The Dandie Dinmont Terrier - A Complete Anthology of the Dog -

By Read Books Ltd.

The Dandie Dinmont Terrier - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: My Dog And I by H. W. Huntington (1897), The Show Dog by H. W. Huntington (1901), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473390973

Book preview

1935

THE DANDIE DINMONT

Is a long, low-backed dog, with great strength in the shoulders, broad muscular legs, a long, large head, strong jaws, and full bright eyes, often of a hazel colour; his forehead is high, and his ears pendulous, set far apart, and back on the head. The hair on the top of the head should be smooth, but not silky, and the jaws hairy, like those of the Deerhound. The hair on the rest of the body is hard, very wiry, rather straight, and neither long nor matted. The tail, which is carried rather higher than in other terriers, should be straight, or have only a very slight curve upwards. The colour is either mustard or pepper; no other colour is allowable, and any white is highly objectionable. The weight of a pure Dandie is never less than 16 lbs.; but the breed is now in such demand as house-pets, that terriers weighing only 8 or 10 lbs., with short heads, prick ears, drooping tails, and silky coats, are often passed off for real Dandie Dinmonts. Such dogs as these are evidently produced by a cross with the Skye Terrier.

There are, however, at the present day, at least two varieties of the Dandie; one of which has a stronger, heavier frame, and is generally of the mustard colour; the other, which is usually pepper colour, is shorter in the leg and quicker and keener in its movements. Both these strains are equally valued.

The Dandie is a dog of great sagacity and beauty, and quite worthy of the estimation in which he is held.

THE DANDIE DINMONT TERRIER.

No variety of the dog has caused such constantly recurring controversies as the Dandie. In the early days of dog shows the classes allotted to it were very badly filled, the breed not having largely penetrated into the south, to which, with the exception of the Newcastle show, and those held at Leeds and Manchester in 1861, canine exhibitions were for some years confined. In 1861 a class for Dandies was first instituted at Manchester, the example being followed at the London and Birmingham shows of 1862, and since then none of the large shows have been without a prize for the breed. At that held at Cremorne in 1863, the first true Dandie shown (as far as I know) was from the kennel of the well-known breeder, Mr. Aitken, of Edinburgh; but he was but a moderate specimen, and received a third prize only, the first and second being withheld for want of merit. A similar result occurred at the Agricultural Hall exhibition held in the same year; but at Birmingham the judges were more lenient, and rewarded Mr. Van Wart, of that town, with a first and second prize for two specimens, both very moderate. In 1864 Mr. Hinks, of Birmingham, produced his Dandie at Cremorne, and took the first prize, Mr. Van Wart getting a second. Being the best I had then seen, and being again successful at Birmingham in that year, I took this dog to serve as an illustration of the breed, remarking, however, that his coat was too silky for perfection. In 1867 began the paper war on the Dandie, which has, with few intervals, been carried on up to the present day. Its origin must be attributed to the refusal of the judges (Messrs. Collins and Smith) at Birmingham to award any prize for want of merit; one of them describing what he considered the typical dog as having prick ears, among other points altogether foreign to the real breed as now admitted. In the class thus stigmatised was the Rev. J. W. Mellor’s Bandy, who, though he would now stand no chance in an average class, had been placed first in 1866 by Messrs. Perceval and Hedley, and, except in coat, was fairly typical of the breed, though nothing whatever was known of his pedigree. This dog afterwards maintained a successful career on the show bench for some years, being opposed at Birmingham in 1868, and at the Islington Dairy Farm exhibition in 1869, by the Rev. Tennison Mosse’s Shamrock, who only gained a second prize at the former, and a third at the latter. Shamrock has been kept well before the public ever since; but his small head and weak jaws have told against him with most judges, those defective points in his formation being considered, with justice, as inimical to a very high position; and at the recent Dandie show at Carlisle, though he gained premier honours, he was only credited with 78 points out of a possible 100, and with the advantage accruing to him of the disuse of negative points, which, if employed, would have reduced him still more. He is no doubt a very neat little dog and of the true type, but, lacking the above essentials, he can never be regarded as quite first class. Of late years, Melrose, bred by Mr. Broadwith, of St. Boswell’s, N.B., has been the most successful up to 1873, but Mr. Locke’s Sporran with his son Doctor have since that year been established as the favourites of the various experts employed to judge this breed, and as I think, deservedly, until the last Brighton show, where naturally enough the immediate descendants of Shamrock had the best of it under the fiat of his owner.

