A Herald of Destruction

Pretenders have always been with us.

Anyone who doubts that need only look at the "Dogs of the Day" column in the November 21, 1931 edition of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, in which A. Croxton-Smith writes of "Working Terriers on the Show Bench". The article is appended below.

Does this sound very much like the drivel we hear today -- a picture of a woman posing next to her show dogs, and claiming knowledge of working terriers because she once walked a few miles off the asphalt?

And the Fox Terrier is still worked?

Not anymore!

The Border Terrier is too small?

Not anymore!

Within a few decades of this pretender prattle, both of these breeds were nearly invisible in the field, leaving open a space for the rise of the Jack Russell Terrier (not a Kennel Club dog) and the Patterdale Terrier (not a Kennel Club dog).

And who helped usher in the wreckage? 

Why none other than the author of this article -- Arthur Croxton Smith, who was chairman of the Kennel Club from 1937 to 1948 when the wholesale destruction of both dogs and breeds reached a furious pace.

"Working Terriers on the Show Bench" by A. Croxton-Smith

WHENEVER a new breed of working terriers is introduced to the show bench, some of their supporters are sure to view the departure with a certain amount of anxiety, in the belief that they may fall into the hands of breeders who know nothing about field sports. In the course of time, they say, terriers will be produced that are of no earthly use except as show specimens.

By standing aloof, however, they are contributing to the danger they are desirous of avoiding. There is no reason at all why a working dog of any sort should not be bred to a certain standard of excellence by those who wish to do so. Good looks in themselves are no indication of a faint heart or weakened constitution, nor are crooked legs, goggle eyes, round skulls and weak jaws the hall mark of working capacity, as many infer.

As a rule, exception cannot be taken to the standards framed for the guidance of breeders, most of which describe an ideal that should make dogs better able to perform their legitimate duties. The mischief comes in when certain exaggerations are developed almost unconsciously, destroying the balance and symmetry.

Though fox terriers have been bred for the show ring for over sixty years, they are just as useful as ever to masters of foxhounds, some of whom keep dogs from pedigree strains. There are misfits, of course, among show dogs as there are in workers, but it would not be fair to condemn all for the shortcomings of a few.

We have many breeds of dogs of all kinds of which we should be proud, and I think it is an advantage that their special characteristics should be preserved and improved, just as we take a pride in our farm animals.

The curious thing is that such a number of distinctive terriers should not have been developed until the last few years, The latest to lay claims to an individuality are the Lakeland terriers, which have been recognized by the Kennel Club within the last few years.

Until the formation of the Lakeland Terrier Association, in 1921, they passed under several names, one of which was Patterdale terriers. No doubt they are a mixture of several breeds, but in the course of time certain strains have been kept pure and the standard has taken the best of these for its model.

We are illustrating this week a team belonging to Mrs. Douglas Paisley. In 1928 Mr. Paisley wrote to me in the following terms "I have had this breed of terriers on and off for well over twenty years, and have known them a great deal longer, as I have hunted with the Blencathra Foxhounds, one of the five-foot packs of foxhounds hunting the Lake District, in which these Lakeland terriers have been used almost exclusively for thirty years. I have kept a careful record of my terriers' pedigrees and all go back to old working blood. The Lakeland terrier is quite a distinct breed from the Border terrier, which was unknown in this part of Cumberland (Thornthwaite, Keswick) until quite recently, and we only have very few now, as they are generally too small to stand the work in this rough country."

Mr. Paisley sent me a photograph of some of his terriers, all of which had been bred to work, but at the same time they had all won prizes at local shows in 1925-6, and one of them, a dog called Tinker, received the gold medal offered by the association for the dog winning the greatest number of points at shows in those years. The Lakeland terriers are a little taller and heavier than the Borders and they are usually blue, blue-and-tan, black and tan, red, mustard, wheaten, grizzle, and black."