#working terriers

It was reasonably common practise to hunt with both terriers and ferrets! Particularly when ratting in hedgerows, it was easier to have a ferret in the hedgerow flushing the rats, and the terriers working on the outside. We have technically also had dogs longer than we’ve had domestic ferrets, but as far as terrier history goes, they’re probably about the same age.

JC Bristow-Noble has an entire chapter dedicated to ferrets in his book ‘Working Terriers- Their Management, Training, and Work, etc.’ (1919) where he refers to ferrets as ‘one of the country man’s best friends’ but also ‘the most neglected of all domesticated animals’, bemoaning that people do not take proper care or pride in breeding and training good working ferrets.

‘Russell came by the first of the terriers that help to keep his name fresh in our memories. When an undergraduate at Oxford, he chanced one morning to meet a milkman with a terrier -such an animal, we are told, as Russell hitherto had only seen in his dreams: He stopped the man and bought the dog. Her name was Trump, and her colour white, with just a patch of dark tan over each eye and ear, and a similar dot, not larger than a penny piece, at the root of the tail. The coat, which was thick, close, and a trifle wiry, was well calculated to protect the body from wet and cold, but bore no resemblance to the long, rough jacket of the Scotch terrier. The legs were straight, short and thick, and the feet perfect, while the size was equal to that of a full-grown vixen fox, that is to say, her weight was about 12 lbs. Finally, the whole appearance gave indications of courage, endurance, and hardihood.’ - Working Terriers; Their Management, Training and Work, etc. JC Bristow-Noble

It is not my object in this chapter to crack up any particular breed above any other breed of terrier, but i have mentioned the Fox Terrier, and when I say Fox Terrier, I mean show-bred Fox Terriers with the necessary working points, simply because they possess, and are bred for, so many of the good working points that are required in a working terrier. […]

Many huntsmen and private individuals who work their terriers have their own particular strain of terrier which can trace back for several generations of good working blood. These terriers are bred almost entirely because their parents are working terriers. Other points are not generally taken into consideration at all, except perhaps the keeping down of size.

The result is that many of these terriers are nondescript, and many of them have certain points of their build which are a handicap to them when they are at work, though their pluck and working sense are good. Great admirer as I am of the pluck and work of these terriers, I cannot help feeling that they could be vastly improved, and given a conformation more suitable for work, if only they were bred to terriers such as I have previously described, either by mating a working bitch to a show Fox Terrier dog, or vice versa, but the show terriers used must be of the long, low sort built like a short-legged hunter. This is very important.

It must always be remembered that the good working points of show Fox Terriers, such as sloping shoulders, legs and feet, etc., are not just due to chance, but have been bred for for many generations, and this fact will make it more than likely that these points will be reproduced again. To breed certain working points into working terriers that will improve their conformation, and prevent them being handicapped at work by faulty build, we must go to blood where these points have already been stamped for generations, so that they will be reproduced.” - Major G. B. Ollivant, in Chapter Two of ‘Terriers: Their Training, Working, and Management’