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West Highland White Terrier

West Highland White Terrier
Photo: Christopher Walker from Krakow, Poland / CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia

30 West Highland White Terriers in the atlas. Every number on this page has a source.

Population-genetic snapshot of West Highland White Terriers in the Sniff Atlas, source-graded Mendelian carrier frequencies from Donner 2023, and nutrition guidance tied to the genetic findings above.

Also known as Poltalloch Terrier, Roseneath Terrier, West Highland Terrier, and Westie (or Westy).

The plain version

West Highland White Terriers have a moderately diverse genetic background, which means they have a healthy mix of genes. These small dogs usually weigh around 18 pounds and often live to be about 13 years old. One health note is that their gene pool includes a condition called Craniomandibular Osteopathy, so it’s a good idea to talk to your vet or consider genetic testing to keep your dog healthy.

What the atlas says about West Highland White Terrier

In the atlas, the West Highland White Terrier clusters consistently as West Highland White Terrier (100% of the 30 dogs here). At the trait loci, FGF4_retrogene_CFA18 runs lower than average (8% here vs 77%); RSPO2 runs higher than the atlas average (100% here vs 55%). Dogs here sit in a relatively sparse region of the atlas, fewer close neighbors than typical.

Genetic dimensions · CanVAS atlas

What the genome says about West Highland White Terrier

Computed from the 18,477 research dogs in the Atlas.

Dogs in the Atlas
30Founders
19 from Hayward2016, 10 from Spatola, 1 from JenkinsWGS
Genetic diversity
0.30Moderate
Mean heterozygosity across the breed. Ranks 39th most genetically tight of 107 ranked breeds.
What does genetic diversity mean?

How varied a breed's gene pool is — the share of gene spots where a typical dog of the breed carries two different versions rather than two identical ones.

How to read it: Higher = more diverse. Among well-sampled breeds it ranges roughly 0.22 (least diverse) to 0.33 (most diverse).

Diversity is a strength, not a verdict on any individual dog. Lower diversity means it's worth paying attention to recessive-risk testing — not that a dog is doomed.

Cluster structure
Splits into two genetic sub-populations
Intra-breed RMS distance: 23.34 · likely working/show-line, regional, or kennel lineage split.
What does within-breed variation mean?

How much individual dogs within the breed differ from each other genetically.

How to read it: Higher = more internal variety among individuals of the breed.

Sensitive to how many dogs of the breed we've sampled.

Related breeds
Built from
Close cousins
In the Terrier group
Explore the full lineage map →
VBO foundation stock (breeding records) · AKC breed group
Relatedness is documented lineage + kennel family. Genetic-ancestry distance measures diversity, not kinship, so it isn't used here.
How long they live
13.4years (life expectancy)
95% CI 13.3–13.5 · VetCompass, McMillan 2024, n=11,932. source
What does typical lifespan mean?

The median age dogs of the breed tend to reach.

How to read it: Higher = longer-lived. Compare to longevity-for-size to see whether it's just a size effect.

Drawn from population lifespan records; individual dogs vary widely with care, genetics, and luck.

Trait genetics
Allele frequencies at named morphology loci

Frequency of the alternate allele in this breed at each locus's representative SNP.

Body size
IGF158%
HMGA237%
SMAD235%
LCORL100%
STC269%
ADAMTS1760%
Leg length
FGF4·CFA188%
FGF4·CFA1240%
Coat
RSPO2100%
FGF552%
KRT7178%
MC1R100%
Ear set
MSRB385%
Skull shape
BMP380%
SMOC287%
n = 30 dogs · moderate confidence · CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Sniff Atlas
Names & origins

Other names

The West Highland White Terrier is also recorded as Poltalloch Terrier, Roseneath Terrier, West Highland Terrier, Westie (or Westy), and White Roseneath Terrier.

Identified as West Highland White Terrier (VBO:0201415) in the Vertebrate Breed Ontology (Mullen et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0) · registry IDs FCI 85 · iDog 255 · VeNom 15086.

What you see when you look at a West Highland White Terrier

What does the genome say about how a West Highland White Terrier looks?

West Highland White Terriers look the way they do because of a small set of fixed and near-fixed morphology genes that, taken together, define the visible breed. Each translation below pairs the gene with the trait an owner actually sees, the breed's allele frequency at that locus, and a one-clause causal phrase.

