Early owners and fanciers used what was commonplace around them to describe their breeds, and gave little thought that the world one day might not know what the heck they meant by these terms.

Back in the day, cobblers wore black aprons to protect their clothes from the black wax or tar used on shoes. The aprons covered both the front and backs of their clothing, but allowed the sleeves to show. Instead of tying at the back of the waist,  cobbler aprons were tied either with several ties on each side of it, or with buttons. The apron ended at the knee or mid thigh, and most featured a large front pocket where small tools were kept.  Appropriately enough, these aprons were called (wait for it)……cobbler aprons.

We’re not sure when the apron reference was first used to describe the ears of a different breeds, but we’ve seen the phrase, “ears like a cobbler’s apron” used in discussions of sighthounds (The Chase of the Wild Red Deer on Exmore Forest by Clifford Cordley), and for the Border Terrier (Frank Johnson’s Dictionary of Canine Terms).

When one inspects the corner of the apron in the artwork above, and compares it with the thumbnail photo of the Border Terriers, one can see why the reference was made. As we said earlier, people often used what was around them to describe aspects of their dogs:  Filbert ears, the keel, ewe neck, a crank tail – the dog world is filled with these descriptives.

Art Image: The Cobbler’s Shop By Achille Pinelli 

Border Terrier image appears courtesy of the AKC