The beginning of the Breed(Tibetan Terrier)

Out of the book: the Tibetan Terrier from Angela Mulliner

A very small nucleus of dogs acuired direct from Tibet by Miss A.R.H. Greig.

M.B. Ch. B. was the foundation on wich the Tibetan Terrier breed was developed.

As a child Dr. Greig was paticularly found of animals and showed a natural flair in handling them.

A veterinary surgeon living in the same village found her a useful and very intersted helper on a number of occasions,and when she grew up it was no surprise that she decided to become a doctor.

At that time it was still somewhat unusual for a woman to expect to have a carreer,let alone consider going through the long,difficult and indelicate training necessary to qualify as a Doctor of Medicine.

For Dr. Greig to be among the top of the year's students qualifying and to become one of the first women surgeons,spoke volumes for her courage,determination and tenacity as well as fulfilling her natural abilities and power of concentration.

Soon after the 1914-1918 war she became a member of the Women's Medical Service of India,serving in Cawnpore,Karachi and Quetta,and it was during her time in Cawpore that she first made the acquaintance of the Tibetan Terrier,in 1922.

One evening she was called to help the Matron deal with a Tibetan ,who had arrived at the Hospital with his wife,his chattels and his animals,and who refused to move until he had seen Dr. Greig.

Dr.Greigs words:Luckily I had a Nepales nursing sister who could speak a little Tibetan and some Urdu

I spoke Urdu too,so between us we discovered what he wanted.The wife said they had heard how I had opened the stomach of a friend of theirs and taken out a spirit which otherwise would have killed her.

The spirit had never returned,and now they wanted me to perform the same service for her.On examination I found that the  woman had a large ovarian cyst.I said I could remove it,and arranged to place her in a family ward,where her husband could prepare her food when she had recovered from the operation.

But the animals must be left in town,and the dog could not possibly be allowed to stay with its mistress during the operation and throughout the treatment,as the woman wisched.

The Tibetans were very concerned indeed that the little bitch could not remain,so i promised that if 'Lily' would be good,quiet and no trouble,i would keep her at my bungalow untill the wife was well enough to have her back again.I picked her up carefully,as she was in whelp,and she licked me.

That was my first meeting with a Tibetan Terrier

The operation was a success,and the woman made a good recovery.A little later,the family brought Lily and her litter of two dogs and two bitch puppies and invited Dr. Greig to choose a puppy as a token of their graditude to her.Dr. Greig delightedly selected  a golden and  white bitch and called her "BUNTI".

Dr. Greig"s enthousiasm for the little bitch grew and Bunti matured.By the time she was a year old she was so attractive that Dr. Greig wanted to exhibit her(she allready showed Pekes,and bred several horses and race them in Indai),so wrote to the Secretary of the Kennelclub of India,telling him how she acquired Bunti and asking him how she should proceed.The Secretary suggested that Bunti might be registrede as a Lhasa Terrier and entered at the next Dehli show,were a panel of authoritative Indian judges could examine her and give their opinion of her breed.Dr .Greig did this,but the unaimous decicion of the panel of judges was that Bunit was NOT a Lhasa Terrier.It was agreed that a limited breeding program should be carried out,and when three generations had been produced,Bunti and her offspring should be examined again so that a decision might be reached regarding the possible classification of the dogs.

Dr. Greigs Tibetan friends brought a mate for Bunti,and Rajah was the first sire of her litter born an Christmas day 1924.He also sired her next litter born in July 1925

In 1926 Dr. Greig was due for ten months home leave,and she brought back to England Bunti and a young bitch from the first litter by Rajah(Chota Tukra) as well as a dog(Ja Haz)from the second litter.

Her mother Mrs.A.Renton Greig,was an establisched breeder from Cocker Spaniels,and the three Tibetans were accepted for registration by the British Kennel Club as Lhasa Terriers,since that was their classification in India.Their registrations appear in the records in the records section of the Kennelgazet12/26 .

Bunti's name spelt "Bunty"and both youngsters bearing Mrs. Greig's suffix of Ladkok.(Over the years a total of 157 Tibetan Terriers bore this suffix)

Bunti was mated with her son Ja-Haz in 1927,and a litter of three dogs resulted.Burrah Sahib,Mr Binks and Bodmash,all "of Ladkok".

Mr. Binks returned to India with dr. Greig,and earned the distinction of becoming the first Tibetan Terrier Champion Dog,winning four Challange Certificates in India.

The next native bred dog acquired by Dr. Greig was the white Thoombay,born in October 1928 and bred by the Buddiman Lama of Tibet,who had also provided the Greigs kennels with two Tibetan Spaniels.Thoombay went to England,joining Mrs. Greig and the other Tibetans at Roydon,and became the senior stud dog of the breed.

He was a most elegant and attractive dog,as his  photographs show,and had an enchanting personality.

Dr. Greig also obtained a second native bred bitch,Gyantse of Lamleh,a black and fawn completely unrelated to the other Tibetan bred stock they had.

Gyantse too did well  on the only two occasoins she was echibited,gaining the Bitch Challange Certificates at Bombay and Karachi,and going on to be Reserve Best in Show at Karachi.She was born in 1928,though no further details of her pedigree or breeder are known.

The final decision of the panel of Indian judges was (as offer of Challenge Certificates suggests),that Dr. Greig's dogs were a truly distinct breed,henceforth to be known as Tibetan Terriers.

Their registrations were amended accordingly.In the summer of 1930 the Indian Kennel Gazette carried a description and standard of points for the "new"breed,illustrated with pictures of a typical Tibetan Terrier and some Typical Lhasa Terriers.

The British Kennel Club swiftly followed suit,and the register of Tibetan Terries that we know today opened in the Kennel Gazette Breed records 2/31