THE SKYE TERRIER 



BY LAWRENCE TIMPSON. 



ROBABLY no other subject in relation to doggy 

 affairs has been more written about or has given rise 

 to more controversies, all more or less rancorous, in 

 the past twenty years, than the origin and true type 

 of the Skye Terrier. At the same time, these controver- 

 sies have left the subject in dispute pretty much as they 

 found it, and although more or less light has been thrown 

 on the different points at issue, no conclusion has ever yet 

 been reached that was satisfactory to all fanciers of this 

 breed; the disputants, after airing their theories and attack- 

 ing their neighbors', ending as they began, each with his 

 own opinion unaltered. 



I shall not attempt to notice and sum up these various 

 controversies; even if an article such as this would admit 

 of it, which it does not, the matter would be too tedious 

 and unprofitable. I shall take the type of Skye Terrier 

 that is recognized to-day, and confine myself to a slight- 

 sketch of what is known of its origin and history, not 

 entering into any speculations on the subject. 



Scattered throughout the whole of Scotland are various 

 strains of rough-coated Terriers, the Terriers of one district 

 having a certain similarity of type and differing more or 

 less from those of other districts. Of these, there appears 

 at present to be but two strains that are generally recog- 

 nized as distinct breeds the Skye and the Dandie Dinmont. 

 Besides these, the hard-haired Scotch and the Airedale have 

 lately come in for some notice in England, but have not 

 yet attracted much attention in this country. Among 

 other strains of more or less local celebrity are the Aber- 

 deenshires, Dry nocks, Mogstads, and others whose day on 



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