We promise that the video below will either make you want to howl with laughter or howl from pain: The hair. The mullets. The shoulder pads. The “stagey-ness” of it all. This was, however, the 80s, and it was the 80s in Germany:
You’ve just listened to the singer/actress, Margot Eskens, who had her heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. A popular personality, she continued to make frequent guest appearances on TV into the 2000s for she was hardly a flash-in-the-pan pop singer. Eskens has sold over 40 million records since 1956, and that’s nothing to dismiss.
We fast forward to 1984 when Werner & Gertrude Biewer got the surprise of their lives as Yorkshire Terrier breeders. Their bitch had just whelped a black, white and tan puppy. Perplexed, the German couple was even more surprised when three months later, another black, white and tan puppy was born (obviously to a different bitch).
Old timers have said that if, as a breeder, you’ve never had a surprise in a litter, you just haven’t been breeding long enough. The Biewers evidently had been breeding long enough because they had uncovered a gene not usually found in Yorkies, a recessive piebald gene.
We’ll delve deeper into the Biewer Terrier’s road to full recognition as a unique breed at another time because right now, we want to explain why we showed you a video of Margot Eskins singing “Tiritomba” in 1989.
Those first two black, white and tan puppies, named “Schneeflockchen von Friedheck” and “Schneeman,” respectively, were sold to Margot Eskins. It was she who suggested adding “a la Pom Pon” to the new breed’s name, the phrase meaning “tassel or colorful ball of yarn.” It not only aptly described the puppies, but became the breed’s early name: The Biewer Yorkshire Terrier a la Pom Pon. In time, the name changed to the “Biewer Yorkshire Terrier,” and now, the breed is officially known as the Biewer Terrier and is part of the AKC’s Miscellaneous Class.
People intrigued by the breed may find this German Dog Magazine Article and Interview with Mr. & Mrs. Biewer (May 1986) article of interest.
Image by Detlef Breiting – http://www.biewer-schweiz.ch, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12558458
Nice article. Only one Biewer was given to Margot Eskens though. She never had 2.
Thanks, Karen, and someone should tell the AKC because that was the source of our information that the two pups were placed with Eskens. From https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/biewer-terrier/: “Documentation shows that both of these puppies were sold to the famous German singer, Margot Eskens…”
The AKC has been supplied with a slew of misinformation over the years. It is unfortunate that the AKC accepted and published breed history stories without confirming accuracy.
The first person to import the Biewer to the USA was Donna Hall in 2003. The imported siblings were Art of Highclass Decoration and Art of Highclass De Luxe. Donna Hall was also the founder of the first Biewer club in the USA as well as the person responsible for getting the breed into the rare breeds venues for exhibitions in 2003. The world owes many thanks to Donna Hall for her early contributions to the breed’s recognition.
Thanks for the information, Melanie! It’s now on record here for all to see, an important “fleshing out” of information. Thank you again.
What a shame some people’s egos are so big, they have to tear others down to make themselves feel better about themselves!! Neither have been involved but In dogs for long, not in AKC. Neither has been involved in this breed either!
We’re not quite following your thinking, Jerrier….