Rotund short-legged Kerry cattle are documented from the late eighteenth century; the Scottish agriculturalist David Low, writing in 1842, describes them as the "Dexter Breed", and writes "When any individual of a Kerry drove appears remarkably round and short legged, it is common for the country people to call it a Dexter".

[5]: 168 [7]: 12  Until the second half of the nineteenth century the Dexter was considered a type within the Kerry breed; from 1863 it was shown in a separate class at the agricultural shows of the Royal Dublin Society.

[citation needed] In 2023 it was reported to DAD-IS by sixteen countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Oceania; the largest populations were in Denmark and the United Kingdom.

[5]: 169 [2] The cattle were formerly always horned; in the twenty-first century some polled examples are seen, but the mechanism of introduction of this characteristic has not been identified.

[9] The aborted foetus is commonly called a bulldog, a stillborn calf that has a bulging head, compressed nose, protruding lower jaw, and swollen tongue, as well as extremely short limbs.

[12] Dexters can also be affected with pulmonary hypoplasia with anasarca (PHA), which is an incomplete formation of the lungs with accumulation of a serum fluid in various parts of the tissue of the foetus.