Wirehaired Terrier describes a coat more than a single breed. It is a common alternate name for the Wire Fox Terrier, the English fox-bolting terrier made famous by Asta of The Thin Man and Snowy of Tintin, but shelters also use it for wire-coated terrier mixes with Jack Russell, Border, Cairn or Schnauzer ancestry. The shared feature is a dense, crisp outer coat over a softer undercoat.
Most dogs adopters meet under this label are small, sturdy and quick, weighing roughly 13 to 25 pounds. Many are bright, bold, friendly and endlessly curious, with typical terrier habits of barking, digging and chasing small animals. Wire coats shed little but need regular stripping or clipping to stay neat. Since ancestry varies, an individual dog's size, energy and coat say more than the name on the listing.