Where the breed-defining genes act, mapped on a generic dog-body key — and how fixed each marker is in the West Highland White Terrier. The figure is the most-settled marker we read in that region; the full per-locus panel is below. (The silhouette is a shared anatomical guide, not this breed's outline.)

Body sizeLCORL · 100%Skull shapeSMOC2 · 87%EarsMSRB3 · 85%Leg lengthFGF4 CFA12 · 40%Coat & colorRSPO2 · 100%
CanVAS trait-locus panel (Brundage 2026)
15 morphology markers read across 5 regions. Allele frequency = how fixed a marker is in this breed, not whether your dog carries it.

Size and build

IGF1 sits at 58% for the small-body allele. IGF1 is the gene that sets dog body size from Chihuahua to Great Dane. Intermediate frequencies typically keep a breed in the mid-sized range rather than tipping toward the larger working forms.

IGF1what this gene does

IGF1 is a gene that plays a key role in determining a dog's body size. It influences how much a dog grows, affecting overall stature.

For your dog: Knowing about IGF1 gives you insight into your dog's size traits, but it’s just one part of the bigger picture when it comes to their health and care.

Full IGF1 gene page →

HMGA2 sits at 37%. HMGA2 is a chromosome-10 size locus that acts together with IGF1, and intermediate frequencies reflect partial commitment to the dominant size variant.

HMGA2what this gene does

HMGA2 is a gene that influences body size in dogs, helping determine how big or small a dog grows.

For your dog: Knowing about HMGA2 helps you appreciate the genetic factors behind your dog's size, but it doesn't signal any health issues.

Full HMGA2 gene page →

SMAD2 sits at 35% at the chromosome-7 height locus.

SMAD2what this gene does

SMAD2 is a gene involved in regulating body size by influencing how cells grow and develop.

For your dog: Knowing about SMAD2 helps understand your dog's size traits but isn't linked to health issues; no immediate action needed.

Full SMAD2 gene page →

LCORL is near-fixed at 100%, the NCAPG/LCORL height locus that is one of the strongest single contributors to canine body size.

LCORLwhat this gene does

LCORL is a gene that influences body size in dogs. It helps determine how big or small a dog might grow.

For your dog: Knowing about LCORL helps you appreciate the genetic factors behind your dog's size, but it’s just one piece of the bigger picture when it comes to health and care.

Full LCORL gene page →

STC2 sits at 69%.

ADAMTS17 sits at 60%. ADAMTS17 is a body-size locus also linked to lens disorders.

ADAMTS17what this gene does

ADAMTS17 is a gene that influences body size and also plays a role in certain eye conditions. It affects the structure of tissues in the eye and elsewhere in the body.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry ADAMTS17 variants, it’s worth discussing genetic testing and eye exams with your vet to stay ahead of potential issues.

Full ADAMTS17 gene page →

Leg length

The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 18 is at 8%, the chromosome-18 leg-length variant, which keeps the breed short-legged like Corgis and Dachshunds.

The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 12 sits at 40%, the chondrodystrophic variant.

Coat type, length, and color

RSPO2 is near-fixed at 100% for the furnishings allele, the genetic basis of the eyebrows-and-mustache pattern seen in Schnauzers and Wheaten Terriers.

RSPO2what this gene does

RSPO2 influences the texture and appearance of a dog's coat, particularly the presence of 'furnishings' like mustaches and eyebrows. It helps determine whether a dog has that distinctive wiry or textured look.

For your dog: If your dog has those wiry eyebrows or a mustache, RSPO2 is part of the reason—no health worries, just a coat feature worth knowing about.

Full RSPO2 gene page →

FGF5 sits at 52% for the long-coat variant. Coat length is influenced by other loci as well, so intermediate FGF5 frequencies do not always correspond to intermediate visible coat lengths.

FGF5what this gene does

FGF5 is a gene that influences the length of a dog's coat. It acts like a natural switch, telling hair follicles when to stop growing longer fur.

For your dog: If your dog has a notably long or short coat, FGF5 is likely part of the reason—no action needed, but it’s a neat genetic detail to know.

Full FGF5 gene page →

KRT71 sits at 78% for the wavy/curly variant. Coat curl varies across individuals at this intermediate frequency, and visible expression is also influenced by modifier loci.

