THE LHASA-APSO IN THE
MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
The Lhasa Apso has
now been known in the Western world for one
hundred years. Its beauty, its intelligence, its
behaviour and also the mystery surrounding its
origin, have placed it amongst the breeds in
greatest demand.
In the course of time, having become a
fashionable dog, it is now paying the price for
it, for the last twenty years or so, the image of
the dog we knew has little by little faded away
and been replaced by another type, a most
spectacular one but one which no longer has the
charm of the first Lhasas.
After a short history of the breed in the West,
we shall examine how this evolution happened and
in what circumstances. |
Satroma-a progeny of
one of the Lhasa Apsos brought back from Tibet
In England - At
the beginning of the century and on the return of
the Youngsband expedition, the first Tibetan dogs
made their appearance. At that time they were
known as ' LhasaTerriers '
Confronted with the impossibility of bringing in
new blood, breeders resorted to English dogs
(most likely to Skye-Terriers)
Very soon, the Tibetan type was lost, and in 1928
the Kennel Club entrusted the direction of the
breed to Colonel and Mrs Bailey who were
returning from Tibet. Indeed, the Baileys had
just brought home from Tibet a few fine specimens
of the small variety of Apso. These had been
brought up exclusively in the jealous keeping of
distinguished families.
In 1934, together with Lady Freda Valentine and
certain other enlightened fanciers, the Baileys
established a standard for the breed, basing also
on the description given by Mr Lionel Jacobs in
1902.
The Second World War interrupted the English
breeding.
After the war, the English imported a few dogs
from India and amongst them 'Jigmey
Tarkey of Rungit' of
sherpa Tensing's kennel who gave the famous 'Gunga
Din of Verles'
produced by Mrs Harding which was the first post
war champion of the breed. |
Bailey´s dogs 1934 and
the D'Aoust dogs-original type 1997
In the U.S.A -
During his visit to Lhasa in 1934, Suydam
Cutting, received five dogs from the 13th Dalai
Lama. This allowed him to create his famous
Hamilton Farm Kennel in New Jersey.
In 1937 he returned to Lhasa with his wife. As
the 13th Dalai Lama had died just before their
arrival, the Regent offered them a couple of
golden Lhasa-Apsos together with a letter which
specified :
" I am sending
you two dogs by way of Kalimpong. Please take
great care when you receive them.
- Dated 7th of the 1st Tibetan month of thee
Water-Bird year "
I fear that this
sentence, both so simple and so full of meaning
was read only at the first degree.
It may be that we failed to understand the
spiritual message attached to those Apsos.
" Take great care of them " was not
alluding solely to the material aspect.
Indeed, this dog is in the likeness of a country
where spiritual primes over material, where
nature fashions beings in accordance with the
surroundings, where men but animals also are
saturated with spirituality which confers on them
an aristocratic bearing and expression which no
longer exist in present day Lhasas. |
Hamilton Kangmar and
Puppies 1950
In order to
increase their livestock, the Cuttings imported
two dogs from China; they were probably Shi Tzus.
In 1940, seven English Shi-Tzus were imported
into the U.S.A. and once again registered as
Lhasa-Apsos by the American Kennel Club. Since
then, no importation of a dog of purely Tibetan
origin has been authorized by the A.K.C.
Therefore the American issues cannot pretend to
purely Tibetan ascendants.
In Germany - In 1931 and 1939, Dr Schäfer
visited Tibet . From his second journey he
brought back some twenty dogs, including some
Lhasa Apsos, Terriers, Mastiffs etc ... which he
handed over to the Cologne zoo. At the end of the
war, they were taken to an unknown destination by
American soldiers.
In France - In the fifties, Miss Violette Dupont
created her famous Annapurna kennels with
Hamilton Kangmar and Xeres, male of authentic
origin. |
Xeres in a newspaper
clip 1951
The other European
countries followed suit.
The breed met with enormous success in the United
States. Cutting made numerous adepts, amongst the
first ones were :
-Mme Marie Stillman, affix 'Americal'
-Mme Grace Licos, affix 'Licos'
-Mme Dorothy Cohen, affix 'Karma'
The American breeders were the only ones able to
continue producing during the Second World War
which had interrupted the development of Lhasa
breeding in England.
They strived for a strict maintainance of the
type according to the official English standard
of 1934.
When his wife died, Mr Cutting sold his kennel to
Mrs Cohen who was entirely devoted to producing
first rate subjects.
At the end of the seventies, some time before she
died, Mrs Cohen realized that the breed could not
be restocked because, after the Chinese invasion,
Tibet, had become inaccessible. She therefore
declared : " If
you are lucky you can have a fasimile of Karma
but there never would be another Karma."
Whilst Lhasa breeding continued to prosper in the
U.S.A. shows began playing an ever increasing
role. In order to make sure of victory, handlers
and groomers staked on the spectacular and in the
end imposed to the judges a dog whose morphology
and characteristics where ever more distant from
the original type.
All this, considerably influenced the breeders,
who thus directed their production towards this
new type of dog.
This led to the fabrication of a competition dog,
a kind of a super-dog, like the super-men, who
nowadays reign over sports grounds and the Tour
de France road, or like the Music-Hall super
stars.
The Lhasa is not a dog who really appreciates
rings, but certain craftly alliances and more or
less disreputable methods, have brought about the
desired results : An arrogant gait, a haughty
neck, a large size so as to be more present on
the ring and ever longer fur etc.. All such
elements which little by little turned the dog
into a star, a champion of the ring.
