Five terrier dog breeds that might be a good fit for people with allergies

Suffering from allergies can really make your life a misery, and if you love dogs but are allergic to them, it can be quite upsetting to think that you might never be able to own a dog of your own.

This is certainly true for some dog allergy sufferers, and if your allergic reactions to dogs are acute, serious and potentially even dangerous, the only sensible choice for you might really be avoiding dogs entirely.

That said, allergies affect different people very differently, and even how your own allergy affects you might change over the course of your lifetime too. If you’re lucky, it will ease up as you get older rather than getting worse – and it is worth reassessing things now and again to check!

Additionally, not all people who are allergic to dogs and that avoid them entirely as a result realise that how badly any given dog affects any given allergy sufferer can be very variable.

Some dog allergy sufferers find that whilst some dogs cause a fast and acute bad reaction simply by being in the same room as them, other dogs might have little or even no effect on them, even if they are close by for a prolonged period of time.

Whilst there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog despite many claims to the contrary, some dogs possess a number of traits that tend to make them less prone to triggering allergies than most others.

These traits tend to include a very low-shedding coat, and a coat type that tends to catch fur that is shed, so that it isn’t spread prolifically around the dog’s immediate environment. Also, some dog types seem to produce less of the specific protein chains found in their saliva and skin sebum that can cause allergies than most others, although there have yet to be any formal studies made into this.

Several dog breeds that possess the full combination of traits that tend to make them less likely to trigger allergies fall into the terrier dog grouping, so if you’re looking for a dog breed to explore as one that might be suitable for an allergy sufferer and love terriers, you will have a reasonable amount of choice!

With this in mind, this article will introduce you to five terrier dog breeds to explore if you’re looking for a dog that might be less likely to trigger allergies.

1. Bedlington Terrier

The Bedlington terrier is a small terrier that displays a very distinctive topknot of hair on the top of their skulls, and this terrier’s coat is short and curly without being hugely harsh or wiry. They are a very low shedding breed, which makes them a potentially good choice for allergy sufferers, but they do require brushing and grooming a couple of times a week to remove hair and knots as a result of this.

If you want to find out more about the breed and are looking for further pointers, also check out this article on ten things you need to know about the Bedlington terrier before you buy one.

2. Lakeland Terrier

The Lakeland terrier is a breed that you might not have even seen in your local area, as they’re so low in numbers as to be classed as a vulnerable native dog breed. This means that picking one as your next pet will help to support efforts to maintain the breed, and keep it around in perpetuity!

This small terrier breed sheds even less than the Bedlington, but requires an equivalent amount of brushing and grooming. They are very high energy dogs, and so not a good fit for people with sedentary lifestyles!

You can find out some more pointers on the breed if you’re considering buying a Lakeland here.

3. Kerry Blue Terrier

The Kerry Blue terrier has a long beard and distinctive steel blue coat, and they are undeniably handsome dogs. Again, they have one of the most low-shedding coat types of any breed, but do need brushing and grooming two or three times a week.

The Kerry Blue terrier is a medium sized dog, and also one that is fairly smart as well as being very energetic.

4. Welsh Terrier

The Welsh terrier is the second vulnerable native dog breed to make it into our list, and so picking one would help to keep the breed alive. You’re more likely to find Welsh terriers bred and sold in Wales than other parts of the country, so unless you happen to live in Wales yourself, you may need to go some distance to view a litter!

The Welsh terrier is a small, lively terrier that is particularly reputed for robust good health, and they have very low-shedding coats that do on the flipside need brushing and grooming every couple of days to keep them in good condition.

5. Yorkshire Terrier

Finally, the Yorkshire terrier dog breed actually falls within the Kennel Club’s toy dog grouping rather than the terrier group. However, this is still a terrier type dog nonetheless, and so worthy of inclusion as they offer something a little different to the other terriers we’ve mentioned in terms of both coat style and personality.

Yorkshire terriers are very petite dogs that can be playful and excitable but that are not overly challenging to provide with enough exercise, and that have coats that can range from moderate in length to very long and flowing, but that is always straight, and more akin to the texture of European human hair than the average dog coat.

This contrasts with the curled, dense and sometimes wiry coats of the other terriers we’ve mentioned, but the Yorkshire terrier too is a very minimally shedding dog, plus they’re so small there’s not much hair to start with! The flipside of this is again the need for regular grooming, but again, they’re small enough that this should not take long.

If you’re considering choosing a Yorkshire terrier for an allergy sufferer, you can find out ten things to learn about the breed before you buy here.