The Glen of Imaal Terrier is on the Royal Kennel Club's vulnerable native breeds list. The club identifies declining registrations and a lack of public awareness as concerns for these British and Irish dogs.
The 2025 Registration Record
The club recorded 61 Glen registrations in 2025, compared with 92 in 2024. These are Royal Kennel Club registrations per year in the UK, not population counts or numbers of births. The longer record fluctuates: there were 36 registrations in 2020, 115 in 2022 and 58 in 2023.
The vulnerable native breeds list covers breeds of British and Irish origin with fewer than 300 registrations a year. A separate “at watch” list covers breeds with between 300 and 450. The club established the lists to monitor native breeds considered at risk of disappearing.
Visibility in the Show Ring
The Glen was among the breeds eligible for the Crufts 2026 vulnerable-breeds final, according to the Royal Kennel Club's announcement of 19 February 2026. Other eligible terriers included the Dandie Dinmont, Sealyham and Skye.
To qualify, a dog had to win Best of Breed at the group championship show designated by the Royal Kennel Club as its breed's qualifying show. In a small number of cases, the Best of Breed winner's owner had said they could not compete in the final. The club reported inviting the Best Opposite Sex in Breed winner in their place, to ensure that all breeds were represented and supported.
Planning for a Small Population
During 2025, the Royal Kennel Club sought views from breeders, Breed Health Co-ordinators, vets, geneticists, academic researchers and pedigree dog health campaigners. It asked what was working well, where its health work could improve and which areas deserved attention in the future.
The club's Breeding for Health Framework covers health and welfare considerations that should influence breeding decisions for any breed or type of dog. It considers inbreeding and genetic diversity, conformation, and breed-related disease and wellbeing. For 2026, the club said it would prioritise developing ways to support genetic diversity in small populations. The club says the framework will help plan its future health work.
Breed-Specific Screening
The Royal Kennel Club describes Good Practice tests as a strongly recommended minimum addressing conditions of significant concern in a breed. It says Best Practice tests address conditions that remain significant, and may be less common or newly identified while research continues into their impact.
For the Glen, the club's pre-breeding screening guidance puts prioritising genetic diversity under Good Practice. Its Best Practice entries include the DNA test for progressive retinal atrophy, named PRA (crd3), and eye testing using the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme. The club recommends that breeders complete both the Good Practice and Best Practice categories before breeding.
The Glen of Imaal Terrier Club of America says its Code of Ethics requires sires and dams to be tested for hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and PRA (crd3). It lists those tests as once-only requirements and specifies elbow testing for dogs born after 30 June 2013. Its CERF eye examination follows a different timetable: every other year until age eight.
The American club also reported that in 2025 it was carrying out a preliminary pilot study to determine whether degenerative myelopathy was a concern in Glens. Its published description projected completion in 2026.