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Rats Of The Past
Take a look at these fine Decker Rat Terriers. They resemble the best Rat Terriers of today Decker Strain of Rat Terriers. The Decker Rat Terrier was the first strain of Rat Terrier to breed true, generation after generation. Prior to that time Rat Terriers were bred without regard to physical size, color or temperament.
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| Milton Decker with Deckers Towser and Deckers Stella |
Ellis Decker and Molly Decker with Deckers Muggins |
Four Great Males |
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Henry |
Jolly |
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Muggins |
Towser |
Milton Decker of Alvarado, Oregon, started his breeding program with Henry, a classic black and white terrier that weighted 32 pounds. Henry was a great companion, intelligent and even tempered. Mr. Decker was interested in producing beautiful Rat Terriers that were more utilitarian in nature. That is consistently breeding dogs that had the traits of being good hunters and good companions. One important trait in his program was to lessen the hyper and temperamental issues found so often in the farm dogs that were interbred to frequently.
Mr. Decker worked with Kenny Keller perhaps of the first person to study and write on the Rat Terrier strain. Kenny introduced Decker to Mr. E. C. Allen who owned the Animal Research Foundation in Quinlan Texas. Decker and Allen worked together on the breeding program. At the time Mr. Allen had about 40 Rat Terriers and Henry was bred to the best. Their breeding program was conducted in a clock wise manner.
Eventually Allen and Decker purchased several Rat Terriers from a well known breeder in Arkansas by the name of Mr. Trilby McPahail. The dogs were bred into the Decker strain. Mr. Decker wrote me several letters regarding his breeding program. He wrote that he quite breeding the line after his children left home. The strain was in need of additional infusions from outside crosses. As Mr. Decker explained any strain of dog needs infusions of new blood about every five years. If not the dogs loose specific traits and one main trait is size. Mr. Decker sold his existing stock and went into breeding Appaloosa horses.
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