From Pietoro’s (Pai’s) Photobucket:
1911 Sealyham terrier.
1913 Sealyham terrier.
If I didn’t tell you that these two dogs were Sealyhams, you would probably think they were short-legged JRT’s.
In fact, the dog on the bottom looks very much like Cammie and Rhodie’s mother— except that she’s smooth-coated.
If you want to see the old Sealyham terrier, look no further than the short-legged Jack Russell.
See related post
The second one looks a lot like my west higland terrier did. But when he had a hair cut of course!
It seems very likely that these vintage Sealyham Terriers won their titles before the breed was closed off to breeding with the scruffy little terrier common in the UK and Ireland (and still common there), and certainly before the breed changed from having a rough coat that didn’t need to be clipped to a long silky coat that needs the groomer every six week. Looking at the progression of photos on Pai’s site, the silky coat seems to have become the norm in the 1930s, along with the deep chest and short(er) legs — and makes the Sealyham very similar to the cairn, westie, scotty and skye terriers.
These early pictures look like my terriers from Ireland, except that we like the liver nose and light eye (banned by the JRT and PRT breed clubs because they suspect it was gained from pit bulls — ignoring the prevalence of the liver colour in several terriers and most of the herding and gun dogs).
I really wonder what would be “saved” given the similarity to the other breed-club terriers — and to that other rare breed the Czesky. The people who believe in breed purity are unlikely to want to “save” the Sealyham using outcrosses because they buy into the closed-stud-book philosophy. The “original” dog still exists today, and it doesn’t need to be recreated.
On the other hand dog of the current type could easily be recreated by going back to the small scruffy village terrier (who likely carries some purebred genes along with a “landrace” heritage). And — as with the sighthound crosses on your more recent post, one could select for heterozygous traits, ban line breeding, and set criteria for adding new dogs to the stud book — all the things needed for a healthy population. If a Sealyham breeder was willing to contribute foundation stock to such a project, great. If not, no loss (except for some pesky congenital diseases).
Patterdales come in liver:
You could get that color from them, too, or from their common ancestor.
True! Patterdales allow both liver and black.
I’m not quite ready to go big yet. We are not going to have any litters next year, and are preparing to store sperm from the males we have placed (so they can be neutered). That will happen in April or May. The girls are doing dog sports this year, and possibly some hunting. They regularly catch mice and rats in the ravines – no squirrels yet, but one raccoon cornered last year.
I do have some concerns about the Patterdales being ‘hard’ dogs. Our dogs have very good temperaments along with their prey drive and make good pets. So far none of the obsessive behaviour that is so common with JRTs. They do need exercise, of course.
JRTCA dogs are often too hard for the average family. From what I’ve read, Patterdales are just as bad.
There are these people who repeat the catechism that the only Jack Russell that ever was a Jack Russell is one that was registered by the JRTCA.
The registry is quasi-open, but the dogs have to meet their phenotype standard, which is next to impossible with dogs that aren’t derived from JRTCA or the Parson Russell terrier type.
These dogs bear a strong resemblance to my granddad’s old mixed-breed terrier (at least partly wire-haired terrier), Tiny. He finally had her put down at the ripe old age of 22.
Wow, I had no idea that the sealyhams used to look like that. Very cool old pictures, I am really glad I came across them. They look just like my parson russell but with really short legs. It’s amazing how much breeders have changed this breed over the last century!