Early Days     (History page 1 of 3)             

by M.A.Brocklehurst

Since childhood in Scotland all my life has been spent in the company of Westies except for the few years training at St Thomas’s Hospital, London . As soon as I could after that I purchased two pet bitches in 1965 called Wendy and Pippa. They were half sisters from Scotland and had some very nice points about them, not least of which was their temperament. It was not long before I wanted a third, and what better way, I thought, than to breed one of my own? I sought help from the late Mary Dennis of Branston fame who proved to be of enormous help to a mere beginner. She was generosity itself with both her time and experience.

Picklepegs returning from their daily walk

Early days 1965

From these humble beginnings I began to think in terms of establishing my own line of Westies one day. I knew this would take years to achieve but by now I was “hooked” as they say, and I was very determined. I joined the available Westie Clubs and the new Southern Club when it was inaugurated in 1979 and ratified by the Kennel Club in 1980. The Clubs were an invaluable source of information and they were a means of contacting breeders in whose stock I was particularly interested.

Through judicious breeding to winning studs of their day, but more often to litter brothers of such show dogs, I set about my task. I became more and more engrossed in the genetics of breeding good dogs. Slowly but surely I strengthened my bitch lines whilst taking care to keep the good points particularly their harsh stark white coats and of course their temperament. From an early litter I retained a dog puppy by Famecheck Trojan before he got his title. He was called Picklepeg Peggotty’s Imp and he was to play quite an important part in strengthening my bitch line. Other evocative Famecheck names followed and quickly made their mark.

In 1970 I moved to the country and converted lovely old stone buildings and stables into rather splendid kennel facilities for my growing family of Picklepegs. Here it was that really serious breeding got underway.