Jocelyn Lucas is pictured above, unloading his pack of over-large Sealyham terriers for a day of bushing rabbits in the field.
Lucas, it seems, was more of a rabbit-hunting man than a serious digger, though he did occasionally take his pack of terriers with him on a dig, allowing all the dogs to go underground at once.
Yes, that's right, as many as a dozen dogs underground at once!
At this point, most serious diggers must wonder how often Lucas took his dogs digging. The answer seems to be not too often. When he did go digging, it was with a full retinue of onlookers and paid diggers in tow. This was "hunting" as social occasion, and it was important to look both sporty and well-bred.
None of this is to take a thing away from his book, Hunt and Working Terriers (1931), in which Lucas does an admirable job of surveying the world of working terriers and laying out the basic elements of the sport. It is to say that Lucas picked a decidedly odd dog to use to pursue sport in the field.
Lucas is pictured above, in 1959, with some of his pups.
As far as I can tell, almost no one worked Sealyham terriers before Lucas, and almost no one has worked them since.
To be honest, the Sealyham is a breed created for the show ring and it has largely remained there. Though histories of the breed claim it was created by John Tucker Edwardes for the purpose of working fox undergounrd, Edwardes was long dead before this breed was pulled into the Kennel Club, and I can find no pictures of Edwardes' dogs at all.
To be honest, the Sealyham is a breed created for the show ring and it has largely remained there. Though histories of the breed claim it was created by John Tucker Edwardes for the purpose of working fox undergounrd, Edwardes was long dead before this breed was pulled into the Kennel Club, and I can find no pictures of Edwardes' dogs at all.
As for the early Kennel Club Sealyhams, they do not look a bit like the modern dogs, and in fact are indistinguishable from cobby-bodied non-pedigree Jack Russell terriers with whom they no doubt share common roots.
Lucas, of course, finally gave up on his beloved Sealyham terriers, as the show ring continued to move to ever-larger dogs and ever-more-feathered coats.
Trying to breed something useful for the field and find a competitive edge in the marketplace, Lucas did a simple one-generation cross of a small Sealyham with a Norfolk terrier to create something he called the "Lucas Terrier," but the breed never caught on.
As an homage to Lucas, whom he met in the 1970s when he was a very an old man, Brian Plummer tried to revive the Lucas Terrier as a working breed. The few folks around that had already created their own "Lucas terriers" by making one-generatin crosses of show-Sealyham and show-Norfolk terriers bridled, objecting that Plummer's dogs were not "pure Lucas terriers" because he tried to inject some gameness into his dogs by outcrossing them with other true working terriers. For these "pure Lucas" types, the standard for a Lucas terrier was not that the dog worked, but that the dog conform to the "single generation" cross that -- ironically -- made their dogs impure "mutts" in the eyes of Kennel Club Sealyham owner.
In the end, the Lucas Terrier, which has never consisted of more than 100 dogs of various provenance, has split into two breeds each of which now sniffs that it alone is the "real" thing.
Ironically, so far as I can tell, neither camp seems to actually work their dogs to ground or to gun!
Beautiful!
As for hunting rabbits with pedigree terriers, it has never caught on for a simple reason: Any low-cost mutt of a terrier can bush rabbits, and almost none can do it as well as a common beagle, basset or dachshund.
So what is the future for the Lucas Terrier?
Time will tell, but right now it seems to be lost in the between the warm cushions of romantic history and the back of the living room couch.
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9 comments:
For my money, there isn't really an ideal breed or breeds to go out rabbiting with; if you're out for a day's bunny-hunting with a pack of dogs, you simply take everything with four legs and a bark that's knocking about and see how all this works out.
I had had great entertainment from a "pack" consisting of an allegedly show-grade Alsatian, a wolfhound, several whippets and a Jack Russell or two. This sort of motley assortment actually ended up working remarkably well (and does even better with a dachshund or some other small hound in there).
What it ends up with is the small dogs working cover and pushing the bunnies out, where the whippets and so on nab them on the run. A small hound will stick on a trail like glue and Jack Russells dash about madly throughout cover; the net effect is that the rabbits have little chance bolting out of cover, and with the hounds and terriers in cover they similarly have a hard time of it.