MR. J. LOCKE’S DANDIE DINMONTS DOCTOR AND TIB MUMPS.

Since my first acquaintance with the Dandie, pictorially and in the flesh, going back nearly half a century, a considerable elongation has taken place in the body as well as the ears of that dog. In the well-known portrait of Sir W. Scott, by Landseer, a mustard-coloured Dandie is introduced, which is said to have been painted from a dog then at Abbotsford, and which, as far as my memory serves me, exactly resembles one belonging to a friend of mine, brought by him about forty-five years ago from the Teviot district at considerable trouble and expense, the breed being then in high repute owing to the notice of it in Guy Mannering by the Wizard of the North. With this dog I was very familiar in my ratting and rabbiting days, and consequently the impression made by him is, as it were, photographed in my mind’s eye. Now this dog, like that in Landseer’s picture, had a body considerably shorter than that of the typical Dandie of the present day, and ears little longer than those of a fox terrier. The only high-bred dog with such ears which I have seen of late years was given me as a puppy by Mr. Murchison about five years ago, being by Mr. Bradshaw Smith’s celebrated Dirk Hatteraick; but, though possessed of every other essential point in perfection, it would have been useless to show him against Melrose or the Doctor on account of his ears, and I gave him away to a gentleman, who has him now in India, where he is highly prized. My impression is very strong that the modern Dandie is the result of a cross with the dachshund, by which the ears and body have been lengthened, and the tendency to crooked legs and wide chest also introduced. Mr. Murchison’s Rhoderick Dhu when he belonged to me also exhibited a mental peculiarity of the dachshund, quite foreign to any breed of English terrier, in that he was incapable of being broken to leave a rabbit or fox trail at command. No punishment, however severe, could get him off it at such a time, and after breaking away into a fox covert, and killing a whole litter of cubs, I was obliged to get rid of him: and some years afterwards, in other hands, he repeated this offence, and was finally lost on a rabbit scent, which he would not leave. Nevertheless, he was at other times possessed of an excellent temper; but once put his blood up, either by the scent of ground game or a fight with one of his own species, and he was as completely beyond control as an excited bulldog. How or when the cross was introduced I am at a loss to say, but that it is there I am strongly of opinion. All the most celebrated breeders strongly maintain that they have kept to the lineal descendants of the original Pepper and Mustard immortalised by Scott; but I confess I have no great faith in such statements, knowing how completely every master is in the hands of his servants. This is the most probable explanation I can offer of the cross; but in any case I cannot believe that any terrier could be produced with points so unlike those of our indigenous breeds without the aid of foreign blood; and when I find all those points combined in the dachshund, the probabilities in favour of that dog being used are so great as to amount almost to a demonstration. In summing up these arguments, I may state in short that (1) I remember a terrier, forty-five years ago, reputed to be a pure Dandie, with comparatively short ears and body, narrow chest, and under good command. (2) Such a dog is represented by Landseer in his portrait of Sir Walter Scott. (3) No Scottish terrier has either long ears, or a broad chest combined with crooked legs, and an ungovernable thirst for scent. Yet the Dandie is asserted to be originally bred by Davidson of pure Scotch blood. (4) Such a combination is found in the dachshund. Now, taking all these facts into consideration, I think I am justified in coming to the conclusion which I have arrived at, not without long and careful weighing of the evidence pro and con., and in spite of the old theory that the Dandie was originally produced from a cross of the Scotch terrier with the otterhound, which would support the opinion that he always has possessed ears as long as those now met with in all the best specimens of the breed. At all events I have, as I think fairly, delivered myself of the arguments on both sides of the question, and shall leave the dachshund cross to be accepted or rejected, with the statement that in my opinion it is purely a matter of curiosity, and not of the slightest real importance. For, even granting the truth of the above conclusions, we must now take the dog as we find him, and a very game and companionable dog he is; generally under fair control, but almost always showing a tendency to have his own way. He is an excellent ratter, but apt to be severe on ferrets, from which he is not very easily broken, and in the case of such a temperament as Rhoderick Dhu’s it would be useless to attempt it. This dog has left no stock behind him, so that I am not injuring the reputation of any living animal by the above remarks, which are only made in elucidation of what I consider a mystery connected with this breed.

