter and secondly it just won’t happen. With stud fees, vet bills, feeding a hungry litter, etc you will never become rich and may not even break even after selling the pups. I know only too well myself. Do you have the time, space and patience to look after the bitch and her litter especially if… Continue reading this article.