KRT71what this gene does

KRT71 is a gene that influences the curliness of a dog's coat. It helps determine whether a dog's fur is straight or has a distinctive curl.

For your dog: If your dog has a curly coat, KRT71 is likely part of the reason; it’s a natural variation, not a health concern.

Full KRT71 gene page →

MC1R is at 100% at the representative SNP. MC1R controls the switch between red-to-gold and black-to-brown pigment, with the e/e homozygous genotype producing the gold-to-red spectrum by blocking eumelanin (black and brown pigment).

MC1Rwhat this gene does

MC1R is a gene that influences coat color in dogs, affecting how pigments are produced in the fur.

For your dog: Knowing about MC1R gives insight into your dog's coat color but doesn't relate to health issues.

Full MC1R gene page →

Ears

MSRB3 is at 85% for the drop-ear allele, the genetic basis of the breed's signature dropped ear set.

MSRB3what this gene does

MSRB3 is a gene involved in the development of ear shape and structure in dogs.

For your dog: Understanding MSRB3 helps explain why your dog's ears look the way they do, but it isn't linked to any health issues.

Full MSRB3 gene page →

Skull shape

BMP3 sits at 80%, contributing to the breed's moderate, mesaticephalic head shape rather than the extreme brachycephalic form.

BMP3what this gene does

BMP3 is a gene that influences the shape of a dog's skull, particularly contributing to a shorter, broader head shape known as brachycephaly.

For your dog: If your dog has a broad, short skull, it's worth discussing with your vet how this might impact their health, even though BMP3 isn't directly tied to illness.

Full BMP3 gene page →

SMOC2 is at 87%, the major locus contributing to the breed's brachycephalic face shape.

SMOC2what this gene does

SMOC2 influences the shape of a dog's skull, particularly affecting how flat or short the face appears.

For your dog: If your dog has a short nose, it's worth discussing with your vet how this trait might impact their health over time.

Full SMOC2 gene page →
Mendelian-disease genetics

What genetic diseases do West Highland White Terriers carry?

From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), West Highland White Terriers carry 7 of them at observable frequency. Carrier frequency is not clinical risk. Most recessive variants require two copies for disease expression; many dominant variants show incomplete penetrance. Read this as a population fingerprint of what's in the gene pool, not a per-dog prediction.

n = 658 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:002244-9615 · omia.org →
SLC37A2what this gene does

SLC37A2 is a gene involved in how cells manage certain sugar molecules, which can affect bone development.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing with your vet, especially if you notice jaw discomfort or eating issues.

n = 655 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000157-9615 · omia.org →
FGF4what this gene does

FGF4 influences leg length by affecting bone growth, leading to shorter legs in certain breeds.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene, it's worth discussing spinal health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t guarantee problems.

n = 658 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:002434-9615 · omia.org →
TUBB1what this gene does

TUBB1 is a gene that helps make the building blocks of platelets, which are tiny blood cells important for clotting. It plays a key role in keeping platelet size and number normal.

For your dog: If your dog is from one of the breeds known to carry TUBB1 variants, it’s worth mentioning to your vet, especially before surgeries or if you notice unusual bleeding.

n = 656 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001298-9615 · omia.org →
PRCDwhat this gene does

PRCD is a gene involved in the health of a dog's retina, the part of the eye that detects light and helps with vision.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry PRCD changes, it's worth discussing eye health and potential genetic testing with your vet.

Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
low <0.1%
n = 658 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000263-9615 · omia.org →
SOD1what this gene does

SOD1 is a gene that helps protect cells from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

For your dog: If your dog is a carrier of SOD1 variants, it's worth discussing with your vet, but remember carrier status doesn't mean your dog will get the disease.

n = 658 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:000578-9615 · omia.org →
n = 658 dogs · 4 variants tested · OMIA:000844-9615 · omia.org →
Source: Donner J et al. 2023. Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651 · Evidence: Limited (DTC ascertainment, tag-SNP proxy) · Confounding MEDIUM · License CC-BY-4.0 · Phene IDs from OMIA (Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
Sample size in this breed: 658 dogs from the Donner 2023 cohort.

Which Mendelian variants matter most for West Highland White Terriers?

The Mendelian-disease table above lists seven variants screened in 658 West Highland White Terriers (Donner 2023). One matters most by frequency and clinical impact.

