English Toy Terriers are generally low maintenance when it comes to keeping them healthy, fit and happy. 


Dental Care

80% of dogs show signs of periodontal disease by the age of 3, so your dog’s dental health is hugely important and often over looked.  We keep our dog’s teeth healthy mostly by feeding raw bones. Plaque Off is a great product to use in conjunction with raw feeding. It’s a powder that you add to food and it works by softening plaque so it can be easily removed when dogs chew bones or you brush their teeth.

Dental Care Guide PDF

It’s important to keep on top of your English Toy Terriers nails. Nails that are too long constantly touch the ground and exert force back into the nail bed, creating pain for the dog and pressure on the toe joint. Long term, this can realign the joints of the foreleg and make the foot looked flattened and splayed.

The blood supply is called a quick. In a short nail, the quick will be short.

The quick grows with the nail. A long nail will have a long quick.

  1. If you cut here, you will cut the quick and the nail will bleed
  2. If you cut here, the blood supply/quick will recede

Clip or use a Dremel/grinder to file a little off each day. The quick will start to die back.

Every time you trim the nail, the quick dies back further.

Once the quick has receded sufficiently, the nail can be cut to the correct length, without bleeding.

A correctly trimmed nail. Short with a short quick.


The English Toy Terrier (Black & Tan) have short, smooth coats so do not need a lot of grooming. A weekly brush and a very occasional bath is all it takes to keep them looking good. You can also add supplements to their diet such as salmon oil, coconut oil and kelp powder to help keep their coat full and shiny.

They shed (minimally) all through the year, but more so during the darker months when they coats get thinner. When the sun returns their coats improve.


Visit your veterinarian at least once a year and have your dog checked and have the vaccinations kept up to date.


Keeping your ETT fit and healthy starts with a healthy diet.




The English Toy Terrier as a breed is generally very healthy and has few known heritable diseases, but there’s a few issues to be aware of.


Find out more about what English Toy Terriers are like as pets.