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| The Lhasa Apso has now been known in the Western world for one hundred years. Its beauty, its intelligence, its behavior 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the price for it, for the last twenty years or so, the image of the dog we knew has little by little faded away and been replaced by another type, a most spectacular one but one which no longer has the charm of the first Lhasas.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. |
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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. |
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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 Dim of Verles “ produced by Mrs. Harding which was the first post war champion of the breed. |
| 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 : |
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| “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 the Water-Bird year.” |
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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. |
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. |
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In France, in the fifties, Miss Violette Dupont created her famous Annapurna kennels with Hamilton Kangmar and Xeres, male of authentic origin. The other European countries followed. |
| The breed met with enormous success in the United States. Cutting made numerous adepts. Amongst the first ones were : • Mme. Maryse Stillman - affix “Amerikal “ |
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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 fac simile 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. |
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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 crafty 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 • an ever longer fur etc.... |
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| 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. |
But in this context, where does cynology come in, ??? What about respecting the breed? Where is the standard ? Nevertheless the true value of a dog should be found neither in its grooming nor in its presentation but in its conformity with the real type (Standard) and in the respect of its characteristics. |
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Where is the true Lhasa-Apso, the rustic little dog arriving from the roof of the world ??? |
| “ 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 decreasing 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 |
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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. |
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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 ? |
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| This , no doubt is the modern vision of the third millennium Lhasa. All such manipulations are bound to affect the dog’s behavior. Here again, we can find an explanation to the aggressive 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. |
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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. |
| 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. The1935 first official standard stipulated : 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. • 1 - Start all over again with authentic Lhasa Apsos, rare but still existing particularly in Canada and Bhutan. |
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