The various kennels competed avidly at shows, and certainly many keen fanciers concerned themselves primarily with the pleasures of the field. There was much interbreeding and similar scruffy short-legged white terriers, some known as White Scottish Terriers and others as Roseneath Terriers, were developed in parallel elsewhere in the region. The modern breed, however, was certainly not exclusively derived from that one source. Malcolm is still recognized as the first fancier to breed the whites true. The little white short-legged dogs were known as Poltalloch Terriers after the family estate, and Col. Eventually the colour was bred out of the lines. Malcolm's kennels were to be white so that similar incidents could be avoided. From then on, all the dogs propagated in Col. Malcolm of Poltalloch, Argyllshire, was mistaken for prey and shot. But during a hunt around 1860 or so, a favourite brown terrier of Colonel E.D. Whites were often viewed as less game and hardy and were sometimes culled. While white individuals did occur, the original hunting dogs of the Highlands were more typically sandy (like many Cairns) or black (like Scotties) in colour. But to find a badger deep in the labyrinths of a large earth, and to stick to him, possibly for hours together, baying and sniffing at him so that he has no time to dig-a thing he can do much faster than two men-is a task requiring perserverance, grit and stamina of the highest order." These were working dogs, and they needed to be tough. Rabbiting improves his nose and condition. Lionel Portman wrote: "Badger digging is, undoubtedly, the supreme test of a working terrier. There, they needed great courage and gameness (an unwillingness to back down) to successfully face off against their cornered quarry. A 1774 quote attributed to an Oliver Goldsmith describes the terrier as "a small kind of hound, with rough hair, made use of to force the fox and badger out of their holes or rather to give notice by their barking, in what part of their kennel the fox or badger resides, when the sportsmen intend to dig them out." The short-legged terriers in particular were bred to follow animals right into their dens. All the terrier breeds are descended from dogs originally used for hunting ground animals considered pests by landowners and farmers. The name terrier derives from the Latin terra, or earth.
All three breeds were derived in Scotland from the same stock, known variously in early times as Highland, Skye or Scottish terriers. The West Highland White Terrier (or Westie) is closely related to both the Cairn and Scottish Terriers. Here for Spring we have another breed that seems superficially not all that different, but which in the flesh is as distinct as chèvre from marshmallow spread. In our Winter issue, we discussed the Bichon Frise. Small white dogs with dark eyes and noses seem to be a theme these days.
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