I am not fan of journalism by press release.
It’s not really “journalism” anyway. It is simply media relations, and media relations might as well be called spin. Spin is not really about the truth. It’s about advocacy, and it’s often about deception.
There is so much of this in the world of journalism about dogs that it is very hard to tell if something is true or not.
And if you want to see a very good example of it, take this puff piece that appeared on the BBC’s website last May. It is called “Why is the Skye terrier is an endangered breed?”
It discusses how popular Skye terriers were for a time. For a period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, It was a breed that was quite fashionable to have, especially in the burgher classes in Scotland. Indeed, I’ve written about how the Marjoribanks family, who started the strain of yellow wavy-coated retrievers that are the basis for the golden retriever, were actually better known for the Skye terriers than their retrievers.
But now their retriever has taken the world by storm, and their terrier is a breed on the verge of extinction.
The BBC piece could have done some really good homework on this breed. The question of why breeds become popular and then become extinct is a very fascinating question to me.
Instead, the reporter who wrote the piece decided to do the laziest thing possible: Go to the Kennel Club and get their media relations expert to spin a tale for the presses. It goes like this:
Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club, says Skye terriers are good house dogs with a very loyal and friendly character.
She says: “They are very glamorous. Their coats are very attractive. They are a very friendly, nice dog to have around and they are certainly very weather-proof.
“If you are out and about they will not get cold.”
So why has the breed fallen out of favour?
Ms Kisko says: “Much of this is about the profile of the dog, whether or not people are aware that the breeds exist.
“Some of the problems we have with the vulnerable breeds is that people have simply forgotten that they are there.”
Well, that actually didn’t answer the question at all. People just don’t know about them.
Except that they do.
I grew up on the story of Greyfriars Bobby. Disney made a movie about this dog, a Skye terrier that stayed at his master’s grave for fourteen years.
Too bad the entire story was a hoax. The truth is it was an elaborate hoax to promote tourism and business in that part of Edinburgh.
People know about this breed. They just don’t want them.
Now, I thought we could delve into why this breed’s popularity collapsed, but the Kennel Club representative decided to use this opportunity as a chance to smear Labradoodles, a dog that has nothing to do with Skye terriers at all. Although in fairness, it is a representative with the parent club of the Skye terrier in the UK who starts down this bizarre comparison.
Designers breeds such as the labradoodle – a crossbred created by crossing the Labrador Retriever and the Poodle – have become very fashionable.
Mrs [Gail] Marshall [of the Skye Terriers Club] says this is another reason why traditional breeds such as the Skye terrier are being marginalised.
Ms Kisko, whose organisation does not register cross-breeds, says: “The designer crosses such as the labradoodle and the cockapoo (a Cocker Spaniel and a miniature poodle) are proving to be very popular these days and that is all on the pretext that they will be automatically healthier than the breeds they come from, which is patently untrue.”
She says people should do more research before buying a dog, checking out some of the British native breeds which have been popular pets for centuries.
I was not expecting this to be the reason why Skye terriers are becoming rare!
First of all, the purebred Labrador retriever is by far the most popular native British dog breed. It was actually developed in its present form from the St. John’s water dog of Newfoundland on a few select estates in England and Scotland. It is an easily trained dog, noted for its versatility in helping guide the blind, assist the handicaped, and sniff out bombs and contraband. It is also docile as can be.
Skye terriers, by contrast, have very hard to care for coats. They known for being difficult to train, and they do not have a reputation for being good family dogs.
The Labrador requires more exercise than the Skye, but if you’re in a world in which dogs with Labrador-type temperaments are more practical and desired, why would you expect Skye terriers to be able to compete?
Futher, the big reason people get Labradoodles is because they want the Labrador temperament, but they don’t want the Labrador hairs all over their houses. So they get Labrador/Standard poodle crosses, which are lower shedding than pure Labradors.
