Patterdale Terrier Champions bred  for hunting, show,
working, performance, and companions for more than twenty years.  

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Patterdale Terrier Coat Types and Colors Defined

The PTCA identifies these coats and colors only, however, UKC calls chocolate – liver and variations of black- grizzle.

Patterdale Coat Types Acceptable For Registry in PTCA
The coat may be "Smooth", "Broken" or "Rough".

All Patterdale Terrier coat types should be dense, coarse, weatherproof, and all require minimal grooming.

***Trace or Guard Hairs: uncontrollable lengths of hair that do not lie close to the body.

***Tails should be docked by removing no more than 1/4 of the length, if at all.


Black Smooth Coat: Coarse, overall very short, smooth

A smooth coated dog does not have trace/ guard hair on the head, face, legs, or body. The coat should be short and uniform in length.

A smooth coat does not require any grooming.

The coat should not be sparse or soft, it should provide protection from the elements.
smooth coat Patterdale Terrier
Example of a Smooth Coat
PTCA, UKC Champion MQH Constella
Broken Coated Black Patterdale Terrier: Coarse, longer hair on body except for head and ears which is smooth.

May be some longer whiskering on muzzle and chin. A broken coat is very similar to a smooth coat but has longer, coarse hair on body, face and ears are smooth with trace/ guard hair on the muzzle, chin and feet. The broken coated Patterdale's coat is flat, hard, and dense.

A broken coat needs minimal grooming. They will generally only require a quick tidying up.

A broken coat should not be soft - it should be harsh to provide protection from the elements.

Example of a Black Broken Coat
PTCA, UKC Champion MQH Luna
Black Rough Coat Patterdale Terrier: Coarse, longer hair overall, including face and ears.

A rough coated Patterdale Terrier has longer coarse hair all over including head, face, and ears, with excess trace / guard hair on the head, face, legs, or body.

The coat should not be soft or wooly, it should be harsh to provide maximum protection from the elements.

The coat may require occasional stripping or plucking. A properly groomed rough coat will be bristly.

The rough coat does not shed, which makes broken or rough coated dogs a good choices for some allergy sufferers. The wirey coats of broken or rough coated dogs also have the ability to offer great protection for dogs whose role usually consist of plummeting through harsh bracken, into burrows, and through fields in ruthless type of weather to go after vermin.

Example of a Rough Coat
PTCA, UKC Champion MQH Griz

Patterdale Terrier Colors

There are only four coat colors accepted by the PTCA. Black, chocolate, black and tan, and red.

There may be some variations in the primary colors. For instance, blacks may have some lighter hairs in the undercoat and red may range from tan to deep red, chocolate may be a very dark or lighter brown and black and tan may have more or less of these colors on each individual dog, but the only PTCA accepted colors are those listed below.

*** Some white on chest and feet is acceptable
Black: Black and any variation of black with hints of brown, red, or gold highlights

MQH Busta - Example of black coat terrier
Red: Red colored dogs will have a black nose

Miz Bizzy - Example of red smooth coat courtesy Anglo-American Kennel



Chocolate: Chocolate-colored dogs will have a liver-colored nose. (Officially called a "red" nose)


MQH Barney - Chocolate Patterdale Terrier Red Coat Red Nose



Black and Tan: Any variation of tan with black markings such as a black mask on muzzle and typically has a black saddle on back.

Example of smooth black and tan Patterdale Terrier courtesy of Bob and Marlene Burns
For more information about the Patterdale Terrier standards:

PTCA Standard | UKC Standard

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