As I have noted before, you cannot really understand the history of dogs until you understand the Enclosure Movement in the U.K., which brought with it hedges, stone walls, sheep, and sire selection.
From the Enclosure Movement came the breed improvements of Robert Bakewell, the writings of Erasmus Darwin and his grandson Charles Darwin, the rise of the sheep economy, fox hunting, the shoots, terrierwork and the cacophony of dog breeds we see today.
I have written a bit about the destruction of hedges in the U.K. and the very different nature of hedges in the U.S. where massive amounts of land and barbed wire left us with a slightly different set of history.
That said, whether in the U.S. or the U.K, hedge craft is a dying art and few people today know what a froe is, or how to construct a simple wattle fence, or even how to find and cut a decent walking stick, to say nothing of the various other kind of sticks that used to exist for specific purposes.
The good news is that some of the old knowledge is preserved on film, and thanks to the miracle of Youtube it can be passed forward to those that are interested, Enjoy!
- Related Links
** A Pictorial History of Terriers; Their Politics & Their Place
** A Brief History of Terriers: Part 1
** A Brief History of Terriers: Part 2.
** A Brief History of Terriers: Part 3
** A Brief History of Terriers, Part 4
** A Brief History of Terriers, Part 5
** A Brief History of Terriers, Part 6
** A Brief History of Terriers, Part 7
** A Brief History of Terriers: Part 8
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