Authenticity was abandoned for the benefit of the
spectacular.
This type of dog was in the fashion and was in
demand on every side. So it happened that the
American breeders became the suppliers of the
entire world. |
Actual present day
Lhasa vs Cocker head
IN
THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE - as the English are so
right in saying
RESULT - Though this may come as a surprise to
some of you, the Lhasa Apso is no longer in the
fashion. The ever dicreasing number of subjects
presented at the exhibitions, the drops in births
and the lower number of applications, all verify
this fact.
In U.S.A. where the dog's progress was
tremendous, more than 22,000 Lhasa Apsos were
registered in 1977, the second after the Poodle
in the Non Sporting Group Now the breed ranks
23rd with 6.800 registrations per year. ( Ref. -
A.K.C. )
In the course of
the last years, births registered =
1995 1996 1997 1998
------ ------ ------- -------
in France 1255 1197 1099 1036 ( Ref. - S.C.C. )
in Germany 183 159 138 94 ( Ref. - V.D.H. )
The same phenomenon can be observed in
Switzerland, Holland and Belgium.
This announced crossing of the desert cannot but
be beneficial because it will allow to correct
this excess committed during the last twenty
years or so.
For the true Lhasa lovers, this is not a bad
thing, quite on the contrary.
This situation obliges us to think things over.
May be this was not quite the way to follow for
an asiatic breed, several centuries old, which
had been bred and maintained according to
different criteria.
|
Rimpoche
and Tchang Po
The Lhasa Apso is
no longer fashionable and will become less and
less so, for as long as the Show-Dog is
considered as the model of the breed, who can
want to make a pet of a dog with such a fur,
sweeping the pavements like a broom, a dog which
has to be washed every three days, who has to be
kept in a cage or fenced in a lawn for the most
fortunate ones, or kept in paper curls or plaits,
all for the sake of that blessed fur. In short a
cripple it is hard to imagine.
Even the breeders end by clipping the hair of the
dogs they are not showing; So why all this
outrageous seeking for a fur akin to
hypertrichosis, often brought about by products
as dangerous as arsenic, strychnine and others?
Such violence against nature as stupid as it is
dangerous for the dog, and so in the end to
arrive at the new fashion of cutting its hair?
This, no doubt is the modern vision of the third
millennium Lhasa.
All such manipulations are bound to affect the
dog's behaviour. Here again, we can find an
explanation to the agressive character which can
very often be observed in today's Lhasa, a dog
with character, of course, but not a bad tempered
dog.
God always
forgives
Man, sometimes
Nature never
And where does cynology comes in?
It has been overwhelmed by the spectacle.
All of us, breeders, judges and fanciers, we have
all been impressed by the style and presentation
of these sacred show monsters. The standard has
strangely been forgotten for the benefit of
glamour and to the prejudice of type and size
(though this was specified in the standard : 10
to 11 inches for the males, females being
smaller) Most of the latter
years champions did not comply with the standard.
|
Original
dogs at Canine Expo, Paris 1937
Who is to blame ?
For a large part the judges and show organizers.
Why? Because the latter, owing to budgetary
constraint require polyvalent judges who judge
several breeds. So we have to watch the
heart-breaking spectacle of the judge, who often
does not even speak the language of the country,
judging without interruption the entire ninth
group, without devoting even one minute to each
dog and needless to say, without giving any mark,
appreciation or motive for his judgements.
(personal experience in a foreign country I.B. )
What does cynology gain from all this?
How many breeders no longer present their dog to
such a judge because he does not like the type of
their Lhasa? What does this mean? The judges
ought to be entirely for the breed and should
show no preference for one type or another
(large, small etc..) whereas there is only one
type,
the Tibetan type according to the standard.
A good knowledge of the history of the breed
guarantees the respect of the standard without
taking fashion into account. The 1934 first
official standard stipulated : 'In judging these
dogs, breed characteristics are of paramount
importance'
The presence on the ring of a poster depicting
the standard of the breed would act as a reminder
to the judge and would enable breeders and
spectators to a better understanding of the
judgment. |
Gothama-Annapurna;
Beautiful original Lhasa type
According to
Professor Queinnec the improvement of a breed
rests on three factors :
1 - A good knowledge of the breed by the breeders
2 - Technical knowledge given by the scientists
3 - The judge's collaboration to reach this end.
On the eve of the year 2 000 the question arises
: What should be done? Which way should be taken?
As for myself, I can only see three
possibilities:
1 - Start all over again with authentic Lhasa
Apsos, rare but still existing particularly in
Canada and Bhutan.
2 - With the existing stock, resume selection in
accordance with the standard, the aim in view
being the original type.
3 - Regenerate the present stock by bringing in
some real Lhasa Apsos. |
Waiting
for promenade (walk)- 3 original type Lhasa Apsos
This third solution
seems to be the most reasonable one, but then; it
implies the help of all the official bodies for
the registration of these dogs with the purpose
of saving the breed.
An important German breeder has already begun the
work of returning to the origine, basing on those
two sources still available. Let us wish her
success and may she be followed and encouraged in
her efforts by every real fancier of the breed.
Following my previous articles, many judges,
fanciers and dog-lovers throughout the world,
contacted me to uphold my fight and tell me how
much they shared my views. Therefore I know that
I am not alone and this encourages me to pick up
my pilgrim's stick to enter the new millennium,
hoping; always hoping. |
Mlle
duPont, Yolande de Zarobe and Lady Freda Valentine,
breed pioneers, discuss the future of the Lhasa Apso
Yolande de ZAROBE
|
