Tibetan Terrier

Lively and loyal, sensitive to harsh handling.
A Tibetan Terrier
Photo: stsnck
Adult weight
8.2–14 kg
18–30 lb
Lifespan
13.8 yrs
Class · Companion
also Family

What it's like

In temperament the breed is lively, affectionate and loyal to its household, though often reserved with strangers. It is sensitive and responds poorly to harsh handling, and it keeps an alert, watchful streak from its guarding past.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Usually fine with small pets
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is a Tibetan Terrier right for you?
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Living with one

It has a long coat. Most of the shedding comes when the seasons change. Plan on daily brushing. It needs a modest amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Tibetan Terrier is a medium dog, heavier than a Pug and lighter than a Cocker Spaniel. It is one of the lightest medium breeds.

It is a compact, square-built dog with a profuse double coat: a fine, long topcoat, straight or wavy, over a soft woolly undercoat. Hair falls forward over the eyes, and the feathered tail curls over the back. Its feet are unusually large, flat and round, often likened to snowshoes, and suited to snow and rough ground. Standards accept a wide range of colours, though some exclude chocolate and liver.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Tibetan Terrier puppy is already as heavy as a grown Jack Russell. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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0510152m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
2.1–3.4 kg 4.6–7.5 lb
2.3–3.8 kg 5.1–8.4 lb
3 months
2.8–4.7 kg 6.2–10.4 lb
3.0–4.9 kg 6.6–10.8 lb
4 months
4.0–6.6 kg 8.8–14.6 lb
4.0–6.7 kg 8.8–14.8 lb
5 months
4.9–8.2 kg 10.8–18.1 lb
4.9–8.1 kg 10.8–17.9 lb
6 months
5.7–9.5 kg 12.6–20.9 lb
5.5–9.2 kg 12.1–20.3 lb
7 months
6.3–10.4 kg 13.9–22.9 lb
6.0–10.0 kg 13.2–22.0 lb
8 months
6.7–11.1 kg 14.8–24.5 lb
6.4–10.7 kg 14.1–23.6 lb
9 months
7.0–11.7 kg 15.4–25.8 lb
6.8–11.2 kg 15.0–24.7 lb
10 months
7.3–12.1 kg 16.1–26.7 lb
7.0–11.7 kg 15.4–25.8 lb
11 months
7.5–12.4 kg 16.5–27.3 lb
7.2–12.0 kg 15.9–26.5 lb
12 months
7.6–12.6 kg 16.8–27.8 lb
7.4–12.3 kg 16.3–27.1 lb
15 months
7.9–13.2 kg 17.4–29.1 lb
7.8–13.0 kg 17.2–28.7 lb
18 months
8.2–14 kg 18–30 lb
8.1–13.5 kg 17.9–29.8 lb

Health and lifespan

In UK vet and lab records, the conditions below turn up more often in Tibetan Terriers than in crossbreeds. Underactive thyroid stands out as far more likely. The most serious, mouth melanoma, can shorten a life and is more likely. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name.
  • Underactive thyroid
    Far more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Mouth melanoma
    Lab-confirmed cases
    More likely
    Impact: life-limiting
Lab-confirmed: compares dogs whose tumour samples went to a lab with dogs seen in general practice, so the figures run higher than vet-record ones.

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Tibetan Terrier lived to about 14 years, longer than the typical medium breed.

Where it comes from

Despite its name, the Tibetan Terrier is a herding dog from Tibet that also guarded traders on journeys to and from China, and, it is believed, "the original Holy Dog of Tibet". It reached the West through Dr Agnes Greig, a surgeon in northern India whose reward in 1922 for saving a Tibetan woman's life was a puppy; her Lamleh kennel won the breed Kennel Club recognition in 19374,11.

The Tibetan Terrier is not a terrier at all; the name is usually said to have been given by Western visitors who judged it by its size. In Tibet such dogs were kept by monasteries and herding families, and they are said to have been regarded as bringers of luck, given as gifts rather than sold. Accounts describe varied work: gathering livestock, keeping watch over camps and homesteads, and living as companions in high, harsh country.

Breed standard

The Tibetan Terrier is judged against standard no. 209, in group 9, Companion and Toy Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Tibetan Terrier figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Lhasa Apso
Companion & toy · Small
Tibetan Spaniel
Companion & toy · Small
Bearded Collie
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Medium
Havanese
Companion & toy · Toy
Or compare the Tibetan Terrier with any breed you choose
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Sources

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