Now, there are a lot of claims about Labradoodles that are not true:
They are not hypoallergenic because people are allergic to dog dander, not dog hair. Also they do get the health problems associated with both Standard poodles and Labradors, but because the cross has been around for only a short time there have been no good studies to see if there is a heterosis effect (though there probably is).
And Labradoodles are mass-produced, often in deplorable conditions. After all, there is a big market for a Labrador that doesn’t shed as much and looks like a bigger version of Benji.
And that’s precisely what doesn’t exist for the Skye terrier.
Further, the terrier and retriever markets are entirely different demographics, so this claim that people wanting Labradoodles is the reason why no one wants a Skye terrier might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read on the BBC’s website.
I’m stunned that the answer to the question about why the Skye terrier is going extinct gets reduced to something so completely impossible.
This is actually a question for which I don’t have an answer.
I know that Skye terriers have not been used as actual earth dogs in many, many years, but that alone wouldn’t ruin their value as pets. Yorkshire terriers, which are also silky-coated terriers of Scottish ancestry and are almost never used as anything but pets, are quite popular little dogs.
Why would people be so Yorkie-crazed but so dismissive of the Skye?
There must be a good reason, and the answer absolutely is not that people want Labradoodles.
All that was done in this piece was to deflect what is a very good question into a hatchet piece on intentionally-bred crossbreeds.
Not all is perfect in the world of the doodles, but just because they are intentionally-bred mixes does not make them illegitimate. If done right, doodling is an entirely harmless activity, and if really done right, it could be a source for increasing genetic diversity in established retriever and poodle strains.
It just makes them a convenient scapegoat.
The Kennel Club has no answer for why the Skye terrier is in such dire straights.
I think the real reason it has no answer is the real answer is that this dog is a fanciers’ dog. It became a plaything of the dog pageant set. The dog pageant and freak show people are at the heart of the Kennel Club’s mission. It is their base in the same way the religious right is the base of the Republican Party. In politics, one does not go out of the way to insult one’s base. (Only Bill Clinton could ever get away with it!)
When a dog breed becomes something that can only be admired by a very narrow set of fanciers, then it is on its way to becoming rare already.
I also think there is a distinct possibility that the fanciers of this breed intentionally bred “one mannishness” into this dog after buying wholeheartedly into the Greyfriars Bobby hoax. If you breed a dog that naturally tends to bond with only a few people and then is reactive toward strangers, you might be asking for its popularity to drop rather quickly.
So if you breed a dog with a coat that is hard to groom and temperament that requires lots of work and socialization to make the dog docile and tractable, why would you be surprised that very few people want them?
You cannot blame the public for wanting Labradoodles.
The real blame is on dog fanciers who allowed a romantic story– one with huge gaping holes in it– to cloud their judgment on how to breed a dog for the twentieth century.
And because they allowed that story cloud their judgment, the breed won’t likely see the end of the twenty-first.
That’s definitely not the Labradoodle’s fault.
Edinburgh got my tourist dollars with the Greyfriar’s Bobby legend. Well, at least one particular pub did. Oh well. No surprise there.
Skyes, Dandie Dinmonts, Bedlingtons, I have no idea why anyone wants them.
You have to speak as you find. Although showing (wheatens) in the terrier group I had only ever seen one or two Dandie Dinmonts, being shown in aov terrier – until one day two of our grandchildren on a visit pointed out there was a dog looking lost in the middle of our country village road.
The dandie dinmont standing there with big appealing eyes seemed so grateful to be hooked up to one of our spare leads and then led up our path and into the kitchen. Our resident dogs took to him right away. Luckily the dandie had a collar with a Scottish phone number and we called it right away. However we had to leave a message as no one was in. We deduced that maybe the owners were out looking for him – but not inScotland, as it turned out, for they were staying nearby visiting relatives. Only next morning did we get their return call – from just down the road. The owners had interrogated their phone in Scotland where they picked up our message. So we had the pleasant company of this remarkably friendly dandie dinmont overnight and got to know him as well as one can in that short time. We would have adopted him immediately if it had become necessary.
Just to say that if this guy was typical of his breed then it’s hard to understand why dandie dinmonts are not a popular choice among the masses.
