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Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier breeders

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is a medium-sized terrier from Ireland whose name describes its two defining features: a soft, silky coat and a wheaten colour.

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Advertise your Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier puppies, litters and stud dogs

Breeding Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers? People searching for this vulnerable native breed often find very few litters advertised. Add your kennel to caninebreeder.co.uk to advertise Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier puppies for sale, announce planned litters and offer a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier stud dog. Set out the kidney, eye, hip and DNA results you hold for your dogs, and describe your coat type and how you rear your puppies, so buyers can see the care behind each litter. List your kennel.

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In England you need a dog breeding licence from your council if you breed three or more litters in 12 months or breed and sell dogs as a business, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes. Licensed breeders show their licence number and issuing council on every advert. Puppies must be at least eight weeks old before they go to new homes.

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About the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is a medium-sized terrier from Ireland whose name describes its two defining features: a soft, silky coat and a wheaten colour. The Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of Great Britain traces the breed back at least 200 years on Irish farms, where it was an all-purpose dog that kept down vermin, helped with cattle and went out shooting. The RKC adds that it was used on badger and otter, and that it may be an ancestor of the Irish Terrier and the Kerry Blue. The Irish Kennel Club recognised it in 1937 and The Kennel Club followed in 1943. It is now one of the RKC's vulnerable native breeds, with registrations falling from 326 in 2016 to 92 in 2025.

The breed standard asks for a compact, upstanding, well-balanced terrier that is not exaggerated in any way. Dogs stand about 46 to 49 cm at the withers and weigh roughly 16 to 20.5 kg, with bitches a little smaller. The coat falls in loose waves or large, light curls in any shade of ripening wheat. Puppies are often darker, and the standard allows until about 18 to 24 months for the colour to clear.

The RKC lists daily grooming, no shedding, up to an hour of exercise a day and a lifespan of over 12 years, and says the breed suits town or country and a small house with a small to medium garden. The club explains that because the coat does not moult, dead hair must be combed out to stop mats forming, and that daily grooming is essential while the puppy coat changes to the adult coat. Owners either learn to trim the coat themselves or use a professional groomer.

The standard describes a good-tempered, spirited and game dog, full of confidence, affectionate and intelligent. The club describes Wheatens as lively and people-focused, with enthusiastic greetings that include jumping up, so early training matters. They usually bark to announce strangers and tend to be less scrappy than many terriers, but some keep a strong hunting instinct and may chase cats, poultry or livestock that are not part of the household. The club advises that the breed is not suited to owners who are out all day.

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier health tests

The RKC lists prioritising genetic diversity as Good Practice for the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, and two Best Practice schemes: the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme and the BVA/KC Hip Dysplasia Scheme. It has no breed-specific DNA package and no additional breeding restrictions, and the breed is in Breed Watch Category 1, with no breed-specific concerns flagged for show judges.

The RKC also points to a breed club health scheme. The Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of GB highlights renal dysplasia (RD), protein-losing nephropathy (PLN), protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) and degenerative myelopathy (DM), and explains the eye condition microphthalmia. RD and PLE have no DNA test. The club asks breeders to run blood and urine tests on both parents in the 12 months before a mating, strongly recommends DNA tests for the PLN-associated variant, DM and the RBP4 mutation linked to microphthalmia, and advises hip scoring and annual eye testing of breeding stock. It also recommends a kidney function check for each puppy at about seven to eight weeks, by blood test or scan, and an eye test for retinal folds at about six to eight weeks. The club advises yearly blood and urine checks for adult Wheatens as well.

  • Prioritising genetic diversity (RKC Good Practice)
  • BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme (RKC Best Practice)
  • BVA/KC Hip Dysplasia Scheme (RKC Best Practice)
  • Blood tests and urinalysis within 12 months before mating (breed club)
  • DNA tests: PLN-associated variant, degenerative myelopathy (DM), microphthalmia (RBP4) (breed club)
  • Puppy kidney blood test or scan at 7 to 8 weeks and eye test at 6 to 8 weeks (breed club)
  • Breed Watch: Category 1

Choosing a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier breeder

With only 92 Wheatens registered with the RKC in 2025, you may need to wait for a litter. The breed club suggests looking for a responsible breeder, ideally a club member who follows its code of ethics, who has health tested both parents, raises the litter indoors where the puppies hear everyday household noise, and wants to know about your family and routine before offering you a puppy. Expect to be able to visit from about three to four weeks, to see the puppies with their mother, and to be told plainly about the grooming commitment and the breed's terrier side. The club's code of ethics asks members not to mate a bitch before she is two, and to give new owners a diet sheet, health test results and a five-generation pedigree. It warns against sellers who cannot show you the mother, know little about health testing or coat types, or offer to hand a puppy over in a car park.

  • Have both parents had blood and urine tests in the last 12 months, and may I see the results?
  • What are the parents' hip scores, and do they have current eye certificates?
  • What were the parents' DNA results for PLN, DM and RBP4?
  • Will the puppies have a kidney function test or scan and an eye test before they leave you?
  • What coat type do the parents have, and will you show me how to groom a Wheaten?

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier questions

Do Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers shed?

The RKC lists the breed as non-shedding, and the breed club says the coat does not moult. That does not make it low-maintenance: dead hair stays in the coat and must be combed out, and the RKC suggests grooming every day, otherwise the coat mats. The club's grooming guide also covers trimming, tidying the ear flaps and removing excess hair from the ear canals.

Why is the Wheaten a vulnerable native breed?

The RKC classes British and Irish breeds with fewer than 300 registrations a year as vulnerable. Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier registrations fell from 326 in 2016 to 92 in 2025, according to the RKC's vulnerable native breeds table.

Are Wheatens good with other pets?

The breed club says most Wheatens are friendly with other dogs, although some can be guarded, and that they can live peacefully with the family cat. Some keep a strong hunting instinct, though, and may chase neighbours' cats, chickens or livestock, so training and supervision matter.

Why does a Wheaten puppy look so different from an adult?

The breed standard notes that puppies often carry darker colour and markings that should clear by about 18 to 24 months, and that coat colour and texture take around two years to settle. The club adds that the puppy coat starts changing at around seven months and the change can take until two to three years of age, and that UK Wheatens may have either the original Irish coat or the heavier coat that became popular here from the late 1950s.

More for Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier owners and breeders

Official sources