As long as you have enough ground to work, you can have quite a productive day of things, just as long as nothing puts up a deer or a hare...
"To be honest, the Sealyham is a breed created for the show ring and it has largely remained there."
To be quite honest with you I have found the exact opposite to be true.
The breed as far as Im concerned was created to be hunted by Edward's and has lost none of its hard wired keenness to do so. Gameness has never been an issue.
This Im sure alarms most first time Sealyham owners and the fact that they don't make terribly good pets as a result.
While certainly the coat has become too soft and profuse and characters sometimes almost completely unmanageable they remain a dog with only one thing on their minds hunting. They have a wonderful nose and will find inhabited earth, instantly going to ground only giving tongue if it's fox or badger they find. There they will worry and detain the quarry with the fiercest tenacity and courage. A much more powerful dog than working JRTs.
I would wager a bet any show animal in it's prime would do the same given half a chance even today.
They are also very good at flushing peasant in even the thickets cover. All this I know because I kept Sealyhams in Belgium. They taught me one thing that although they have changed quite dramatically on the outside they haven't changed one bit from the dog they were bred to be in the very beginning a purely hunting animal.
Before the Sealyham became a show animal almost exclusively they were used for hunting and there are many records of this, including the early showing of purely hunting working Sealyhams of the time. May I suggest for reading "Sealyhams" F.J Chenuz 1959 Ernest Benn Limited Bouverie House Fleet Street London. Here you will find many examples. I still have my copy in perfect condition (: here you will also find early dogs that look nothing like the modern Sealyham, more like a short legged cobby well muscled jack russell terrier always with a broken coat always short.
I love reading your blog.
So far as I know, there is no one in the world hunting with KC registered Sealyhams. The dog was so poor at work that TWO famous dog people gave up on the breeding and crossed out the make the Lucas and Cesky terrier. No theories. If you have a KC registered dog that hunts, send a scan of the paperwork and pictures of the dog digging. I want to believe, but there are more pictures of Yetis than there are of working Sealyhams.
Yes this is true there are no working Sealyhams today but there certainly were. And at least today there are some though not working as they were intended to work. There aren't enough of them to start but killing badgers and fox with hound has been outlawed in the UK I believe. Badger hunting is a particularily contentious issue not sure if there is a cull or not. There is however "The Working Sealyham" club in the UK and they use the dogs for ratting instead.
http://mysealyhams.com/
I am unable to furnish you with my Sealyhams pedigrees, they were registered with the Dutch kennel Club and the British one both their fathers and mothers were completely and utterly purely show dogs holding many titles on the continent. The breeder a Mevrouw Smelts has since passed away, and I have long left the Low Country. This was the early 80's even then you would've been lucky to see more than five or so Sealyhams at any dog show local or international.
I feel the same way about showing as you do and as such I never showed my dogs. But all of this does not mean the Sealyham isn't hard wired to hunt because it is as I found out. If you've never owned or tried working one you wouldn't know. Others also say they instantly revert to the working dog when given a chance see the link.
I would also say they listen extremely well in the field responding to whistle like even a border collie might! They like that contact. They like the company of each other in the field also and their masters. Just don't linger or you will lose them all to ground.
Many a time I have had to dig my dogs they don't willingly come out either. One of my bitches spent nine hours yes nine hours underground! When we finally located her after dark she had a fox and refused to come out she had to be dragged out by the tail growling blue murder. I was amazed I thought she was dead, but instead she looked like a wild beast of the earth only her dark eyes blinking brightly were what I could recognise of her, she was completely red like the earth. It got so bad with my dogs I had to avoid certain areas and always carry a spade in my car. I had become a sporting gentlemen by accident not design I can assure you. Im not built for that climate even though they are the hardy little dogs. I began choosing areas where they could happily flush peasant above ground instead as I found it more of a nuisance than a pleasure out in the freezing wet weather digging dogs in thick mud. They exceled at this it wouldnt be five minutes and a bird was flapping out of the dense undergrowth. The forestry department admired my little pack as they gave them a bit of sport where they wouldn't have otherwise had any. Many a time I enlisted their help to dig a dog before I got the hang of it and then later just because I didn't want to myself......continued
.......Other people didn't have this "problem" with their terriers, Westies, Norfolk Cairn e.t.c they happily walked by without showing the slightest interest in my and my animals antics.