Sadly once breeds get as rare as this then only suitable and urgent outcrossing can save them. In the case of the soft coated wheaten terrier it was just good fortune that small unconnected groups of breeders were simultaneously bent on saving him in Ireland, England the USA and Scandinavia. These breeders did eventually get together for exchange of bloodlines and the rest is part of breed history. The wheaten may never be an extremely popular breed but it seems presently quite safe.This was back in the 1970’s before the days of home computers when the internet would have helped rehabilitate the breed so much more expediently.
Incidentally, back in the early eighties, when soft coated wheaten terriers were only beginning to recover numbers, I was showing one at an English championship show standing next to an exhibitor over from Ireland who none of English crowd seemed to know. It was very evident that this Irish exhibit was a result of crossing with at least one other breed, probably Kerry Blue and or Irish. I was fascinated and wanted to discuss what lay behind this dog. Unfortunately the handler went defensive and would speak to none of the English handlers present therefater vanishing once the judging was over. Pity because many of us were simply interested and not wishing to pry or judge.
There was very much an us and them going on at the time between Irish and English Wheaten Terrier breeders. To be honest I think that Irish were trying to do their best for the breed and its future wheras the English were obsessed with an inappropriately closed breed register – inappropriate because it was then a breed very much in need of other genes.
Since when is Yorkshire in Scotland?
Yorkies became a ‘show ring exhibit’ breed early on as well, which is why he used them as an example compared to Skyes, which are another terrier which similarly became show-ring-only fairly quickly. Yorkies are still popular pets today, however, unlike Skyes.
Yorkies are derived from a dog called a Paisley or Clydeside terrier which was Scottish and silky-haired.
Those were also considered an ancestor of the Skye, no? So that would mean Yorkies and Skyes have a shared ancestry.
It’s said that yorkies were favourites with north of England miners – in the days before the breed was taken to town as an even tinier tyke with a coat of stupidly exaggerated length, a feature albeit thankfully confined to those that sit on top of those red boxes.
Actually, there is no behavior in cross-bred dogs and purebreds that can’t be found in muted. To know if your mutt is a herder or a pointer by putting into a situation that encourages
Sorry for the glitch that got saved as a comment. I merely pointed out tha plain mutts can often do what purebreds and designer dogs do if they’re put int the right situation See my latest blogpost on http://dogsandwolves-smartoldlady.blogspot.com
A first generation Labrador-poodle cross from carefully selected parents, and properly raised, can be a very nice dog. However, there are too many breeders churning out litter after litter with only the intent of cashing in on the fad. There’s a breeder that comes to the veterinary clinic where I work, who probably has ten – twenty litters a year of “Miniature Australian Labradoodles” and sells the produce for very high prices. Most of these dogs are either scared stiff, or ready to rip yer face off. None are F1 progeny. Probably multiple generations down from the original cross. I also suspect they may be very much inbred.
The “Miniature Australian Labradoodles” have cocker spaniel in the mix as well as Lab & poodle.
No surprise about the cocker admixture; these have the very soft, easy-to-mat coat of the cocker, a real pain-in-the-a– to care for. Also negates any “non-allergenic” claim.
Another interesting post, which i greatly enjoyed. By the way, as an aside to the topic, I saw the most beautiful baby Golden Retriever the other day, always ‘smiling’ but the thing I loved most about him was the way he waved his tail in an ‘s’ shape, just tooo cute.
Showing my own prejudices here, but is it possible that people just don’t like dwarfed dogs all that much? If they want a little dog, in general they prefer it to look proportional?
I don’t think popularity really has much to do with how easy a dog is to keep or their temperament, If that where so westies would not be one of the most common breeds in the UK ( a list of health issues as long as your arm , skin disease, snappy , windy, yappy , smelly scabby and costing a lot to keep groomed) The fact is I see a lot of adverts asking for puppies listing 3 breeds they will consider , shih tsu , westie or cavalier king charles. Nothing really in common with these breeds apart from being well known and easy to get hold of from a breeder around the corner. People just do not put a lot of thought into buying a dog . They buy what their friend has or what they see advertised locally .
