More than ready for spring, I decided to visit Maclay Gardens in north Florida to spend a few hours among the camellias and azaleas.
Maclay Gardens, now a state park, was the winter home of wealthy New York banker and financier Alfred B. Maclay and his wife, Louise Fleischman.
On more than 300 acres with huge oaks, pines, and dogwoods, Maclay Gardens boasts one of the country’s largest camellia collections.
I thought the day was going to be all about flowers. And then I went into the modest winter home of the Maclays and saw it…the glass case of AKC dog show ribbons from 1912. It turns out that Alfred Maclay was a dog show exhibitor, and he was an AKC judge.
Maclay bred Dalmatians and Greyhounds for a short time, but as Mrs. Maclay said, “Dandies were always his first love. We always had a Dandie in the house.” Maclay liked the breed because he considered it a real terrier, an earthdog that was strong, a good hunter, and very faithful.
AKC's Canine Good Citizen and S.T.A.R. Puppy Director, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist
I love reading about the old-time breeders — that could keep more dogs than most do today, that could ‘afford’ the luxury of keeping entire litters to from which to select their future breeding stock; granted, we have health testing now that wasn’t even a gleam in a breeders eye back ‘then’… but the old dogs, the study of the real Foundation Stock dogs should be part of any of todays breeders to be sure we are not just producing what Judges are putting up, but what the dog should really be. Judges need to be ‘more in the trenches’ – like they used to be — with breeding, not just handling tons of dogs – but really knowing what it takes to breed to the standard.
Great point, Kathryn. If you click on the Dandie photo, you can see an enlarged version. Very different than the way they are groomed and presented in shows today. The dog in the photo looks like a working terrier.
So many breeds look totally different now. My breed is the Standard Poodle. When I look at old photos, the Standards today much smaller boned
.Since they aren’t required to hunt much anymore, (although my dog came from more working stock) there isn’t a need for the all that power.
Personally, I like the newer,more elegant structure.
I love the DD happy expressions.
Reblogged this on vetslivingstonbathgate and commented:
this is a dandie – see previous post
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