Early Skye and West Highland White terriers, last 19th century

The Skye terrier's origins are mysterious. They are often related to an old legend. One  day, in the year 1588, near the misty isle of Skye's coast, arrived some Spanish Armada boats, and one of them sunk. From this shipwreck survived a little white Spanish dog, probably a Maltese, who swam to the coast and met the local terriers. From this exotic cross, some say came the long and beautiful coat of the today Skye terrier.

But in fact, this is hard to believe, as there are some witnesses who described a dog similar to the Skye long before the Armada arrival. The most known was Johannes Caius, English historicist of dog breeds, who described in the middle of the sixteenth century, in his book British dogges, “lap dogs which were brought out of the barbarous borders from the uttermost countryes northward, and they by reason of the length of their heare, made show neither face nor body, and yet these curres forsooth because they are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and of made of , in room of the spaniell gentle, or comforter”.

So where does the Skye terrier come from ? Certainly not from Heaven, as says the expression "heavenly breed" commonly used to describe our favorite terrier. The Skye terrier birth took place anyway in the North West coast of Scottish Hebrides, even if it has very probably implied a cross between terriers of Scotland and a foreign breed which came from the North. It is impossible to not see the strong link between the Skye terrier and the Welsh corgis, and especially the Cardigan breed which is so similar in morphology and character that, excepted by their coat, the two breeds could be almost mistaken for the other. All these breeds are known to be born at the place Vikings arrived from Norway in the year 937 for their raids in Western Europe. The Vikings had got a little, long and low-bodied herding breed which is the ancestor of the today Swedish Vallhund. This dog is believed today to be the ancestor of all chondrodystrophic breeds of British Isles, and the Skye terrier among them. This pragmatic theory is favorited today, and strongly strengthened by the fact that numerous Skye terriers of today have an herding instinct.

A typical Skye terrier of origins

Anyway, traces of existence of the Skye terrier were not numerous before the 19th century. The breed was only known in Scottish Highlands, and few books were written in Scotland before the 18th century. All we know is that Skye terriers were above all used by lairds in small packs to hunt vermin like foxes, badgers and otters. The Skye terrier had with its cousin the Cairn terrier, the particularity to be bred in free ranges in the wild landscapes of Highlands. Natural selection was hard, the climate cold, and conferred to our breed this luxurious coat we know today. To select good hunters, breeders used cruel methods. At the age of 6 months only, the dog was locked up in a barrel with an adult otter, and must fight for his survival. It was a battle to death, for the otter or for the dog…

But life was not hard for those who had the luck to be chosen as pets. They were, with miniature dogs and greyhounds, the only dogs admitted in castles, and were the favorite companions of ladies. One of them was Geddon, the favorite dog of queen Mary Stuart at the end of her life. He was her companion in jail, and followed her under her skirts the day of her death sentence. When the queen lost life, The faithful little Geddon went out from his hiding place and sat between the bloody body and the head of his beheaded mistress. Crazy of sadness, he let a maid servant of the queen take him, and despite the good care servants did for him, died from sorrow and starvation few days later.