Terriers: the dogs of the earth

Jolly Roger de Cavecanem, the Pirate Dog, feels at ease at a dog show, but his real happyness lays in the dirt. Lets not forget that Terrier (a French word, BTW) refers to an earth dog, meant to dig in the dirt and catch his prey in subterranean dens. The Staffords were originally considered "strong terriers", and their job consisted in getting small but fierce game such as the badger, out of their caves, where they had previously been located and chased by lighter terriers. No so long ago, their gameness was proved in the "Taestas Mor", a test that certified that the dog was indeed capable of facing the extremely brave and well armed badger underground. In Ireland, such test was a requisite for obtaining the championship.

Those blood tests were left behind long ago, but the terrier instinct was not. To be happy, our friends need to be now and then allowed to get dirtied from nose to toe, digging for their ancestor's roots. And maybe dream of finding a badger, catching it by the tail, and bringing it up back to the light, to master...