Curiousity
Curiousity regarding breeds of dogs and the work they are designed for was, I thought, something exclusive to the younger members of the hunting fraternity. I can remember myself in my early teens, sat beside older lads, be they members of my own family or lads I met out in the field, asking them “well what about this breed, can they do the job?” I knew full well what breeds or strains were doing the business day in day out, but as with a lot of spotty little teenagers, I had to try and find something different, always asking why couldn’t a certain type, in reality long relegated to the show bench, actually do a days work. I guess in short, I must have been a right pain in the arse! But credit to the lads who I interrogated, they never lost their temper or patience with me, telling me instead that there were already excellent tools for the job available so I should stop wasting my time looking for alternatives. But you know what youth is like, always think they know better. Thankfully it’s something you grow out of!
With the introduction of computers into a lot of people’s homes and the internet in particular, it means that anyone with curiosity doesn’t have to go far to ask questions. Gone are the days of making a nuisance of yourself by tagging along with the local terrier lads (if they’d let you), now you just have to press a few buttons and reveal your well intended ignorance to a far wider audience! I’m glad that I never had the internet when I was a lad as this way, only a few people are aware of the stupid questions I used to ask! It seems that times may have changed but the curiosity about different breeds hasn’t gone away. It’s not unusual to see questions about certain types and their working abilities asked on various message boards and it makes me smile reading them as I have probably asked them myself at some stage or another. I would say these queries are directed to traditionally non-working breeds, but that is a bit of a misnomer as literally speaking, as you know as well as I, that all terrier breeds where at one point workers. What I mean when I say traditionally non-working is breeds that aren’t used day in day out by the people who rely on their dogs for their sport or livelihood. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, and there will always be someone with a working Fox Terrier for example, to make you eat your words. Alf Rhodes springs to mind with his Dandies.
I had the opportunity recently to see some breeds which are considered non-workers over here, put on a show at an earth trial in Europe. Without going into too much detail, the main dogs used in the area where I was were Dachshunds and German Hunt terriers. These dogs were not only popular due to them being native to the region; they were also in demand as they did the job at hand and did it well. As well as these breeds, there were slightly unusual ones employed in the trials such as West Highland Whites and Welsh terriers along with Parsons. In order to understand the work they did, you have to look at the trials themselves. Upon seeing the Westies I chuckled as I thought someone had brought their pet along for a day out, only to realise that they had brought them fully intending to participate. What I will say is that although I never saw the Westie actually working, I am told that it did what was required of it in the fox trial. What I will say though is that I am doubtful as to whether any of the dogs I saw would actually be up for the job we would want them to do in these Isles. With the trials being so short and with artificial earths, digging was never mentioned and it’s debatable as to whether you could dig to many of these dogs. But they are good at what they are expected to do and you can’t ask for more than that. The other thing is that some of the dogs were huge!
Going back a few years, a mate of mine wanted a working terrier so we chatted about what type he wanted, what work he expected to do…that sort of thing. After discussing this for a while, a type was decided upon and that turned out to be a Lakeland. This friend’s mind was now tuned to all things Lakeland and he started looking about for decent examples. As he had never owned a working terrier before, I told him to give me a shout if he wanted company when looking at litters and what have you and he was all for it. Anyway I never heard from this mate for a few months and I didn’t really think anything of it as it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Out of the blue one day I received a telephone call from this mate of mine, telling me to come round and see this fabulous new Lakeland pup he’s got hold of. After a while we both managed to arrange a time and when I arrived I find this little black and tan bundle hanging off the bottom of my jeans, a real lively little terrier pup, full of life and mischief. Over a couple of cans I ask my mate where he got the dog from and when he told me I nearly choked….a KC breeder! I didn’t know whether to laugh at him or punch him! As it turned out, I just laughed. It transpired that he had a list of people who he’d spoken to on the phone and arranged to come and see pups. He’d gone the right way about it too, looking at working homes and not limiting his choice to solely Lakelands either. But then he saw some for sale in his local paper and decided to investigate. These pups were not from working parents and none of the line had seen anything remotely resembling work for generations, but the stupid sod took one look at the pups and couldn’t bring himself to leave the house without one. The breeder must have been delighted!
As the pup grew, so did my mates bond with it and it was spoiled rotten to be honest. I seriously doubted that this pup would even be given a chance to work let alone prove itself worthy of being called a working terrier. The Lakeland bug had really gotten a grip on my mate by the time the pup was about 5 months old and he went out and bought an adult dog and bitch which had been started and were already supposedly working. Another shake of the head followed when he told me as I am always dubious of people selling adult working dogs, but I just prayed he hadn’t been swindled. These two adults were given time to settle in and then we decided to give them a run to see what they were made of. To my surprise (and if he’s honest, to his surprise too) they were ok. Nothing earth shattering, but they were workers. Maybe my standards are lower than the lad’s that sold them, or maybe there really was a genuine reason they were sold. I don’t know and I don’t suppose I ever will.
