My Life with Scotties

As is true with most terriers, the Sottish Terrier comes from the British Isle, specifically Scotland.   They were bred to go to ground and rid castles and homes of rats and other rodents.

As with many things in life, my involvement with Scotties happened somewhat by chance. As a child, my father had a friend who owned and bred Cairn Terriers. When I was 5 years old, we acquired a 10 week old male from a litter f 5.  We named him “Whiskers” and he was my friend and companion for 16 years and died shortly before I got married. After about a year of marriage, I really wanted to get a Cairn puppy to be part of my new family.  My wife, pregnant at the time agreed. One weekend, we went out to look for a puppy. Young and not knowledgeable about dog breeders, we went to a few pet shops, but could not find a Cairn or even a Terrier.  Finally, at our last stop, there was a little brindle Scottie girl with pleading eyes and aging out for a pet shop at more than 3 months old.  The pet shop waned to move her, offered us a discount, and we took her home.  She became our  “Dame Duffie”, eventually had a liter of 6 puppies in our little apartment and lived to be 16 ½ years old.

It was another chance meeting with two men, who became my mentors,  that propelled me into the dog show world.  However, before that meeting happened, I was told about the existence of dog shows by Duffie’s dog groomer, a Westie breeder and exhibitor.  My wife and I were curious and decided that we would like to attend a dog show.  We lived in Queens at the time and wanted a nearby show. It was March, and the groomer suggested the Saw Mill River KC Show at the Westchester County Center. On Sunday morning, we arrived at the show with our baby boy tucked into his stroller and little Duffie, with her plaid lead walking beside us. In the early 70’s, Saw Mill River was a benched show where you could walk around and visit with all the dogs set up on the benches and talk to the owners and handlers.  As we passed through the Terrier section, we were stopped by two young men with Scotties, who complimented our beautiful baby boy and asked about our Scottie. They showed us their two Scottie boys, one a champion, who were entered in the show and provided lots of information about Scotties and dog shows.  They further stimulated my interest to learn more and get involved. These two wonderful men, Tom Natalini and Don Massaker, became my earliest, most influential mentors and  lifelong dear friends. I showed Duffie a few times, without much success, but I enjoyed the experience. I still had a lot to learn about grooming and exhibiting, and Duffie, although cute and not bad looking, was not the best show dog. Eventually, Duffie was bred to Tom’s champion male and had her 6 puppies. At this point I needed a kennel name to register the litter. I came up with Duff-De, combining Duff from our beloved Duffie and De from our last name. I kept the best bitch from this litter, but she was still not championship show quality. Then in 1973, I bred her to a handsome young male owned by Ron Schaeffer, a very successful breeder-owner-exhibitor. This litter produced my first Scotties to get points and my first champion. The bitch, CH Duff-De Fireworks, became a multi group and specialty winner. She was quite lovely and a real show girl, always fired up in the ring. Her growing reputation among Scottie fanciers got me noticed as a formidable young breeder-owner exhibitor. This led to me being asked to judge sweepstakes at Scottie specialties in Washington D.C. and California, which in turn stimulated my interest in judging. In 1983, I applied and was approved to judge Scottish Terriers by the AKC, and that was the beginning of my judging career. I continued to exhibit in  the 1980’s and 1990’s with two males who would both become #1 owner handled Scotties in the country. At the same time, I continued learning about the other terriers, applied for and approved to judge breeds, and completed the Terrier Group in 1991.  I continued from there, until this day, to pursue and learn about other breeds and groups.

From two chance meetings to a passion in life, it has been a great ride that I do not want to end. 

Bill deVilleneuve

Dix Hills, NY