Wales Online (06/Feb/2009) - Sealyham terriers have fallen out of fashion

(c) Wales Online (06/Feb/2009)

Sealyham terriers have fallen out of fashion

They were once the ultimate “made in Wales” accessory that demanded a walk-on part in every Hollywood star’s life.

Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor and Alfred Hitchcock all loved pampering their Sealyham terriers.

But breeders now fear the once-fashionable dogs, which originated in Pembrokeshire, may soon disappear with just 43 of them registered with the Kennel Club last year compared to 11,000 in their heyday.

At the start of Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic The Birds the director strolled from a shop with his Sealyhams, Geoffrey and Stanley, as star Tippi Hedren walked in.

He owned another called Mr Jenkins, while Cary Grant had one named Archie Leach – the Bristol-born actor’s real name.

They even moved in royal circles. Princess Margaret adored hers, named Pippin.

However, it seems they have been ousted from the hearts of the celebrity elite by socialites like Paris Hilton armed with purse-size puppies like chihuahuas and shih-tzus.

The Milford Haven-based secretary of the Sealyham Terrier Club, Janet Wonnacott, 66, has three – Silver, Star and Gracie.

She said: “It’s the way times have changed. People like pretty little dogs that you carry around and dress up.

“And the days when vermin were in the house, which these dogs are excellent for, are gone.”

Sealyhams were first bred by Captain John Edwardes between 1850 and 1891 at his Pembrokeshire home, Sealyham House, in Sealyham.

They were bred to hunt rats, foxes, badgers and rabbits.

He achieved this by crossing Basset hounds, bull terriers, the fox terrier, the West Highland white terrier, and the Dandie Dinmont terrier.

He then tested the offspring for hunting ability, culling those which did not prove game.

Adults bitten as youngsters remember them as being snappy, but Mrs Wonnacott insisted this trait has largely been bred out.

The former chip shop owner has had about 20 of the dogs since 1963.

She added: “It’s very sad really (that they are disappearing) because they are native to our country and they are local to Pembrokeshire.

“You can go around Pembrokeshire and people look at them and call them Westies.

“I say ‘don’t you swear at me, they are not Westies!’”

Kennel Club secretary Caroline Kisko agreed they were no longer seen as hip.

She said: “The reality is that dogs go in fashion and some of the more old-fashioned breeds have fallen out of people’s field of vision.

“When people realise what charming dogs they are they come back into people’s field of vision.

“But people won’t breed them if they think they can’t sell them, so the numbers go down.”

Ironically, legislation designed to safeguard dogs may be helping ensure they die out in the UK.

Since docking dogs’ tails was banned in 2007 interest in showing Sealyhams has waned.

Paul Keevil, formerly of the Kennel Club’s vulnerable breed committee, said: “Traditionally, soon after Sealyhams were born, their tails were docked in half.

“That was because they were small working dogs and they quite often got stuck down holes, and so they needed short, strong tails for the owner to pull them out.

“After the animal welfare legislation came into force, a lot of older breeders started to look at them differently.”

One of Britain’s few remaining breeders is Kevin Holmes, 61, of Ringwood, Hampshire.

“People who tend to have them get them because they can remember their grandparents having one,” he said.

“But those sort of owners are becoming fewer and fewer as time moves on.”