Early records of the Kennel Club show that small dogs from Tibet were brought into Britain towards the end of the 19th century; they appear to have been named according to the locality from which they were obtained, and the alternatives (for the same type of dog) were Bhuteer Terrier, Lhassa Terrier, Thibet Terrier, Bhutanese Terrier, or Kashmir Terrier. Descriptions of 'this' type of dog appear in British Dogs by Drury, et al., 1903, and in Dogs by H. de Bylandt, 1904. They refer to a dog quite different from the Tibetan Terrier of today, but not unlike what we now know as the Lhasa Apso. The dogs owned by the Honourable Mrs. McLaren Morrisson were often used to illustrate this type, and Bylandt's book contains photographs showing eight individuals. The name 'Lhasa Terrier' gradually become the most widely used, and was applied to dogs of varying leg length but otherwise of roughly similar type to those in the Descriptions. The word Apso was introduced into Britain by Colonel and Mrs. Bailey, I understand, and it was only in the 1930s that the careful reclassification of all the smaller breeds from Tibet was achieved.

An article by Mrs. Margaret Hayes, a traveller in the Himalayas and Tibet, was published in the American Kennel Gazette soon after Tibetan Terriers were recognised as a distinct breed by the Indian and British Kennel Clubs; it contains this paragraph:

"The dogs called Tibetan Terriers by the Kennel Club of India ... (are) slightly higher on the leg than the Lhasa. They are taking little dogs, and the ones imported into England seem to breed true to type. They come from Baltistan and Western Tibet chiefly. As far as I could ascertain they are not bred in the capital (Lhasa) itself."

Baltistan is an area which includes part of Kashmir and Ladakh, and is still known today as 'Little Tibet'. Formerly it was part of the main body of Tibet; the landscape is Tibetan, the majority of its people are Tibetan in blood, custom and culture, regarding the Dalai Lama as their spiritual leader. Leh, the capital of Ladakh, has long been the western centre of Lamaism, and an important centre for the Central Asian trade in wool, tea, salt, and hashish, where traders from many very remote areas meet.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating glimpses we have of the breed in its native land, is that given to me by Mrs. Tross, herself a Tibetan Terrier owner, who spent some time in the Himalayas and Ladakh:

"It was unbelievably cold. Tibetan children were sewn into their clothes at the beginning of each winter and not released until the good weather had come again, months later.

Travelling in the Pass country we would hear the bells and Tibetans singing, which heralded the approach of flocks of scrawny sheep, or a caravan of pack ponies or mules. Hearing that noise one had to get out of the way, for the trails were often so narrow there was no room to pass each other, and the animals would sweep one off the track.

Tibetan Terriers were used by the Tibetans as herders of sheep, as well as with the pack animals; if the route was very narrow indeed they would run back and forth across the backs of the animals and their loads, urging them on, and always warning off any stranger with fierce barks and threatening snarls, which would be followed up with a savage bite if their warnings were disregarded. They were extremely tough, strong animals, not much bigger than ours, but not much like a friendly little pet! When the packs were taken off the animals' backs at night, the dogs slept with the packs to guard them, out in the snow.

When the drivers of the pack animals were drunk (which was often) it was the energy, determination and intelligence of their Tibetan Terriers that kept the caravan going, together, and on course. If a driver fell in the snow, the Tibetan Terrier would leap onto his chest and attack him, till he roused himself enough to get on to his feet again.

Ponies, humans and large dogs would find the going very hard, as they sank into the snow at every step; but the big, broad feet of the Tibetan Terriers seemed like built­in snow­shoes, and kept these dogs on the surface of the snow. They were able to run up and down the line of pack animals, nipping and biting to urge them on and the humans too, on occasion. The ground they work over is difficult by any standards; seeing how it cut our shoes, their pads must have been very tough indeed for I saw none limping. Most kept their tails down whilst working, using them as a rudder to help in fast turns.

Mastiffs as well as Tibetan Terriers were kept by the herdsmen, the Terriers being an effective early warning system, and the Mastiffs the weightier defence with the bigger teeth! My young Tibetan Terrier follows the same type of behaviour with my Rottweilers­she gives the alarm when someone comes, then takes a back seat and leaves the big dogs to do any sorting out that's needed.

These little dogs are wonderfully agile, and intelligent; when used to gather a flock of sheep, the Tibetan would give a signal and the dogs would leap off up the mountainside, running out in a circle like our Border Collies. Often the mountainside would be like the side of a house, almost precipitous, but the dogs would leap from rock to rock, disappear down a gully and then reappear farther up. If they misjudged. the distance or size of the landing place, or if they slipped on the icy slopes, they would be killed ­ there was a big, BIG drop below them. In their lives there was no room for mistakes, or less than perfect fitness ­ they were tremendously agile, jumping with cat­like precision and little apparent effort.

They were of course matted, but this was a necessary protection against the cold of winter in the mountains, and also helped to minimize injuries from bites, bruising, etc. Those we saw were always golden tan with black ears and faces, or all black, or black and white.

Why are these dogs not in the Working Group here? They are certainly working dogs in Western Tibet and Ladakh!"