Captain John Tucker-Edwarde’s new breed had to be white. It just had to be. He never again wanted to experience the horror of shooting a dog thinking it was the real quarry. He decided to breed a terrier that would be fearless in the face of rats, otters and ill tempered badgers, and to get there, Tucker-Edwardes crossed a number of different breeds (since he didn’t keep records, we can only guess at them). For short legs, he used the Dandie Dinmont Terrier, and it’s thought he used a small white terrier now extinct that resembled a bull terrier. Others have speculated that Fox Terriers, Corgis, and West Highland White Terriers to “set” color (did we mention that the dog had to be white?) were recruited to create the small, sturdy and white dog we know today as the Sealyham Terrier.

Tucker-Edwardes’ new creation was registered with Britain’s Kennel Club in 1910 – and for awhile, Sealyhams were the “must have” breed for the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Humphrey Bogart, Princess Margaret, Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock. A Sealyham puppy named “Dusty” even captured the hearts of an entire nation in a series of British Pathé newsreel films.

What a difference a generation makes. Nearly three years ago, a cover of the magazine, “Country Life,” featured a white terrier puppy with morose expression. The cover’s tag line was, “‘SOS: Save Our Sealyhams“, and the feature article inside detailed the decline of this marvelous breed. Since then, breed numbers have been creeping up, but the breed remains on the Kennel Club’s list of Vulnerable Breeds for reasons that remain mysterious to us – the breed is enchanting, and the dogs are fine ratters.  

Image: Sealyham by Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin (1870 – 1935)