1129

BEING TERRIER-LIKE
By David Hancock

  Writers on terriers down the centuries have each in their own way made one common point: to be terrier-like dogs must have character, spirit, fortitude, tenacity, feistiness and combativeness, using words to convey such features and emphasizing them. In his Cynographia Britannica of 1800, Sydenham Edwards, for example wrote: "The Terrier is querulous, fretful, and irascible, high-spirited and alert when brought into action; if he has not unsubdued perseverance like the Bull-dog, he has rapidity of attack, managed with art, and sustained with spirit; it is not what he will bear, but what he will inflict..." Three years later, The Sportsman’s Cabinet of 1803 recorded: “No fox-hunting establishment is ever considered complete without a brace of well-bred terriers in the field…Proprietors of fox-hounds are exceedingly nice in their selection of terriers, and equally emulous upon the superiority of their qualifications; size is not so indispensable as strength, but invincible fortitude must be equal to both.” This publication's 'invincible fortitude' picks up Edwards's 'unsubdued perseverance'.

  In his 'Sporting Terriers' of 1926, Piece O'Conor wrote: "That the fox terrier of today is a great improvement, in so far as looks go, on his predecessors of forty or fifty years ago is beyond question, though whether he is better suited physically or morally for work underground is a matter of opinion". If O'Conor were alive today, I think he would strengthen those words even more and would not be a happy terrier-man. In Field Sports magazine in 1949, in an article entitled The Hunt Terrier Man and His Dogs, old terrier-man Fred F Wood wrote of his kind: “There is also another attendant to the pack, the terrier man…then look at his little companions, maybe a couple or a couple and a half of terriers, not much to look at perhaps, the show terrier man might call them ugly little mongrels, but there is no mongrel about them, many of their pedigrees have been as carefully kept as those of the hounds, not for their appearance, but for their qualities. They have to be constructed of bone, wire and whip cord, and have coats that will keep out cold and wet and then on top of that be brave as lions, if they are to do the work they are called upon to do…so think of those little terriers…they will stay and fight their fox until he bolts or they are dug out, that requires pluck.” It was fear of their terriers losing their working anatomy, and especially their ‘pluck’, which steered working terrier enthusiasts away from the show ring.

   And, in his book on the Fox Terrier of 1950, the great expert on that breed, and highly successful show breeder, Rosslyn Bruce makes one statement that gladdens my heart: "...I say to the budding enthusiast: The first point to aim at in a terrier is "Character", the second "Character", and yet again the third essential is "Character"."  Here is a man steeped in the exhibition world, a member of the Kennel Club Committee and founder of the Smooth Fox Terrier Association, having the wit and the perception to see what makes a terrier, in any age. It is tenacity, fortitude, fearlessness, dash and perky assertiveness that make a terrier what it is, rather than perfection of form. But these qualities alone do not make a successful sporting terrier; such a dog needs the anatomy which allows it to perform its allotted task: the control of vermin above and below ground.

  More recently, John T Marvin in his The Book of All Terriers of 1971 wrote: “The Terrier instinct is bred into every Terrier worthy of the name. How many can recall the amazing aptitude their dog has for killing a stray rat that foolishly crosses its path? Others can remember the fight of one of their Terriers to finish a woodchuck. Still others have seen the rare conflict between a Terrier and an otter, a rugged battle but one in which Terrier spirit usually prevails. Thus, today’s Terrier, no matter what the breed, still carries in its veins the blood of conflict and the instinct to do the job. Let’s not change his conformation so that these traits and instincts cannot be used.” If only the fulsomely-praising Crufts' commentators would pass on such wisdom!

    In the next couple of decades, we are going to have to be extremely protective of our sporting breeds of dog, terriers especially, or we will lose a national treasure-trove. Dog lovers who pay £500 for a pedigree terrier pup and expect it to hide its sporting instincts and behave like a Toy breed are not engaging their brains. Terriers have an instinct to dig, to explore culverts, to hunt smaller warm-blooded creatures and to show off  their determined nature. If you want a contented terrier, you need to be aware of their instinctive yearnings, their inherited longings. Bored frustrated terriers can end up digging where you just don’t want them to, expending pent-up energy by chasing the neighbours' cats and barking - just to relieve tension. Let them hunt a hedgerow, search a shrubbery, race around the park – be active! Let them be terrier-like!