These cute puppies are some of Britain’s rarest dogs.
The Dandie Dinmont terrier has become a forgotten breed over the last 40 years, with owners preferring designer dogs like cockerpoos, labradoodles and French bulldog.
The species – the world’s oldest breed of terrier – has featured on the Kennel Club’s top 10 vulnerable breeds list every year since its inception 15 years ago.
In 2015, numbers of new-born puppies in the UK sunk to an all-time low of just 79.
Their numbers have gradually increased in the two years since then and now the arrival of a healthy litter of quintuplets has added to their recovery.
Owner and breeder Andy Kennedy is caring for the five males at his home in Waterlooville, Hants.
He has already found homes for two of them in the New Year and is looking for buyers for the other at £1,000 each. He plans to keep the fifth.
Paul Keevil, a fellow Dandie Dinmont breeder and founding member of the Kennel Club’s vulnerable breed committee, said: ‘The population of the Dandie Dinmont terrier has virtually halved in the last 15 years.
‘We have just come off the back of the two lowest consecutive years of all time with just 79 born in 2015 and 80 in 2016.
‘We are in a very highly endangered place but in the last 18 months has thankfully seen a bit of a growth.
‘It looks like we are beginning to make a bit of a slow recovery which is why a litter like this is so very important for us.
‘Three puppies is average and four is lucky so to have five is fantastic news.
‘We hope their new owners will be encouraged to breed them on.’
Dandie Dinmonts were established in the 1700s on the English/Scottish borders and were originally called mustard and pepper terriers owing to the colour of their coats.
They were bred to hunt ground vermin like foxes, badgers and otters.
Their name changed after Scottish author Sir Walter Scott’s 1815 novel Guy Mannering. The book featured the character Dandie Dimont who kept the terriers.
The novel was hugely popular and the first editions sold out in 24 hours.
Mr Keevil said: ‘Mr Dandie Dinmont was a farmer and people were charmed by his terriers and flocked to the borders to try and buy them and that is when and how their name changed.
‘They remained popular until the 1970s and since then fashionable breeds and designers dogs with endorsements from film stars and celebrities behind the and the god old fashioned British working breeds just got forgotten about.
‘I think working breeds became redundant and had to be retrained to become companions and had to make the transition from field to fireside.
‘Some dogs did that better than others.
‘Dandie Dinmonts are a reasonable size to pick up and carry and they love human company and are affectionate and also adapts very well to life in towns and country.
‘I don’t know why they became unpopular but as they get less popular, fewer people know about them so it is a never ending circle of decline.’
Mr Kennedy, 54, is a 4th generation Dandie breeder. His grandfather Alastair, of Dumfriesshire, was a vet for the Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club parents and another ancestor, John Mather, was a found member.
He said: ‘The fact that we have five puppies is quite a responsibility given their overall number.
‘We want them to do well and go to good homes whose owners will be ambassadors for the breed.’