Friday, December 08, 2006

A Bit More on the Border-Patterdale Connection

 

In the last post, I talked of how Joe Bowman, Huntsman for the Ullswater, was the person to coin the term "Patterdale Terrier," and that he had also been an early breeder of Border Terriers. 

In previous posts, I have noted that the Border Terrier is itself a relatively young breed, created from Fell Terriers at about the time the Kennel Club was first created. 

To add a point to the pencil, it's worth putting a few pictures side-by-side and fleshing out the relationships and history a little bit more. The picture at top is an early "Patterdale Breed" terrier. This picture comes from Foxes, Foxhounds & Foxhunting by Richard Clapham, published in 1923. 

The picture below is of a group of early Border Terriers, taken in 1915. This picture is from Walter Gardner's book, About the Border Terrier.

 

The first Border Terrier entered on to Kennel Club roles to win a working certificate was a dog by the name of Ivo Roisterer, born on August 12, 1915, and receiving his working certificate in 1920. His pedigree is appended below, and clearly shows his great grand sire and great grand dam were from the Ullswater Hunt at a time when Joe Bowman was Huntsman.

   

The picture, appended below, shows Joe Weir, the Ullswater Huntsman that replaced Jow Bowman. Like Bowman, he held his position for an incredibly long period of time, from the 1924-1971 -- a period of 47 years. The dog in Joe Weir's arms is "Butcher" -- a picture apparently taken after a rescue. This photo, taken sometime in the late 1940s or 1950s, shows a dog very much like Joe Bowman's "Patterale Breed" and also very much like the early Border Terriers. It says quite a lot that this dog could be called a Border Terrier, a Patterdale Terrier, a "Fell Terrier," or a "Working Lakeland" -- evidence enough that all of these breeds are so closely related, and so recently differentiated, as to be interchangeable just a generation ago.

Of course, now we have generally decided that a "Patterdale" is a smooth or slape-coated black dog, while a "black Fell" is a rough-coated black dog.

Perhaps some day we will do away with names all together and simply divide the world of terriers as they should be cleaved: Dogs that work (regardless of color, coat or name) and those that don't. If we look at what we see in the field today, we can broadly state that Border Terriers tend to line up in the latter camp, while Patterdale Terriers tend to still reside in the former.


 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great site. My husband is Joe Bowmans Great Grandson and it is so interesting to hear aboout Patterdale Terriers. We have one ourselves (Stubborn little thing).

Anonymous said...

Lovely to read about the relationship of the "patterdale" types . We lost our much loved Patterdale bitch Sandy a year ago this month and we still miss her , she had reached the grand old age of 16 and was a character all her life , all who met her fell in love instantly . Keep up the good work .

Elby the Beserk said...

We have a Patterdale X Border Collie. Been doing some research on Patterdales, and it seems we have, in essence, a small collie sized black Patterdale. Lovely mix, the terrier "madness" tempered with collie smarts. Such a bright dog; whilst my parents had three poodles in succession when I was young, I never had any part in raising them. Pig (for that is his name) has been by my side since we got him at 2 months (I work from home, part time), and has been a delight to "train" - I put it in quotes, as all I have used is the Dog Listener book (the English lady, not the Mexican guy on TV), and common sense.

Can't imagine being without a Patterdale now. He'll walk for hours, and his "work" is retrieving sticks (the bigger the better) from the nearby river we mostly walk by. Raging torrents no problem, and he loves to get sticks thrown under a waterfall that runs into the river.

Loves to hunt - had to separate him from a deer recently. Usually he doesn't get near them, as much of the woods around where we live (NE Somerset) are lightly forested and have a lot of undergrowth, so the deer have a huge advantage. This one was in an area that had been over-forested, and was 100% conifer, so he was on to it in no time at all. Released it to my command, bless him, though we both came home well bloodied!

Lovely to read about them; as a newish dog person, I knew little about Patterdales, and terriers in general. I salute the terrier!

PBurns said...

Best thing about a Patterdale-Collie cross: The dog is so smart it can do your taxes.

Worst thing about a Patterdale-Collie cross: It will cheat on your taxes, and no one will believe you when you blame it on the dog! ;)

Patrick

Unknown said...

I have two Patterdales. One a rescue, the other a rehome.
Most amazing dogs ever.
I have been told on many occasions by "Patterdale officianados" That Wilfred is not a Patterdale. Yet compared to the photos on here he is.
Excellent and informative writing.