Now that my mate had what we considered two workers in his hands, he started looking slightly askance at the KC pup he had bought. Doubts had started to flood into his mind and once that starts, there is only one way to stop it. That pup couldn’t come of age quickly enough. Hand on heart, if that pup did turn out to be a jacker, it would still have its space in front of the fire as it was the baby – the favourite.
I did not hear from my mate for a while after that and the pup must have been around the 18 months mark when we next hooked up. I enquired after the dogs, asking whether he’d tried the pup yet, to which he replied he hadn’t but he insisted I come round as soon as I could. My curiosity got the better of me and I went round straight away to find that he’d mated the pup to the adult bitch he’d bought in! All this without even trying the pup out in the field! There wasn’t much I could say so I admired the litter for what they were and tried to impress upon my mate that we really should take the KC dog out for a stroll to see if he’d got what it takes. We wouldn’t pressure him into entering; just take things nice and gentle. As it happened, a few of the boys were going out in a few days time to check a few places so we decided to take the KC dog along with us. I won’t go into too much detail, but the dog did my mate proud. Allowing for the fact that it had never seen any work before, it impressed me and a few others there and I had to take back a few things I had said about it. The dog was taken out and cleaned up and hailed as a mighty warrior. My mate got a few slaps on the back and I am sure he felt 10 feet high that day. In his mind, this completely justified his recent mating and he was full of talk of what the pups were going to do and what impact they would make on the working terrier world.
To my knowledge, the KC dog was tried thoroughly and came through with flying colours each time. Not so the pups. Due to my mates absolute confidence in the mating, he kept a few of the pups back himself and the others went to trusted homes. I wouldn’t say they went to the best working homes, but to lads he knew who could be trusted with breeding etc. These pups got a bit of a name for themselves locally and people would talk about dogs out of so and so, and how are they coming on. Out of that entire litter, one pup made the grade, not as good as either parent, but workable to a certain degree. Some were tried and when they failed, they were described as slow to mature, which may well have been the case. But as time went on and they still were no earthly good, questions started to be asked. A lot of the reputation remained due to this one pup that turned out and as my mate was convinced his KC dog was the fountain of it’s working ability, he’d had it advertised at stud for a bit. Also, due to his 100% faith in the KC dog, he then sold the dog and bitch he bought in, to concentrate on breathing fire into the KC type and get it working again.
Having lost count of the number of KC bitches he has had through his yard in a futile attempt to reproduce the qualities of his original dog, I kind of lost interest in his fortunes. He tried putting the original dog back to the one decent pup that had turned out from his first litter and got nothing but rubbish. Whilst I wished the lad well, I couldn’t help feeling that he was wasting a lot of his time and producing a hell of a lot of sub-standard dogs. There may be good (even very good) KC dogs out there; but their ability to reproduce themselves is severely damaged due to them being bred for the bench for far too long. For every decent dog in their pedigrees there are a hundred crap ones. Most of the ones that could have made the grade wouldn’t have even got the opportunity to try.
The two adults that he bought in and subsequently sold, are doing well in a working home so I hear and when mated together have produced some decent stock. Which is ironic really considering what my mate did. Just as a footnote really, this lad no longer keeps any KC gear now, preferring to buy in stuff from working lads that is bred the right way.
You can waste a lot of time and produce a lot of waste trying to reinvent the wheel. As you churn out more dogs in an attempt to breed life into an exotic/unusual breed, unless you don’t have and maintain the highest standards, you are consigning yourself to a lot of heartache and failures. Even when you have two good workers, you have to ask yourself what’s behind them…what are they likely to throw? Sometimes worker to worker is simply not enough. Ultimately you have to realise that you are trying to replicate that which already exists. But knowing human nature, there will always be people who want to be different, to stand out from the crowd. There are a lot of people out there who like a novelty, a gimmick if you like, be that different names, colours, sizes – whatever. It might be the boring choice and every other working terrier bloke you come across might have one too, but go for what’s reliable. Go for what does the business time after time. If you are in this for the long haul (and some aren’t) then try to start off on the right foot, start with the very best you can obtain and try to not fall into the trap of making excuses for them. And if you are intent on the unusual and exotic route, I hope you are a lot more dedicated than my mate was!
All the best.