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The Dandie Dinmont Terrier in Great Britain

Some three hundred years ago in the beautiful River Coquet Valley in Northumberland, slowly evolved a race of dogs that were to become known as Dandie Dinmont Terriers. They were owned mainly by Border Tinkers, who sold some to local farmers.

The Coquet is a fine salmon and trout river, which raises in the Cheviot Hills (amid an army firing range in these days) and flows into The North Sea at Amble.

The actual mixture used to produce the breed is lost in the mists of time, some say only the long extinct Scottish Terrier was used, many say terrier Otterhound or even Dachshund crosses were used, but many many words were written long ago in such publications as "The Field" and other journals on the subject without anyone agreeing.

By the early 1800's the little terriers were breeding quite true and were known as Pepper and Mustard Terriers or by the name of the farm, where they were bred, e.g. Hindlee Terrier or Catcleugh Terrier.

They evolved into an excellent working dog, working on fox, otter and even drawing badger as well of despatching common vermin and acting as hunt terriers. Due to the work, they did not have the fine furnishings seen today and early drawings show this well.

By this time the breed was well known on both sides of the Borders and much breeding had passed from the tinkers to such people as Frank Somner of West Morriston, Kelso, James Davidson of Hindlee Farm and many others.

In 1815 Sir Walter Scott wrote his novel Guy Mannering, which featured these pepper and mustard terriers and also a farmer named Dandie Dinmont. The name soon was used for the dogs and James Davidson of Hindlee Farm on the Rule Water (a 1000 acre sheep farm), was nicknamed "Dandie Dinmont" by his fellow farmers. So we have a quite unique breed, probably the only one in dogdom, named by a literary source.

Sir Walter and Lady Scott had Dandies at Abbotsford as well as several other breeds.

Much work was done by devoted breeders in the 19th century, including Bradshaw-Smith of Blackwoodhouse and Gerald Leatham of Thorp Arch, Wetherby, who incidentally presented a Dandie to Queen Victoria and The Prince of Wales.

In the 1870's exhibiting dogs was becoming popular, the Kennel Club was formed in 1873 and just after this time moves were made by Dandie enthusiast to form a Club, a meeting was held at the Fleece Hotel, Selkirk, on 17th November 1875, and The Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club became a reality. The Club is in fact one of the oldest Canine Breed Clubs in the World.

The first task was to draw up a Breed Standard and the credit for this goes to one William Wardlaw Reed, who smoothed out many differences and at the Red Lion, Carlisle, in 1876, the standard was agreed and adopted and is very similar to the standard in use today.

The first Club Show was held in Carlisle in 1877, after this the show was often in conjunction with other shows, until 1928, when the Show returned to the Market Hall, Carlisle, where it stayed (apart from war years, when shows were not held) until 1982. From 1983 it has been held in the Carlisle area often at the Swallow Hilltop Hotel, the venue for this year's show in the 125th Anniversary year.

Quite a number of other Dandie Dinmont Clubs were formed in Scotland, but did not last very long, apart from the Scottish Dandie Dinmont Terrier Society, which merged with the D.D.T.C. in 1929. Today there are three Clubs serving the breed - The Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club, The Southern Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club and in Scotland, The Caledonian Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club.

When first formed there were two joint secretaries of the D.D.T.C. William Strachan of Linlithgow, Scotland and Hugh Dalziel of London well know in dog circles of his day as a writer on Dog matters, under the nom-de-plume of "Corsincon".

A few who have served the Club well as Secretaries are the Rev. Spencer Tiddeman, Mrs Tibbie Simpson-Shaw (1909-1929), A.D. Lawson (1929-1946) and George Jardine (1946-1971).

In 1885 Charles Cook a solicitor in Edinburgh, member of the Club and President of the Scottish Dandie Dinmont Terrier Society, wrote the first book on the breed, much prized by owners even today. Only 200 copies were printed at a price of one guinea.

In 1959 John Gordon produced a book on the breed, with much help given by Mrs Phyllis Salisbury of the Salismore Dandies, who was probably the greatest breeder of the 20th century, her breeding and showing spanning over 60 years.

Extract from the speech of Mr John Roslyn, on 125th Anniversary of DDTC in Carlisle
Permitted to be reprinted in DandieOnline by John Roslyn.