The march of the tartan terriers

Skye terriers

Christian Landolt, a Swiss event rider, Olympic judge and hotelier, was after ‘something hairy’ when he travelled to Crufts in 2007 to seek inspiration for a dog to complement a menagerie that already included a Shetland pony, a lamb and a Leonberger (German mountain dog). The unmistakable silhouette of a Skye terrier already rang a bell; a telephone call to his grandmother confirmed that his great-grandfather, the renowned animal sculptor Edouard Marcel Sandoz, had owned three.

‘Skyes are really quite trainable, but they have an opinion, they chase things and they’re very comical’

Mr Landolt immediately contacted the Skye Terrier Club (),but it was a six-month wait for a puppy, Alice. ‘They’re very difficult to find—you have to be patient,’ he advises. Alice’s husband, Hugo, a dog with a rippling, smoky-silvery coat, was found in Finland. With their daughter, Elsie, they enjoy roaming the 12-acre gardens of Whatley Manor Hotel in the Cotswolds and the Swiss Alps, where Mr Landolt has a mountain home