CANADIAN SCOTTISH TERRIER CLUB
BREED HISTORY
Written by Cindy Cooke
Provenance of Janet Tomlinson, Historian
The Scottish Terrier is often described as the oldest breed in Scotland, but no one can accurately determine exactly how the breed evolved. Few outsiders were interested enough in the highland dogs to research and write about them until the late 1870s when Capt. W. W. Mackie spent several winters touring Scotland to see Scottish Terriers in their native habitat. Mackie, who described himself as having “terriers on the brain,” kept a diary in which he described the many types of dogs that were all described as “Scottish” terriers. According to Mackie’s diary, every highland community boasted a gamekeeper or a deer forester who kept a pack of terriers to rid the community of foxes, otters, weasels, stoats, rats and other vermin. The dogs varied widely in size, color and ear carriage, but every terrier man in the highlands of Scotland thought his own strain of dogs was the best and the truest Scottish Terrier.[1] Mackie already had a mental picture of the correct type of Scottish Terrier:
They have a thoroughly Scottish look about them, and would shame two-thirds of the “messans” we sometimes see on the show-bench. They are of divers colours, from a grizzly brindle to sandy; in weight they will run from 17 to 20 lbs; knowing-looking big heads, sharp muzzles, powerful jaws, very large teeth, ears semi-erect, or “cock-and-a-half cock”; stout bony legs, the fore ones slightly bent. If these little dogs have any faults, I would say the fault lay in their ears being heavy, and their tails being inclined to curl slightly.
Mackie’s trips to Scotland coincided with the beginning of dog breeding and exhibition as a hobby in England. He is estimated to have brought around 60 Scottish Terriers back to England, and by 1885, he was exhibiting two of the most successful show dogs of the day, Ch. Dundee, one of the breed’s two founding sires, and the top-winning bitch, Ch. Glengogo.
Dog shows popularized many breeds that were formerly not considered suitable as companion animals. The Scottish Terrier was one such breed. Unsociable and inclined to bite first and ask questions later, it is amazing that the breed caught on with the public at all, but it did. By the 1930s, the breed was wildly popular both in Great Britain and the United States. Two important British kennels were producing most of the top dogs on both sides of the Atlantic. The first was Albourne, a kennel owned by A. G. Cowley. Mr. Cowley sold horses to the Army during WWI, so during the years when many breeders cut back because of food shortages, Cowley had plenty of meat to feed his many dogs. The second was the famous Heather kennel owned by Robert Chapman, Jr. The Chapmans had a multitude of tenants on their land, and many of them raised the Heather puppies as a condition of their tenancies.
In the US, Scottish Terriers were also one of the most popular breeds. Scotties appeared in novels, magazines, movies and every sort of collectible item imaginable. With American fanciers paying thousands of dollars for imported Scottish Terriers during the years between the World Wars, English breeders were unable to resist the lure of so much money. For the first time in the breed’s history, breeders were selecting their stock on the basis of what the show fanciers wanted rather than for working traits. Almost overnight, the English breeders produced a new style of Scottish Terrier. The new type had a shorter body and more profuse hair on the face and legs. The two dogs pictured below were the most influential sires of that era and are credited by most authors with establishing the modern Scottish Terrier.