Dutch Smoushond - History

History

The Hollandse Smoushond Club (Smoushondenclub) was formed in 1905 to document and register the small stable dog as a purebred breed, as it was in danger of dying out. Its origins may have been with the ancestor of the Schnauzer breed, as an incorrect yellow colour. The name refers to its shaggy fur and face, as Jewish men (called Smouzen in the 1800s) had beards and long hair. They were called "Dutch" to prevent confusion with the similar Belgian griffons. During World War II, the breed nearly disappeared. In 1973, several breeders began to reconstruct the breed with the few remaining dogs, most of whom had been crossbred with other breeds. Much of the reconstruction was accomplished with the use of Border Terrier crosses. There is illustrated reference to the breed in Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet's popular 1996 book, "Dogs."

Read more about this topic:  Dutch Smoushond

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
    —Karl Marx (1818–1883)

    “Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
    —Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)