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American Hairless Terrier — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

American Hairless Terrier

Temperament: Alert, loyal, and affectionate, the American Hairless Terrier is aware of strangers and retains a real terrier toughness. They are snuggly with family, good companions for active households, and require protection from both sunburn and cold given the hairless coat.
Height: 12-16 inches (30-41 cm)
Weight: 12-16 pounds (5.4-7.3 kg)
Life Span: 14-16 years
Outlier Index ?
0.34
Born before 2016: 0.35 Born after 2024: —
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
0.02
Born before 2016: 0.01 Born after 2024: —
Internal Relatedness ?
0.00
Born before 2016: -0.05 Born after 2024: —
American Hairless Terrier
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Kvk's A New Beginning @aNhk F 0.28 0.03 -0.02
2 Rip it Up Wudnshu Kitt for Kash F 0.32 0.05 -0.07
3 Sirius Hi-Life Here Comes The Sun M 0.21 0.05 -0.03
4 DreamEyce Streakingbare Say No To This F 0.30 -0.03 0.08
5 DreamEyce Imagine That! F 0.24 0.04 0.16
6 DreamEyce Sundial Rain Catcher M 0.40 0.02 -0.16
7 Poise Step'N Out Groovy Finale con Fuego M 0.27 0.05 0.08
8 Wilsong All I See Is You F 0.29 0.07 0.04
9 Sundial Keltic Under the Sea F 0.61 -0.15 -0.12
10 Poise & Stepn Out Gettin Jiggy Wit It F 0.41 0.03 -0.03
Hairlessness was a well-known recessive trait among farm ratting terriers in England, and hairless dogs occasionally appeared when those dogs were brought to the United States in the late 1800s. In the 1970s, a hairless puppy was born to a pair of typical Rat Terriers in Louisiana, and she became the foundation of the American Hairless Terrier. Rat Terriers were used extensively in outcrossing to maintain a deeper gene pool during the breed's establishment. The AKC granted the breed full recognition in 2016.
View Official Breed Standard →
Typical small-dog concerns apply - luxating patella and Legg-Calve-Perthes disease occur. Hairless dogs can sunburn easily and struggle in cold weather, though the coat is hypoallergenic. The breed is otherwise considered healthy.
VGL has reported American Hairless Terriers carrying an average of around 7.61 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 3.49. Those are respectable numbers for a recently established breed and reflect the value of the Rat Terrier outcrosses used during development. A subset of common alleles still dominates, as in most breeds, and rarer ones deserve preservation. VGL testing has found American Hairless Terriers with observed heterozygosity essentially equal to expected, giving an inbreeding coefficient near zero. That is a good breed-wide signal and reflects the use of Rat Terrier outcrosses during breed development to broaden the gene pool. The hairless gene is a simple recessive, so the coat variety is not in itself a genetic constraint.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled American Hairless Terrier dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1008
30.8%
1062
18.3%
1128
10.0%
1011
7.5%
1093
6.7%
1255
6.7%
1040
4.2%
1068
4.2%
1283
3.3%
1052
2.5%
1012
1.7%
1092
1.7%
1109
0.8%
1287
0.8%
1289
0.8%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2003
32.5%
2021
17.5%
2079
10.0%
2032
6.7%
2040
6.7%
2096
6.7%
2001
4.2%
2022
3.3%
2067
2.5%
2137
2.5%
2018
1.7%
2037
1.7%
2012
0.8%
2026
0.8%
2028
0.8%
2033
0.8%
2053
0.8%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1008 2003
30.0%
1062 2021
16.7%
1128 2079
10.0%
1011 2096
6.7%
1093 2032
6.7%
1255 2040
6.7%
1068 2001
4.2%
1040 2022
3.3%
1283 2137
2.5%
1052 2067
2.5%
1012 2003
1.7%
1062 2018
1.7%
1092 2037
1.7%
1289 2021
0.8%
1287 2003
0.8%
1283 2033
0.8%
1109 2012
0.8%
1040 2028
0.8%
1011 2026
0.8%
1008 2053
0.8%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.