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GOODBYE, SCOTTIE!
By David Hancock 

  It was no surprise to read, in The Times of the 25th of February 2019, the headline: “Foreign breeds leave Scottie out of fashion”, referring to the sad decline in numbers of the Scottish Terrier breed. There were only 438 registered with The Kennel Club in 2018, a decline of 38% since 2013, with the breed being placed on the ‘at risk’ list of breeds looking vulnerable to extinction. Of our native breeds, out of a total of 57, 29 are deemed to be ‘vulnerable’ – having fewer than 300 registrations a year. Meanwhile several thousands of French Bulldogs and Pugs are favoured, despite disturbing and justified concerns about their health and physical soundness. Til Tovey, secretary of the Scottish Terrier Club of England, was quoted in the newspaper article as saying: “It is so sad to see this wonderful and well-recognised breed, which is loyal, affectionate and intelligent, steadily decline in popularity as more fashionable choices take over.” Those were heartfelt words, with the word fashionable a key element, for ‘celebrity-apeing’, or blind copying, is the death of so many past favourites, across a wide field. This is very much a breed worth saving, not just because it is another native breed about to leave us, but because of its immense value as a companion dog, being instantly identified as a Scottie the world over, but also because of its working past – serving rural communities as a vermin-catcher.

  For centuries, Scotland has had small rough-haired terriers, reference being made as far back as 1436 by John Leslie, in his ‘History of Scotland’, to a ‘dog of low height, which, creeping into subterraneous burrows, routs out the foxes, badgers, martens, and wild cats from their lurking places and dens.’ HD Richardson, writing in 1853, refers to three varieties of Scottish terriers, one ‘sandy-red and rather high on the legs’ and called the Highland Terrier; a second, the same size but ‘with the hair somewhat flowing and much longer, which gives a short appearance to the legs. This is the prevailing breed of the Western Isles of Scotland’; and a third ‘the dog celebrated by Sir Walter Scott as the Pepper and Mustard or Dandie Dinmont breed’. From this account, you could be forgiven for thinking of the Cairn, the Scottie and the Westie as one breed, with the Skye and the Dandie also featuring as distinct breeds at that time.

 Colonel Hamilton Smith, writing in Volume X of ‘The Naturalists’ Library’, published in 1840, considered the Scottish Terrier to be the oldest representative of what he termed the cur dog race in Great Britain, stating: ‘Our diminutive modern terrier, particularly the Scottish or rough-haired breed, is therefore the race we look upon as the most ancient dog of Britain…and in no part of Europe has the rough-haired breed retained so completely as in Britain all the traits which constitutes a typical species. No dog carries the head so high…’ Despite the Colonel’s scholarly researches, I am forever suspicious of Victorian writers on terriers, the latter were utilised by working men, unlike gundogs and hounds; whole libraries have been written about the latter, not many books were devoted to terriers in previous centuries and not every distinguished writer of those times was familiar with terrier work, terrier-breeding and terrier construction.

 In his book The Scottish Terrier, published by Our Dogs in the late 1920s, WL McCandlish recorded that “The Macdonalds of Skye had a preference for longer coated dogs, and hence the development began which has led by selection to the modern Skye Terrier. The Malcolms of Poltalloch found a small dog with a short head most suitable, and latterly, having a family liking for cream or white-coloured ones, the developmnt of the West Highlander commenced. The type from which the modern Scottish Terrier came was probably domiciled in the Blackmount region of Perthshire, the Moor of Rannoch, and surrounding districts…That there was no cross-breeding among the Terriers of the Highlands is improbable in dogs kept entirely for work by men not particular about pedigree or appearance.” For those zealots who seek an ancient line of pure-breeding in their breed of terrier from Scotland, those words are of significance.

 The great chronicler of Scottish dogs, Thomson Gray, was writing in 1903: “Fanciers of recent years have tried to alter the original type of Terrier, by trying to engraft on a short cobby body a long, senseless-looking head, to get which they had to breed dogs almost, if not quite, twice the size of the original, and to alter the formation of the head…This straight-face craze began in Black-and-tan Terriers, extended to Fox-terriers, is now contaminating the Collie, and is threatening our national Scottish Terrier. Coats are also getting softer and more woolly in texture…reminding one of a cat’s coat instead of a pig’s, the bristles which resemble the true coat of the Scottish Terrier”. Again, and again, in our terrier breeds, you detect the abandonment of working criteria out of breeder indifference or ignorance. The show critiques of today regularly comment adversely on the faulty texture in terriers’ coats; but who will change the preferences of those who have never seen a working terrier braving the elements day after day?

   On the Scottish Terrier, the terrier expert of just over a century ago, Piece O’Conor wrote: “Today, he is ‘a thing of beauty and a joy for ever’ no doubt, but alas! a poor workman.”  Another terrier expert, but of the last century, the iconoclastic Brian Plummer wrote of this breed: “As to when the Scottish Terrier was last worked is yet another moot point.” He quoted a supreme terrier-breeder, Sir Jocelyn Lucas, who noted the inability of the breed to work as a pack. All these writers were experts on working terriers not show dogs; each disliked the heavy coats, shorter legs and heavier bone and heads that became favoured by the show-ring devotees. It might well be that the heavy, ground-hugging coat of the Scottie played a part in its falling from favour over the years. Even show-ring breeders have commented adversely on the upright shoulders and lack of forward reach in the exhibited breed, as well as the gradual loss of rear extension, so that the Scottie had to take an awful lot of steps to get anywhere.

 In his book on the Scottish Terrier, WK McCandlish writes: “Over the formation of the forelegs considerable discussion has taken place. In early show days the majority of dogs were very bent at the pastern, and such were often also out at elbow or at shoulder. As the breed came into the hands and under the judicial eye of persons accustomed to Fox and other higher-legged terriers, importance began to be placed on straight fronts.” Once a fad becomes acceptable in the show ring few have the individual strength to oppose it, even on sound anatomical grounds. The imposition of a too-straight front demands, in the interests of balanced coordinated movement alone, a straighter stifle at the back, as extension is restricted and front and rear stride has to be in harmony. McCandlish went on to write: “Of two Scottish Terriers with equal sense and equal vitality, but one strong at the pastern and muscularly coupled at the loin, the other weak at the pastern and long and slack in back, the former will retain his working abilities longer…” He was the great terrier expert of his day and his words are worth heeding.

  When function decided form, all the sporting terrier breeds had to have a working-dog construction: shorter-coated, less heavily-headed, not so low-to-ground and lighter boned. Perhaps some proud Scot will heed the words of terrier-experts of the past and re-create the old and more genuine Perthshire-type Scottie, with ideally greater use of the disappearing coat-colour variations, such as wheaten, to revive the breed’s fortunes – and its appeal! 

 “I may here draw attention to the gradual drawing away from the Club’s standard and to the breeding of dogs and bitches far too large. The natural occupation of the Scottish Terrier is to bolt – not worry – foxes and otters. How many of the present-day winners could get to a fox in a cairn? It would be interesting to have the weights of the principal winners of late years.”

                 From the judge’s critique at Leeds Dog Show, June, 1891.