In the following letter afterwards published in The Field, Mr. Bradshaw Smith denies this asserted elongation of the body and ears of the Dandie, and also of the dachshund cross; and, as his authority stands deservedly at the highest point, I insert it at length, though I confess I am not convinced on either of these points, as my memory is quite distinct upon the elongation, and is supported by the portraits of Sir Walter Scott’s dog, which are easily referred to for confirmation:

"SIR,—If not trespassing too much on your valuable space I may here be allowed to show how I first became possessed of this historic breed.

"During my residence in Roxburghshire my fancy was greatly taken by several specimens I saw of this game little animal. In 1841 I bought the first Dandie I ever possessed, and since that date I have no hesitation in stating that more Dandie Dinmonts have passed through my hands than through those of any half dozen of fanciers. I feel myself competent, therefore, to give a decided opinion on the article penned by ‘Stonehenge,’ although it be at variance with his remarks.

"In the first place it seems to me an entire mistake on his part that the Dandie Dinmont of the present day is longer in the body than formerly. My observation tends rather in an opposite direction.

"Secondly, a strong characteristic of the breed has ever been tenacity of purpose, and I have only known two of my dogs which could be taught at command to leave the trail of either fox or rabbit; certainly it would be a hopeless task to prevent a Dandie Dinmont from engaging with a fox were an opportunity to offer. I consider the animal as naturally good-tempered, but when once roused he is ready to seize hold of anything within reach. When I first kept these dogs I was ignorant of their extremely excitable nature, and had many killed from time to time in fights, either in the kennels or at the entrance of rabbit holes; in short, when once their blood is fairly up they become utterly unmanageable. On this account for years past (though I keep a number) I do not allow more than one dog and one bitch in a kennel, but sometimes a dog and two bitches if very harmonious. The first I had worried, many years ago, was a beautiful little fellow 141b. weight, bred by Mr. Kerss (Bowhill), from a sister of Stoddart’s old Dandie and his own old Pepper. He was killed in the night time by another of my dogs, to my great annoyance. When I mentioned the circumstance to Mr. Kerss, he informed me that during the time the little animal belonged to him he had worried some of his, amongst the number a Newfoundland pup six months old. Yet it is by no means always the most excitable and pugnacious animal that stands the severe test, viz., to face alone two badgers at once, and fasten upon one of them whilst the other in turn attacks him, as I have known very many do. For my part, I prefer the dog who encounters his antagonist coolly and without any fuss.

"In conclusion, I annex a list of the kennels I purchased, viz., that of Mr. Somner (including his crack dog Shem), those of Messrs. Purves, Frain, M’Dougald (including his famous Old Mayday), J. Stoddart (who sold to me his celebrated Old Dandie), and many other Dandies from Mr. Milne, of Faldonside, bred from his famous Old Jenny, from Mr. Jas. Kerss (Bowhill), and likewise from the Haining, near Selkirk. From these ancestors my dogs are purely and lineally descended.

"Apologising for having occupied so much of your columns,

E. BRADSHAW SMITH.

"Zurich, Switzerland, November, 1877.

The accepted history of the Dandie is on this wise. Early in the present century a Scottish tenant farmer named Davidson, possessed a breed of terriers for which he was so famous, that Sir Walter Scott introduced him into Guy Mannering, under the name of Dandie Dinmont, and as a consequence he and his dogs became celebrated wherever the English language was spoken, and the terriers were henceforward known by the name assumed in the novel. Davidson and his neighbour, Mr. Somner, of West Morriston, near Kelso, bred great numbers of Dandies to meet the demand created by Scott and the breed gradually spread, the Duke of Buccleuch and Sir G. Douglas adding to their prestige by each obtaining a supply, which they kept up for some years in great purity. Mr. Stoddart, of Selkirk; Mr. Milne, of Faldonside; Mr. Frain, of the Trews: Mr. M’Dougall, of Cessford; Mr. Nisbit, of Rumbleton; Dr. Brown, of Melrose; Mr. Hugh Purvis, of Leaderfoot; Mr. Aitken, of Edinburgh; Mr. N. Milne, of Faldonside; and last, but not least, Mr. Bradshaw Smith, of Ecclefechan, also obtained the breed; and to one or other of these several kennels, all the dogs of the present day possessed of a pedigree trace their descent. Mr. Bradshaw Smith bought most of his dogs from Mr. Somner about thirty-five years ago, in consequence of the latter exchanging country for a town life, the list of kennels purchased being given above by himself. These several strains, crossed with great care by Mr. Bradshaw Smith, have kept him at the head of the poll for many years, and from Mr. Bradshaw Smith’s kennel is always a