I have no idea what Lucas was up to but he wasn't the only one hunting Sealyhams and long long before him. As I've said there are many recorded references to their use in hunts.
I can certainly see how especially the males seen in shows today might be too big, but this wasn't always the case. If I may say so it might have been an issue not breeding down for size for Lucas, no real idea though.
But believe me the Sealyham is hard wired to hunt even in its present form.
Only the gamest of dogs were used in its creation which included heavy use of the small game white bullterrier called the Cheshire terrier which much like the influence of the true game English pitbull terrier seems to have a serious habit of lingering through time. This tiny "bullterrier" to my mind had the largest influence on the breed type and character. Under all that soft hair is a small working terrier still make no mistake.
Its worth noting that there were both broken coats and smooth coated Sealyhams. Something which Lucas doesn't seem to have I noticed. I can only assume he was instrumental in ruining the dog rather than furthering its abilities. Unfortunately the further refinement of the breed did also made them extremely pleasant on the eye and so they became very popular, at first amongst the rich and famous. They remain an extremely handsome terrier but not quite kitted out for the hunt like they were meant to be.
Im convinced even in their present state they have a lot to offer by way of gameness tenacity and keenness to hunt, plus extremely good nose and handy pack mentality, plus power which should be packed into a small bundle. This is the only reason I think they should stick around as a breed. They carry some priceless blood of good working dogs from a long time ago.
I think you've been hoodwinked by the alarmingly handsome exterier they presently present to the world. I certainly was.
Badgers and fix are worked all over Europe and in the US too. The Kennel Club Sealyham has not worked in more than 70 years. Read the posts on the blog and look around in the modern world. This dog was created at the time of the first dig shows which were terrier-centered and it was ruined out of the box as breeders moved away from the size and coat needed for work towards the heavy bodied, soft coated wrecks you see today. As for ratting and bushing, and dog can do that, from whippet to collie. A terrier's work is terre -- to go to ground.
Thats the thing, I personaly don't think they are particularily good at ratting. Mine never caught nor killed a single rat on their own. Don't think they have quite the same interest. It needs to be kindled.
But as far as going to ground is concerned they are born naturals and extremely tenacious. Hard wired.
My JRT on the other hand (Shorty) killed five rats when she was only seven months old, broke their backs neatly with one shake.....hard wired. I never taught her or encouraged her just doing what comes naturaly. She is also excelent at dispaching frogs the same way. Luckily as we were having a bad time of them barking all night up close to the house. Not any more.
I think its worth keeping an open mind on these things myself as life is full of interesting surprises.
If you could find a small Sealyham bitch and one that wont eat your arm off you would see. No argument.
I think the biggest obstical to why they have not survived as working dogs has been issues of size and coat softness, plus time wars and place.
As pets because they were priced out the market a long time ago and IMO they werent the easiest dogs to manage. Like fox hounds.
In fact the Sealyham in my opinion isn't much of a ratter. Worked with JRT they are better they have extremely good nose while the JRT has the turn of speed for those that bolt.
In type the working JRT's today are as varied as the Sealyhams were as intended by Edward's though they all had quite heavy muscling as the badger is a formidable animal. Lucas's pack were more of a fashion statement for fashionable hunt meets of the time and not representative of the breed as a working animal. Unfortunately his pack seems to be the one most remembered and quoted in regard to the Sealyham.
One can't also discount the fact that in order for Sealyhams to be shown in the early days they had to qualify on a hunt first.
Im of the opinion that working English fox hound will also retain their hard wired abilities for a hundred years or more, despite the Hunting Act in the UK and dogs been shown mainstream as opposed to appraisals for the hunt. They are also not popular as pets.
Knowing what I do of the Sealyham Im of the opinion that it would be a waste to discount the breed. Each one disappearing represents a lost gene pool in the working terrier. It's less important how big or fluffy some of them are, these things are malleable with opened registers.
I don't however feel the same way about many other terriers as they seem to have lost the hard wiredness to do an honest days work almost completely. The scottish terrier being one.
A very good site with lots of pictures and details of historic early Sealyhams, hunting Sealyhams.
http://www.sealyham.se/Home.html
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