GSDs of yesteryear

I encountered a German Shepherd ‘meet’ over Hankley Common (Surrey) last weekend. It’s always an impressive sight, seeing such a large number of the same breed running around and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Great Danes of yesteryear

Growing up, we had Rottweilers and German Shepherds – “proper dogs” as my old man would call them. He seemed to equate size with canine superiority!
If his scale had any real merit, what would it make the giant amongst dogs – the Great Dane?

Dachshunds of yesteryear

I recently discovered Volumes 1 & 2 of Van Bylandt’s ‘Dogs of all Nations’ in a bookshop in Hungerford.
This is the second edition (published in 1904) and It is a truly epic production – a jewel of canine literature.
It possesses scores of photographs of dogs that I haven’t seen published before and over the coming weeks I will post some of these fascinating photographs (of various breeds) for owners & fanciers to pore over.
Today, I’m going to focus on my breed, the Dachshund, interestingly I have heard/read about a number of the dogs featured but have never seen photos of them before.
I hope Dachshund lovers enjoy them!

A Mini Dachshund Mystery

I recently wrote a piece on the extraordinary rise of the Miniature Dachshund for American dog magazine, Canine Chronicle.

Whilst researching it I came across a fascinating photograph of a girl with what looks like a very respectable looking Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund.

What’s so odd about that you may ask?

Unperturbed

The previous “quiz” was far too easy! In fact, it seems humans (build, weight, style, shape, etc) have changed far more over the past 120 years than some of our more popular dog breeds.

Changed beyond all recognition?

Can you name them all? Add your answers in the comments.

Devonshire’s dogs

My Canine Chat column for Torbay Weekly (17th December 2020) was about dog breeds connected to Devon.

The turbulent history of the domestic cat

The second of my two features in issue 1 of Edition Cat (September 2020) was an insight to the history of cat as we know it today.

The Glamour Puss

Edition Cat launched in September 2020 and issue 1 included two of my features. This one is all about the Chinchilla.