Huddersfield Ben Day – Let's Celebrate!
 

I don't know if all of you have heard about him, but all are Yorkies are related to each other through Huddersfield Ben. He's the great great great great great (ect) great grandfather of all our yorkies. Huddersfield Ben was born in England in 1865 and his mom was Lady and his dad was Mr. Boscovitch's dog! Huddersfield Ben is universally acknowledged to be the foundation sire of the breed. In his day Ben won many prizes, both as a show dig and in ratting contests. He had tremendous influence in setting the breed type for the Yorkshire Terrier, a new breed still under development in Ben's day.

In spite of his short lifespan, Huddersfield Ben was responsible for producing most of the foundation stock of the Yorkshire Terrier. He was an extremely popular stud dog, being prepotent , and especially due to his reputation as one of the first to breed true to type Yorkshire Terriers. Although between 9 -12 lbs himself he regularly sired stock that competed in the under 7 lbs limit.


Here's his pedigree.
Attachment 292891
Pedigree for Huddersfield Ben, which shows that Ben was linebred.

Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Foster of Bradford, in West Yorkshire England, owned Huddersfield Ben. The dog was bred by Mr. W. Eastwood in the town of Huddersfield, England. According to Ben's pedigree, he was linebred (the product of a mother-son pairing), as was his mother Lady. Lady was the great-great-granddaughter of Mr. J. Swift’s Old Crab, a long coated black and tan terrier born around 1850. Old Crab and Old Kitty, a Paisley Terrier owned by J. Kershaw of Halifax, West Yorkshire England, are the earliest recorded predecessors to the Yorkshire Terrier.

Show career

Huddersfield Ben, registration number 3612, had an accomplished career in dog shows. He competed in Manchester in 1869 and placed second. He was shown again at Manchester in 1870 and won first place. At the Crystal Palace dog shows in 1870 and 1871 Ben took first and second prizes (respectively). Throughout his show career Ben won 74 prizes.
At the age of 6, on September 23, 1871, Ben was run over by a carriage and killed. After Ben's death, his body was preserved and kept under glass, which allowed many to see this famous dog long after his death.


All the information posted here is taken from Wikepedia. Huddersfield Ben - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So let's celebrate his life, and remember that we are all related through this little guy!

Here are a few of his pictures, I should say portraits.

Very interesting!! Thank you for sharing!!

Lol, perfect U-tube, makes me want to party, do you think 7:40 AM is too early for a cocktail? Maybe, I should wait till 8:00 to be safe. :cheers:

Nancy think about it this way, some where in the world it's 12:00 pm...

It's 10:52 here, so why not!!! Glad you like the video! Memories...;)

:aimeeyork Nancy- Thanks for sharing. I've read much about Huddersfireld Ben, but did not know this was some kind of anniversary... If not for this dog - where would we all be??? lol

I know I can't believe that they don't even have a Hallmark card yet to mark this day! Ben was able to produce smaller dogs that allowed yorkies to compete in the toy breed, so I guess we wouldn't have any toys if it weren't for Ben! :D

Every book written on the Yorkie in this country aknowledges Bens contribution to our beautiful breed so I think its a great idea we celebrate him.

Great idea to post this Nancy! I will tell my Ben that today is his namesake's Day! We'll have a party -- bully sticks all around! Horray! Where's the confetti? Actually, my living room looks like someone has already spread confetti or snow. I had two new lamps delivered (they sent a huge furniture truck for 2 little lamps! LOL). When I got them all unpacked, there are little tiny bits of styrofoam everywhere! Wouldn't you know it, I just vacuumed last night too!

Aren't you glad the breeders of yore softened the look of our Yorkshire Terrier's faces?

Gosh I hate that foamiy stuff, and it seems to cling to things, maybe it's our dry air.

It's funny I really never thought much about dogs faces until YT, I thought Toto from the Wizard of Oz was the most beautiful dog ever, and now when I look back on the movie, I think he really didn't have that good looking of a face. Lol, YT has spoiled me on dog faces.

Yay Ben!

Thanks for posting this Nancy!