Rare Dandie Dinmont terriers parade at Hawrelak Park on World Dandie Day
Alberta's handful of the endangered breed—rarer than giant pandas—will gather Saturday at 2 p.m., led by a kilt-wearing bagpiper.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., Hawrelak Park becomes home to one of the world's rarest dog breeds. Edmonton's Mary Machum and fellow owners will parade their Dandie Dinmont terriers to celebrate World Dandie Dinmont Day—a global effort to acknowledge and promote a breed so endangered it numbers fewer than 3,000 worldwide.
Machum owns three of the bouffant-headed dogs, which means she holds roughly a tenth of a percent of the planet's entire Dandie Dinmont population. Fewer than 20 exist in all of Alberta. The parade will feature a kilt-wearing bagpiper and showcase a breed so Scottish in its origins that it has its own tartan—the only dog breed with one.
The Dandie Dinmont is the only breed named after a fictional character: Dandie Dinmont, a Scottish farmer from Sir Walter Scott's 1815 novel *Guy Mannering*. The breed is distinguished by short legs, large melting brown eyes, and a people-loving nature. Luminaries from George Bernard Shaw and William Wordsworth to Queen Victoria have owned and bred them.
Machum told Postmedia the breed deserves wider recognition. "It's a wonderful breed that people don't know about it, and this is why we're doing World Dandie Day," she said. The dogs' official names are Ruby, Dexter, Callum, Kiwi, and Ginger—small ambassadors for a breed racing against extinction. The event is a chance to see something truly rare in Edmonton, and to learn why a handful of dedicated owners are fighting to keep the breed alive.