As a country, Great Britain has a well-developed love of purebred dogs. Many experts credit Queen Victoria with furthering the fledgling trend of pedigree dogs and dog shows in the 19th Century. While at The Kennel Club Library in London, I was invited to view and read a small book called List of Dogs in the Home Park Kennel Windsor Castle 1846. This slim volume with handwritten entries chronicled all the dogs the Queen owned at the time. It noted who had litters and who she gave puppies to. The Queen championed native British breeds and owned Greyhounds, Deerhounds, Spaniels, and Scotch Terriers. She owned exotic breeds with names not yet standardized like Russian Greyhounds (Borzoi), Persian Greyhounds (Saluki), Chinese Dogs (Chow Chow), and other dogs brought back from the colonies, including the African Dog (Basenji) and the Esquimeaux Dog (Huskey type).

Her dogs were shown to great success at home and abroad. A Pomeranian, Fluffy the Spitz, won the Kennel Club medal in 1873, the year of the club’s founding. Other breeds that did well at dog shows were Dachshunds given to her from her relatives in Germany as well as Collies and Skye Terriers. Her Deerhounds won at the Islington Dog Show as early as 1869, and in 1877, she sent two Deerhounds, bred by her, to compete at the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City. With this royal heritage of purebred dogs, coupled with the current Monarch Queen Elizabeth II’s love of Pembroke Welsh Corgis and Labrador Retrievers, it’s easy to see how this country’s canine culture has lasted centuries.

Dogspotting

Whenever traveling, a game I call Dogspotting keeps me guessing, “What kind of dog is that?” If luck prevails, there will be a conversation with the dog owner with an opportunity to learn more about man’s best friend from a different cultural perspective.

The game goes like this: When a dog is spotted, the first choice is purebred or mixed breed. If purebred, then I have to decide which breed it is of the more than 400 dog breeds worldwide. I was sitting outdoors at The Crown, a lovely pub in the English countryside, eating herb-crusted lamb chops when I spotted a medium-sized brown dog, wagging her little tail furiously at me — no doubt because she wanted the lamb chops — at the neighboring picnic table. I knew she was a spaniel of some sort.

“Is that an English Cocker Spaniel or maybe a Field Spaniel?” I asked the owner.

“She’s what we call a Working Cocker.” The owner said he hunts with her, and she does a great job of flushing upland game. After further discussion, petting her soft, feathery coat, and getting licked by Maisey on my cheek, I asked whether they had any other Cocker spaniel breeds in Britain.

“Well, there is the American Cocker Spaniel,” he said. Then it dawned on me, that our Cocker Spaniel, native to America and descended from English Cockers in Canada in the 19th century, was Britain’s American Cocker Spaniel, and their Cocker Spaniel was our English Cocker Spaniel. But in the end, it was just a name game, and we both agreed Maisey was cute, friendly, and her owner loved her very much.

Monty the Picard

As my holiday went on, I saw Trixie the Bichon Frise, a black Lab running off-leash in Mill Field in Basingstoke, lots of mixed breed dogs at different pubs, an Afghan Hound, a few Yorkshire Terriers, a few miniature Poodles, and a Weimaraner at the train station.

On my last day, during another walk at Mill Field, a big open area where dogs can run and horses must walk, I played dogspotting and decided to show off.

“Watch this,” I said to my husband. “Is that a Berger Picard?” I asked the owner of a large shaggy dog as he approached about 50 feet away. Before he could answer a resounding “YES” his smile telegraphed his joy. I knew the breed, seen it at several dog shows in the US. His name was Monty the Picard, and he has a following on Instagram. The owner said this French sheepdog breed was rare in the UK, and if it wasn’t for the movie Because of Winn Dixie, which featured the breed, they would be near extinction. Monty also appears at the Crufts Dog Show Discover Dogs exhibit. Feeling superior in my breed knowledge I tried to identify Monty the Picard’s smaller sidekick.

“Tibetan Terrier? Bearded Collie puppy? Pyrenean Shepherd?” I was grasping.

“You’re in the right group, herding, but its called the Catalan Sheepdog,” he said.

I had been stumped and brought down a peg, or maybe two, in my own mind as a dog breed expert. The Catalan Sheepdog is rare in the US but is recognized in the UK and can be seen at dog shows in the herding group. I spent about 20 minutes learning from the owner about both breeds and what great companions they are. I was amazed how they both had the same salt-and-pepper-colored long coats, being two distinct breeds — one from France and one from Spain. Another fun fact I learned was that Cobi, the official mascot of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, was a Catalan Sheepdog, albeit rendered in the cubist style of Picasso. Just like my encounter with Maisey the Working Cocker, I came away from the herding group pack with the feeling that their owner loved his dogs. And really, what’s in a name anyway? They are all dogs, and I love them all.

Lisa Peterson writes about history, horses, and hounds at lisaunleashed.com. You can reach her at lisa.peterson@barngirlmedia.com.