In 1998, a three year old slightly pregnant Norwich Terrier named “Rocki” picked up her 87th Best in Show award. That the grand prize was won at Westminster made the achievement especially sweet. ”She never stopped asking for it,” said Dr. Josephine Deubler, the octogenarian veterinary professor who judged the line up that year.  Interestingly, the AKC recognized the Norwich Terrier in 1936, and only two years later,  Dr. Deubler became the first female veterinary college graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

The stadium of Madison Square Garden where Ch. Fairewood Frolic was judged Best in Show was a far cry from the barns and sheds of the UK where Norwich Terriers were prodigious ratters. One bitch in Scotland not only caught an incredible 300 rats in a fortnight (two weeks), but the twelve pound dog also took on two 25 pound prickly feral cats in the same time period. Can we say pluck?

When the first Norwich came to America in 1914, it wasn’t known by that name, but rather as the Jones Terrier. A Philadelphia sportsman named Robert Strawbridge had gone all the way to Market Harborough to by a horse for fox hunting, but while he was there, he paid Frank Jones 10 shillings and a sixpence for a puppy named “Willum” said to be of exceptional character and conformation. Indeed (and unofficially), it was J. Watson Webb, master of the Shelburne Foxhounds who referred to Willum as a ‘Norfolk Terrier.’  Webb used Willum to develop his own small strain of tenacious fox bolters who were small and tough enough to work the rocky New England countryside.

As late as the 1960s, the breed was still being used by various packs according to Barbara Fournier in her 1967 book, How To Raise and Train a Norwich Terrier.  The dogs were handled much the same way there were in the 19th century: They hunkered down in a carrier pouch worn by hunters, their heads peeking out of an opening. When hounds holed a fox, the Norwich would be put down (though we bet more than a few jumped out of the pouch in excitement) to bolt what was considered vermin.

They were good at it, and their nickname, the perfect demon, was well deserved by these scrappy, persistent, and unafraid dogs.

We start where we began. When “Rocki” defeated 104,084 other dogs of all breeds the year before her Westminster win, the accomplishment underscored how seamlessly the breed could transition from hunting among hay bales to stacking for Peter Green on the green carpet of Madison Square Garden.

As an aside, the only two Norwiches who’ve ever won Best In Show at Westminster had the same sire. In 1994, Ch. Chidley’s Willum the Conqueror won the honor, and he was half brother to Ch. Fairewood Frolic as they were both sired by Ch. Royal Rock Don of Chidley.