Talking of the cavalier, Julie, this breed was being recommended without qualification by a vet during last night’s programme showing the second day of Crufts. The presenter asked the vet to recommend “a nice family pet” and he promptly suggested the cavalier. The presenter, Claire Balding, making no comments about the serious health issues affecting this breed promptly moved on to the next question.
Regarding the shih tzu breed you also mention, these are among the longest lived of all breeds. Not perfect of course, being dwarf and brachycephalic, but careful choosing ensures you get them without breathing problems. As for the coat, you can either leave it long but still comfortable (in Britain’s cool climate) if you rake out the undercoat during daily grooming (taking a couple of minute) as we do, or else have the coat trimmed once in a while. Hope I didn’t sound too defensive.
That certainly explains the popularity of pit bulls. They’re incredibly common and they have huge litters. Why go through the trouble of looking into breeds and breeders, or even filling out paperwork at the shelter, when the guy two doors down has ten free puppies he can’t wait to get rid of?
Unfortunately, unlike Labs, pit bulls aren’t particularly docile or easy to train, and often not permitted in rental housing.
I entirely agree with the basic point retrieverman was making at the start of this thread, basically saying you can’t compare chalk with cheese, Few breeds of dog could be so unalike as the labrador x poodle cross and the skye terrier. Of course people often obtain contrasting breeds particularly those who rescue, but their first choice is unlikely to be made between the two mentioned by Caroline Kisco and on reflection she may see that coupling these two unlikely lads was naive and didn’t help the point she was trying to make.
A more useful comparison might have been between say the lhasa apso and the shih tzu where the perceived slightly friendlier temperament of the latter breed might have been the key factor making the shih tzu the more popular of these two similar looking breeds as indeed it is.
There is a Skye breeder in the area and his dogs do a lot of winning. They are therapy dogs and family pets…I love them as a breed (and I am not a terrier person). I originally wanted one but the big drawback is the grooming. Even the breeder said the grooming is a lot – but for a pet you can keep them short. Not speaking for the breed as a whole as I don’t know too much about them but the ones I met were very very sweet. They should be more popular – good size, low shedding, but most pet people are stuck on a dog they can get “now” – like a yorkie or shih tzu or a mix of toy breeds. Most people in my area do not want to wait for a puppy.
And the general,public simply doesn’t know about them. If Joe Public saw a Skye on the street, he’d probably think it was a really big Yorkie, or a mixed breed.
Interesting article, but with a fee too many generalisations about Skyes that, as a Skye owner, I spend about 50% of my time trying to correct in people that bring them up.
Grooming: 40-60 minutes once a week to keep a full coat. One brush, one comb, some scissors and nail clippers. It is much, much easier to keep a Skye coat than people think because of the double coat and texture of the hard top coat. Much less time is needed than to hand strip wire haired terriers or brush a Sheltie, for example. If you can’t handle bonding with your dog once a week, groomers can clip off the coat, twice a year is all that is needed and because the ‘weird’ dog looks small, you only pay small dog prices :)
Temperament: the vast majority of Skyes are not reactive to strangers. They are aloof, meaning they don’t make instant friends but neither do they display antisocial or aggressive behaviour. Poor socialisation can lead to reactivity problems but only as much as can happen with Labs, GSDs, JRTs and any other breed.
Training: I’ve trained Skyes to Gold Good Citizens level, easily, and novice competition level in heelwork to music and freestyle. They’re not difficult to train but they won’t train themselves. But frankly, if you don’t want to go to basic obedience classes my advice would always be ‘get a cat instead of a dog’ :)
I would say that the media often fudges quotes from owners and breeders to suit their own needs. At Crufts this year while on the Discover Dogs booth with my Skyes I was asked repeatedly by the same reporter if the Skye’s fall in popularity was due to the popularity of ‘foreign breeds’. I kept saying ‘no’ but it was clear what quote he was looking for!
