As far as Fact or Myth about Mr Deckers dogs being mostly between 22-30 pounds, it is Fact.
As Tim Brown would say “Milton liked dogs between 22 to 35 lbs. for hunting and so do I. I liked the smaller
dogs for hunting squirrel and the heavier ones for hunting coon and the larger varmints, my old dog Nick
weigh in at 35 lbs. and he could handle a 20 lbs. coon all by himself but he was a little over kill on
squirrel.”

Of the original 52 dogs that Decker bred most of his offspring out of, only about 6 were larger than 30 pounds.

And now for the Myth buster about the Decker Giant.
The name Decker Giant came from some breeders who had dogs that were around 28+ pounds. Because they were of considerable size, the name giant seemed appropriate. Well it stuck and even if the dog was not of considerable size and was only 22 pounds or so, it was still called a Decker Giant.

The Decker that Milton Decker bred and all of their offspring and so down the line is a Rat Terrier that has traits and characteristics locked into them from inbreeding and line breeding for a number of years. The Decker is a “Line” of dogs.

Any one of use can produce our own “Lines”. By continuously breeding dogs of the same “look” and traits, we can all come up with our own “Line”. In other words, so and so’s dogs seem to look different from another so and so breeder. They are all Rat Terriers but why do they look different or better or something? Because that breeder consistently used dogs that had the same characteristics and so produce consistent looking dogs. That is the essence of the Decker Line Rat Terrier, breeding to have consistency.

The traits are now so locked in that when you breed one of those “Line” type dogs with an outcross, you see dominant traits from the “Line” dog. This means that the “Line” dog is pre-potent.

Would it be fair to break the Decker line into two size categories? Maybe yes, maybe no. Is it easier to keep ALL the Deckerline dogs as one class from 22-35 pounds? Or raise the weight up? Or just try to keep breeding for the size range that the decker dog was originally intended to be. These are some things that we all need to ponder……………………………

So Decker people……think about what sizes you have been breeding consistently and what you think looks best and feels best. Let us know.

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