The name, “Manchester” can mean different things to different people. Mention the name in some households, and it’s off to the races as to whether Manchester United will resign their starting mid-fielder or not, or if they’ll win the Premier League. Drop the name in the room full of academics, however, and the conversation might turn to the largest single-site university in the UK, the University of Manchester. Among dog folk, however, there is only one Manchester worth knowing, and it is the fabulous Manchester Terrier, the oldest identifiable terrier breed tracing back to the late 1570s.

The breed, however, wasn’t always known by that name. In England, the Kennel Club recognized both the standard and toy as two varieties of the Black and Tan Terrier (its 16th century name) until the 1920s when it split them by size.  In the United States, the breed was first recognized as the Black and Tan (first the Manchester Terrier Toy in 1886, and then a year later, the Standard Manchester Terrier). For clarification, we should mention that these Black and Tans are not to be confused with the now extinct Black and Tan Terrier,  one of the earliest terriers breeds believed to be in the ancestry of many modern terrier breeds.

It was on November 26, 1933 when the Indianapolis Star wrote that the breed previously known as the Toy Black and Tan Terrier was officially changed to the Toy Manchester Terrier at a meeting of the AKC directors (other sources say the year was 1923). The change, as the newspaper reported, was in line with the name transition of the larger breed (the Standard). It was felt that “the new name was more dignified and less liable to confusion with nondescript dogs which might be black and tan but not pure bred” (or, God forbid, the yummy layered beer drink– sorry, we couldn’t resist).

Image: Unattributed clip art found on-line and happily attributed upon receipt of information