Dogs and All about Them

Scottish Terriers frequently go by the name of Aberdeen Terriers--an appellation, it is true, usually heard only from the lips of people who do not know much about them. Mr. W. L. McCandlish, one of the greatest living authorities on the breed, in an able treatise published some time back, tells us, in reference to this matter, that the terrier under notice went at different periods under the names of Highland, Cairn, Aberdeen, and Scotch; that he is now known by the proud title of Scottish Terrier; and that "the only surviving trace of the differing nomenclature is the title Aberdeen, which many people still regard as a different breed--a want of knowledge frequently turned to account by the unscrupulous dealer who is able to sell under the name of Aberdeen a dog too bad to dispose of as a Scottish Terrier." But there can be no doubt that originally there must have been some reason for the name. In a letter to the writer, Sir Paynton Pigott says, "Some people call them and advertise them as the Aberdeen Terrier, which is altogether a mistake; but the reason of it is that forty years ago a Dr. Van Bust, who lived in Aberdeen, bred these terriers to a large extent and sold them, and those buying them called them, in consequence, 'Aberdeen Terriers,' whereas they were in reality merely a picked sort of Old Scotch or Highland Terrier." Sir Paynton himself, as appears from the columns of The Live Stock Journal (March 2nd, 1877), bought some of the strain of Van Bust, and therein gives a full description of the same.