Craniomandibular Osteopathy (Discovered in the Cairn, Scottish and West Highland White Terrier)

Craniomandibular osteopathy in West Highland White Terriers is an autosomal-dominant condition with incomplete penetrance that causes abnormal bone growth in the jaws and skull. Affected dogs develop swelling and pain around the mandible, sometimes making eating difficult. The condition typically emerges in puppyhood and can improve or plateau with age. 24.5% of West Highland White Terriers in the Donner cohort carry the variant (n=658).

The incomplete penetrance is the critical detail. Of 11 at-risk dogs in the Donner dataset, only 1 was phenotype-confirmed, a maximum penetrance of 9%. Let that settle. More than one in four Westie carries the variant, but fewer than one in ten at-risk dogs actually express the disease. Testing is available through commercial labs. Breeding recommendations depend on whether clinical signs matter to you; the variant is common enough that avoiding all carriers would severely restrict the gene pool.

How should I test my West Highland White Terrier?

The high-yield path is a breed-specific panel covering craniomandibular osteopathy. The other variants in the breed, chondrodystrophy, macrothrombocytopenia, prcd-PRA, degenerative myelopathy, globoid cell leukodystrophy, and PK deficiency, all appear at frequencies below 0.5% and are individually rare enough that panel testing is reasonable but not urgent unless you are breeding.

What should I feed a West Highland White Terrier?

Feeding a West Highland White Terrier well means feeding around the breed’s structural size and the incomplete-penetrance jaw variant that sits in the carrier pool. Westies are small dogs with high metabolic rates, which means meal timing and portion precision matter more than they do for larger breeds.

Small-breed adult maintenance requires precise calorie titration. West Highland White Terriers weigh 15 to 22 pounds at maturity (AKC breed standard; westie.org). The National Research Council (NRC 2006) recommends 100 to 125 kcal/kg for small sedentary adults, which puts a 17-pound Westie at roughly 770 to 960 calories per day depending on activity level. Most commercial small-breed formulations cluster at 350 to 400 kcal per cup. Overfeeding by a half cup per day, a common mistake, adds 175 to 200 calories and compounds into a weight-management problem within weeks.

Puppyhood growth is fast but not exaggerated for this breed. Westies typically reach adult size by 12 to 14 months, consistent with small-breed growth timelines (NRC 2006). A small-breed puppy formulation with calcium between 1% and 1.5% (dry matter basis) and a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of 1.1:1 to 1.5:1 is appropriate. The risk of oversupplementing calcium is lower in small breeds than in giant breeds, but precision still matters. NRC 2006 recommends no more than 2.2% calcium for growing small dogs.

Texture and palatability matter when the jaw variant is in the carrier pool. The 24.5% carrier frequency means roughly one in four Westies carry craniomandibular osteopathy. Carrying the variant is not the same as developing the condition, and where it does appear it tends to show up as discomfort around eating, which is worth acknowledging. Soft kibble, wet food mixed with kibble, or fresh-cooked diets that are easy to chew reduce stress on the jaw even when the variant is not active. This is not a reason to avoid dry food; it is a reason to monitor body weight closely and adjust texture if a Westie shows reluctance to eat.

Skin and coat are typical Westie owner priorities. The breed carries the FGF5 coat-length variant at 52% and RSPO2 at 100%, contributing to the breed’s distinctive wiry double coat. MC1R is also fixed at 100% in the breed, consistent with the all-white coat type that defines the Westie standard. Fish-oil supplementation (500 to 1,000 mg EPA+DHA daily for a 17-pound dog) supports skin barrier function without invoking the grain-free controversy. Commercial small-breed kibbles formulated for skin and coat are empirically adequate when the kibble carries taurine above the AAFCO minimum of 0.1% (dry matter); most do.

What we don’t know

The clinical threshold for craniomandibular osteopathy penetrance is unclear. The Donner data show 1 of 11 at-risk dogs phenotype-confirmed, but that sample is small. Whether the true penetrance is 5%, 15%, or 25% remains unsettled. Breed-club health surveys could clarify this, but no published survey has quantified clinical prevalence in the breed.

The environmental and constitutional factors that determine whether a carrier develops clinical signs are unknown. Age of onset, severity, and spontaneous improvement all vary widely in case reports. We do not yet have predictive markers for which carriers will remain asymptomatic.

The other six Mendelian variants are individually rare enough that their true disease burden in the breed is difficult to estimate from n=658. Larger cohorts would improve confidence in breeding recommendations.

