Adopting a Westie (West Highland White Terrier) in Glasgow and Scotland

Our live count, shown with the short answer, picks up any Westie or Westie cross that a rescue we list in Glasgow, or within about 41 miles of it, has posted. Expect it to read zero more often than not. Westies are rarer than they were: in 2019 the Royal Veterinary College reported that UK ownership had fallen to a quarter of the level of a decade before. Other small dogs near the city are on our Glasgow small dogs page, and terrier crosses on our Glasgow terrier cross page.

Not one we could verify with a base in Scotland and a website of its own, although plenty of people search for exactly that. What does exist is The Scottish Kennel Club's list of breed rescue contacts. Its West Highland White Terrier entry gives volunteer contacts marked for West Lothian, Aberdeen and Scotland as a whole. The page is undated, so check that a contact is still active before relying on it.

Several UK-wide Westie groups turn up in searches, and some are registered in Scotland as well as England. None passed the checks we make before naming a rescue for Glasgow readers, such as up-to-date charity filings and a clean, current website, so we leave them out. If you approach one, look its charity number up on the official charity register yourself (the Scottish one for a Scottish charity) before you send money or personal details.

If a contact leads you to a Westie that lives with its owner, treat it as a private rehoming. Visit the dog at home, hand over no money before you have, and check the microchip database entry, because the keeper details must be updated to you when the dog changes hands.

What the fee pays for is spelled out. Saving and Rehoming Strays puts its £500 donation towards neutering, vet bills, food and microchipping. Further afield, Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, about 42 miles away, includes a month's pet insurance, which matters with a breed known for skin trouble, and its £150 fee for a dog over 9 is worth a look, since Westies often reach their teens.

Buying means £400 to £3,000 for the puppy (Blue Cross), then neutering and booster vaccinations at your own cost. The microchip is not extra: under Scottish law the breeder must chip a puppy before it goes to a new keeper. Groomer visits are the cost owners forget, since Dogs Trust says a Westie usually needs a professional trim around every 6 weeks.

The Royal Kennel Club recommends no pre-breeding health screening for the breed at present, and its Breed Watch page flags dermatitis, and the hair loss or scarring it leaves, as a point for show judges to check. A 2019 VetCompass study of Westies under UK vet care found the most common problems were periodontal disease (15.7%), outer ear disease (otitis externa, 10.6%), overgrown nails (7.2%), allergic skin disease (6.5%) and obesity (6.1%).

• Skin. PDSA says Westies are known for skin allergies. Skin disorders were the largest group in the VetCompass study, though the Royal Veterinary College said the level was lower than might have been predicted a decade earlier. Ask what treatment or diet the dog is on.
• Lungs. PDSA lists "Westie lung" (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs), and the RVC says the breed does seem predisposed to lower respiratory tract disease. Mention any cough or breathlessness to your vet promptly.
• Knees, eyes and hips. PDSA also names luxating kneecaps, dry eye and Legg-Perthes disease of the hip, and says white ears can sunburn, so shade them in summer.

A Westie can live happily in a Glasgow flat: The Royal Kennel Club says so, and asks for up to an hour of exercise a day, and Dogs Trust adds that Westies "might not manage tough exercise like long walks or mountain hikes". Saving and Rehoming Strays has rehomed plenty of dogs to flats, it says, but sets a limit of 4 or 5 hours alone at a time.

Neighbours and other pets are the questions to weigh. PDSA says Westies like the sound of their own voice and often struggle when left, and advises against a Westie in a home with small pets because of its prey drive, though one brought up alongside a cat will be fine with it.

No rescue sells a Westie: it asks for an application, looks at whether your home fits the dog, and charges an adoption fee or donation. Puppies seldom come into rescue, and an adult has the advantage that its skin and coat history is already known. Anything listed near the city today is on our Glasgow Westie page.

Buying from a breeder carries its own risks, and Police Scotland advises against paying for anything you haven't seen; it takes reports of online marketplace fraud. Dogs Trust suggests a vet's pre-purchase consultation before you choose, The Royal Kennel Club runs a "Find a puppy" search, and the puppy should be with its mother when you visit.

The breed began on the west coast. The Royal Kennel Club traces it to the Malcolm family of Poltalloch in Argyllshire, who kept white Cairn-type terriers in the mid 19th century at a time when other breeders culled white puppies, because a white dog was easier to spot on the moors. It was known for a time as the Poltalloch terrier, and also as the Roseneath terrier after the Duke of Argyll's estate, before the Kennel Club recognised it in 1907.