Why are they unpopular? A host of misconceptions (‘they must take ages to groom’ – nope; ‘they must get back problems’ – nope) a history of miscommunication between places of puppy procurement (the KC, breeders etc) and the people interested and a lack of awareness, I believe. I take my Skyes everywhere with me, we’ve walked in nearly every major city in the UK and what breed have they been thought to be? Cairns, beagles, daschund crosses, dandies, glens, westie crosses, scotties or (most commonly) just plain mongrels. The vast majority of people wanting a pup (i.e. Not show people but pet buyers) have no idea what these dogs are, then when they find them they jump on the same misconceptions this article has about their coat, or training, or their shape or temperament and dismiss them out of hand. It’s sad, because a ten minute conversation would dispell these myths and allow people to see the reality of the Skye – a robust, affectionate, adaptable dog that takes no more than any dog deserves to keep happy and healthy (love, training, walks, a little input basically).
^ breed blindness.
When a breed of dog becomes nothing but a fanciers’ dog, its time as a viable breed is clearly limited.
And that’s all these dogs are. I don’t know of anyone who has used them for much more than dog shows in the past 200 years.
BTW, your anecdotes are the exact opposite of every anecdote I’ve heard about the breed, including my own limited experience, seeing these snarling, dwarf dragons at the end of a fenced-in garden.
This breed has real problems with temperament, which have made all the other problems it has that much worse.
And it cannot be saved.
It’s so sad. I think the Skye Terrier is a beautiful dog and would love to have a pet with its looks. Long flowing locks and papillon ears, make me want to jump up and down and squeal with glee, though I would trim mine’s face so it wasn’t blind. But the breed is still very much a terrier: not good with young children, not good with small pets, not good with strangers, not good with laidback or inexperienced owners, not friendly with other dogs.
*sigh*
Really, who would want THAT?
http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/reviews/skyeterriers.html
All I can say to the author is Bull Hockey! As stated above, it takes about 50 minutes to an hour, once a week, to groom a Skye. It is a very hardy coat, even if it is long. You brush it, you wash it, you comb it out, you dry it. If you are showing it, you condition it. I have had lots of other dogs over the 63 years of my life that required much more work, including hand stripping. I adore my Skyes, and they are wonderful, loving, charming friends. I am offended by ignorant people who think they are unfriendly; because a dog is wary and aloof with strangers does not make it unfriendly, it makes it SMART. I trust my Skyes with my life. I sure would not trust a Labradoodle to do more than fetch a ball — maybe. Oh, and by the way, Labradoodles have another name. It is Mutt. Skyes have been a recognized breed on the Isle of Skye since the 1200’s. I personally want my breed to survive. I think we could do without a lot more mutts. My dogs are great with kids, and while wary and aloof with strangers, I like that. I don’t want the dog opening the door for the thief. I want them to bark when strangers approach. Like any dog, they may or may not be friendly with other dogs, and like any dog, they need to be socialized to reach full potential. But do not DARE to say they are not good with children, and are generally nasty little dogs. NOTHING could be further from the TRUTH. Check your facts before you print them lady.
Sharon Middleton
Cucuillin Skye Terriers
Typical breed blind cultist who doesn’t realize that such opinions give the entire public that dog breeders are anti-science and anti-reason loons. I hope you enjoyed your last comment on here.
When a breed starts to go extinct, you will always find some die-hards who cannot accept facts at all, and on my blog, they assume that opinions are things one can do homework on, which is bollocks.
Sorry but a Labradoodle isn’t a mutt or a mongrel. It is an intentionally bred crossbreed, and it has value. It will be around a lot longer once all the Skyes become infertile through the inevitable inbreeding depression.
BTW, I have y-chromosome.
But Skye’s have been purebred since the 1200’s, Scottie! Just like they are now, in a closed registry system with a strict standard of perfection, all based around the idea that you can preserve a ‘breed’ by giving it a bath and trotting it around in a circle on the weekends.