Frequently asked questions about West Highland White Terriers

What is the most common genetic disease in West Highland White Terriers? Craniomandibular osteopathy, carried by 24.5% of the breed. Of 11 at-risk dogs in the Donner dataset, only 1 was phenotype-confirmed, giving a maximum penetrance of 9% (Donner 2023, n=658). The disease is rare even though the variant is common.

How long do West Highland White Terriers typically live? The atlas median lifespan is 13.1 years. Breed-club health surveys commonly cite 12 to 14 years as the typical range (West Highland White Terrier Club of America, westieclubamerica.com). Outliers in the atlas data reached the late teens (sniff.world Atlas, Donner 2023).

Are West Highland White Terriers prone to joint problems? Not significantly. The chondrodystrophy variant (FGF4) appears in fewer than 0.5% of Westies, far below breeds like Dachshunds and Corgis where it is near-fixed. OFA hip evaluation records for Westies are relatively sparse compared to large breeds, and the breed’s small terrier build is generally associated with lower hip dysplasia incidence than large or giant breeds (OFA ofa.org/diseases/hip-dysplasia/).

Should I do a DNA test on my West Highland White Terrier? For breeding stock, a panel covering craniomandibular osteopathy is reasonable given the 24.5% carrier frequency. Testing for the rarer variants (chondrodystrophy, prcd-PRA, degenerative myelopathy) is optional unless you have a specific family history of disease.

What is the best diet for a West Highland White Terrier? A grain-inclusive, small-breed formulation with measured portions (roughly 770 to 960 calories daily for a 17-pound adult) is the standard recommendation. Monitor body weight closely; small breeds fed ad libitum or with imprecise portions are at elevated risk for obesity (NRC 2006). Soft kibble or wet food mixed with kibble accommodates the jaw variant carrier pool and may reduce eating stress.

Are West Highland White Terriers good with kids? Westies were bred as working terriers and have high prey drive but also strong bonds with families. They are typically good with older children but can be snappy with very small children during play. Supervision and early socialization matter as they do with any small breed.

What health screening should I ask a breeder about? Request results on craniomandibular osteopathy testing for both parents. Because craniomandibular osteopathy is autosomal dominant, each carrier parent can pass the variant regardless of the other parent’s status. Two carrier parents risk producing homozygous offspring, who may be more severely affected. A health guarantee covering genetic disease is standard across responsible Westie breeders.

Do West Highland White Terriers shed? Yes, but more moderately than many terrier breeds. The breed’s white double coat sheds heavily during seasonal blows (spring and fall). Regular brushing, two to three times weekly during non-blow periods and daily during seasonal shedding, reduces loose hair and mats.

A gift to human medicine

West Highland White Terriers are a natural model for human disease

Because the same genes cause the same conditions across species, the inherited conditions documented in West Highland White Terriers help researchers understand, and work toward treating, the human diseases they model. This is the dog advancing human medicine. The breed models the human disease; it does not have it, and this is not a prediction for your dog.

Human equivalents via OMIA → Mondo / OMIM. Model-of, not identity.
Documented in OMIA

Every condition recorded in the West Highland White Terrier

Beyond the testable carriers above, OMIA's literature catalogue records 13 genetic conditions in the West Highland White Terrier, 13 of which have a known human equivalent. This is the documented landscape across all West Highland White Terriers ever studied, not a prediction for any one dog.

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA); Nicholas, Tammen & Sydney Informatics Hub, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70
Documented in the breed's literature is not carrier status and not a forecast for an individual dog. Human equivalents are mapped via Mondo/OMIM. Carrier frequencies (above) are the separately-measured testable subset (Donner 2023).
The data behind this page

Where every number on this page came from.

This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.

Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).

What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are now in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references on gene pages remain pending, they arrive in December 2026 alongside the imputed 9.67M-variant CanVAS dataset via the OMIA SQL dump absorption. Until then, gene IDs carry NCBI Gene and OMIA phene URLs only; the wider human-homolog and disease-ontology cross-reference set fills in with that release.

How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.

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References
  1. Donner J, Freyer J, Davison S, Anderson H, Blades M, Honkanen L, et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
  2. Brundage J, et al. (2026). CanVAS: a harmonized canine variant atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
  3. Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).
Last updated
Sources: CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Donner 2023 · OMIA