The Perfect Stunning
Family Companion

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.​

 

Hooper bred Judge to a small white female named Burnett’s Gyp, owned by Edward Burnett, of Southboro, Massachusetts.  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.

 

In honor of the city where these happy-go-lucky dogs were so painstakingly developed, the breed name became 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.​

 

Source: AKC Boston Terrier Breed Information