The color variations of today's miniature bull terriers go back to the eighteenth hundreds when they crossed old English terriers with the now extinct old English bulldog breed resulting in a new dog breed called the Bull and Terrier. This breed split, in the eighteen sixties, into two branches which were the colored bull terriers and the pure white bull terriers. Selective breeding over the years miniaturized the bull terrier. The only difference in today's standard bull terrier and miniature bull terrier is the size of the dog. A miniature bull terrier stands from ten to fourteen inches and weighs from twenty-five to thirty-three pounds while a standard bull terrier stands from twenty-one to twenty two inches and weighs anywhere from fifty to seventy pounds. The loveable, playful, stubborn, energetic miniature bull terriers have a unique, distinctive oval shaped head.
The coat of these muscular, sturdy, strong built miniature bull terriers is very short, lays close to their skin, harsh to touch, fine, with a shiny or glossy finish. Terrier coats come in many different colors such as white, colored with white markings, solid brindle, and solid fawn/red. Some terriers are completely pure white while others have head markings of some type such as a red, bridle, or black eye patch. A solid color dog, which you see occasionally, is a dog with a completely colored coat or a coat that has only a very small patch of white on its body somewhere. On tri-colored dogs, there is a combination of white, fawn/red, and black while bridle markings are tiger, black, silver, or fawn, although silver or fawn dogs look washed out so are not desirable. It is acceptable for miniature bull terriers to be a strong red color but again, a washed out red or fawn is not desirable. The base coat color of red, tri, and brindle colored terriers is white. In the show ring, white miniature bull terriers with colored marking elsewhere on their coat other than their head are faulted. Also not desirable and faulted are colored terriers with more than a small patch or splash of white, although they do not penalize skin pigmentation. Miniature bull terriers have black colored eyes and noses. The pink noses of puppies darken, as they get older.
Colored miniature bull terriers are not as prone to skin conditions as terriers with white coats. Some of these skin conditions include developing skin allergies or sensitivity to ticks, fleas, mites, and other parasites. If you live in a warm part of the country where fleas and other parasites are a problem, you should talk to a veterinarian or a miniature bull terrier breeder before you get a puppy or dog. The good news is that there are so many new treatments out on the market today that this may not be a problem.
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