A Fictional Dog

Let’s start at the beginning….

The "Dandie Dinmont" (first picture) is a terrier named after a character in a Walter Scott novel (Guy Mannering), which was first published in 1815.  

Dandie Dinmont was a border farmer from Liddesdale who was said to have terriers by the name of "Mustard" and "Pepper" which he trained for work the same as dogs are still trained today:

“I had them a’ regularly entered, first wi’ rottens — then wi’ stots or weasels — and then wi’ the tods and brocks— and now they fear naething that ever cam wi’ a hairy skin on ’t.’”

The novel itself is a very bad romantic tale supposedly taking place between 1760 and 1780 in Scotland, but it *does* mention fox hunting -- the first real mention in British literature, and the timing is not a coincidence, as the Enclosure Movement, which did so much to drive the rise of fox hunting and the development of dogs, was starting to roar along at this time.

So, to begin, we start with a fictional dog.

How fictional?

Nearly 20 years ago, I challenged anyone to show a picture of ANY Dandie Dinmont, ANYWHERE, that had actually been worked to ground by ANYONE in the preceding 50 years.  

That post is here, and worth a read >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-on-dandie-dinmonts-and-small.html?

Guess what?  No takers.  

So now we have 70 years of … nothing.

In fact, I can find scant evidence that a Dandie Dinmont has ever worked anything underground EVER.  

This is, well and truly, a dog created by fiction.

Why do I bring this up?

Well, it seems the Dandie Dinmont breeders think the sway back and short legs of their strange-looking and unpopular dog is necessary for work (see appended sign-on form letter being circulated in the UK)

They are?  

That’s news to me and everyone else who has dug a thousand holes over hundreds of animals over several decades.

And, of course, it’s complete nonsense and pure fantasy untempered by actual experience with shovel in hand and locator collar on dog.

As for the rest of the letter, I have no idea what it means, and I suspect the author does not either.  

What is incontestable is that Dandies have health issues and a very small gene pool.

Is continuing to breed this exaggerated and non-working dog, with fairly serious morphological issues, in a small, closed gene pool a good idea?

Nope.  The good news is that, whatever happens next with this dog, the world has voted with its feet and its pocketbook.  

Or, as I once wrote about this and several other rare breeds:  DANGER — Market Forces at Work.