MR TWOPENY'S WIRE- HAIRED FOX TERRIERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2662, 22 March 1905, Page 31

MR TWOPENY'S WIRE- HAIRED FOX TERRIERS.

The growth of the popularity of the wiiehah'&ci variety of fox terrier has been very remarkable of late years in the Old Country. At the principal shows in Great Britain there are now nearly as many wires shown as smooths, and the wires have frequently beaten the smooths when they have met in competition. I therefore took the opportunity of Mr Twopeny's recent visit to Dunedin to get some information about the breed. Mr Tvtopeny was well known here from 1880 to 1890 as one of the first breeders of the smooth fox terrier in New Zealand, and of recent years he has become the leading breeder of the wire-hairs in Australia. With a quarter of a century's experience as a breeder and shower of fox terriers he ought to have something to say on the subject worth hearing.

"I ha\e- not lost any of my interest in smooth fox terriers," sa-id ilr Twopeny, in reply to my queries, "'but as there were" plenty ot others breeding them I thought I w-ould try the wires, and I am so satisfied! with thorn that nothing wouk? now induca me to go back to the smooth*. I should! be very sorry io disparage the smooths, but I think the wires are, on tho average, hardier and better sporting dogs, and I

have never known anyone who took them up care to return to the smooths. "The wires are not a mongrel breed with the Irish terrier, as people are apt to think From their appearance, but every bit as old and genuine a fox terrier as the smooths. The fact is that originally the fox terrier packs kept wich hounds were smooth and rough, and showing every variety of coat. Then the smooths were taken up as show 'dogs and bred for smooth coats, whilst the roughs were mostly thrown out, only a few remaining in one or two hunting kennels, particularly in Parson Jack Russell's, in Devonshire, and Lord Fitzwilliam's, in 'Yorkshire, where they were preferred to the smooth variety, which had become fashionable. Eventually the smooth breeders found it necessary to resort to these old strains to keep ihe coats of their terriers from becoming too soft, as Mr Beilby has since done in Australia; and then someone started a class for wires at a show. Kid gradually they were brought forward as show dogs also. "As regards their introduction into Australia I am not sure whether Mr E. P. Davies, of Mount Camel Station, in Northern Victoria, or myself was the first to import but in 1892 we both imported, he a splendid dog (Astone) and a bitch (Tees Blossom), and Z a very typical hitch (Acton Meg) with Eve puppies, by one of the leading dogs Df the day in the Old Country. Unluckily hII five- were lost or died in quarantine, and there being no rough-haired dog to mate fcfeg with she was mated with hard-haired Smooths, and produced champion Edenfchorpe Trilby, who is still in my kennels; j|nd is the dam amongst other winners of champion Melbourne BTuestone, who had a long unbeaten career. Of course, not all the puppies in a litter by a smooth dog Dut of a wire bitch are wires, but some of Hie beet are bred on these lines when care k taken that the smooth dog has a very Sard coat. Even when mating wire with wire the coats in a litter of puppies vary, and there is generally- at best one smooth puppy in the litter, but always true to the fox terrier type if both parents are pedigreed fox terriers, whether rough or smooth. "In 1697 I went to England, and in the following year imported a young bitch (Leeds Flirt), and mating her with Astone »nd Bluestone produced several winners, including Edenthorpe Saucy Sal, whom I sent over to Mr Walsh, of Hastings, Hawke's Bay. Then, in 1900, I ordered From Mr Astley a pair of wire-hairs, both to be prize-winners and the sire and dam of prise-winners. The. result was King Bristles Bud Dudley Scold. King' Bristles is now aa "famous in Australia as my old favourite feelvoir Tom was in New Zealand. Before he left England he had sired a number of ueally good dogs, one of whom (the Duchess of Newcastle's Member's Ticket) is no* one of the leading sires of the day. In Australia nearly all the priae-winner3 for many years past h*re been his progeny, the Jiest being the present champion Edenthorpe Blazes, & dog with a wonderful head and front anct any amount of character. Be is out of Dudley Scold, who proved a fcad mother, and reared very few pups, but these were always out of the- ordinary, and I greatly value her strain. Last year Mr Corbett. the manager of the Union Bank in Melbourne, imported a nice young dog VPhorden Bad-to-Beat), but unfortunately for my purposes he proved to be a grandson of King Bristles on his dam's side. "Then I determined to get a complete outcroes and at the same time to import * young show dk>g of very high class, and received last August-Northfield Tip Top, a jroung dog who had won a lot of prizes in fche north of England, and Bright Lady, in pup to Northeld Knock-Out, one of the best dogs in England, r Five puppies have been reared, and some of these, with their dam and Tip-Top, will be shown at next Melbourne show. I once showed in Sydney, #nd did very well there, but it took a lot Df trouble and there was too much risk attaching to it ; and as my interest is rather in breeding than showing I only send to two shows every year — the Victorian Poultry and Kennel Club's at Melbourne, and at Prahran. My kennels — or, rather, breeding grounds, — are, I think, the best -in Australia, as I have two acres and a half of ground at St. Kilda, and have laid :3ff a number of small paddocks and puppy runs, most of them with grass and shelter, in addition to a couple of asphalt yards. Two largre padlocks of over half an acre each, are kept for the dogs to play about in; and as soon as they are old enough they are taken out daily with a bicycle. A. boy comes to feed them night and morning, all the kennels and runs are kept as clean as a, man-of-war."