Famous Yorkshire terriers: real dogs behind the tiny icon

Part 1

Smoky, the World War II heroine

In 1944, an American soldier found Smoky in an abandoned foxhole in the jungle of New Guinea. She weighed only four pounds and stood seven inches tall. A soldier who found her sold her to Corporal William Wynne for two Australian pounds, and Wynne named her Smoky.

At Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines, engineers needed to run telephone wire through a pipe seventy feet long and eight inches wide, buried under an airstrip. Digging a trench by hand would have taken days and left men exposed to enemy attack, so Wynne tied a string to Smoky's collar and coaxed her through the pipe. She made it through, and the string was used to pull the wire into place, work credited with saving about 250 men and 40 planes. Smoky was credited with twelve combat missions and eight battle stars. She also survived 150 air raids in New Guinea and a typhoon at Okinawa.

Smoky also visited wounded soldiers in hospital wards, starting after Wynne was hospitalized with dengue fever and nurses asked to take her on rounds. When Wynne and Smoky returned home, their story appeared on the front page of the Cleveland Press, and Smoky became a national sensation. She is often called one of the first therapy dogs, and her visits continued for about twelve years. It is easy to see why her story still stands out to you today.

Smoky died in 1957 at about fourteen years old. In 2022, Smoky received the Animals in War and Peace Distinguished Service Medal for her wartime service.

Part 2

Huddersfield Ben, the father of the breed

Huddersfield Ben was born in 1865 in Huddersfield, England, and is considered the foundation sire of the Yorkshire terrier breed. He was bred by Mr. W. Eastwood and later owned by Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Foster of Bradford. Ben weighed between nine and twelve pounds, larger than a standard Yorkshire terrier, but he regularly sired puppies that competed at under seven pounds. The artist George Earl painted a portrait of Ben.

Ratting contests, where dogs competed to kill rats quickly, were part of that working history, and Ben won such contests too. Ben had a strong show career, placing second in Manchester in 1869 and winning first place there in 1870. He also won prizes at the Crystal Palace dog shows in 1870 and 1871, and he won 74 prizes over his career.

Because Ben bred true to type, he had a strong influence in setting the breed standard for the still-developing Yorkshire terrier. Most Yorkshire terrier foundation stock traces back to him, largely through ten of his sons and one daughter. Ben died in 1871 at the age of six after being run over by a carriage. His body was preserved through taxidermy and displayed, but it has since gone missing.

Part 3

Yorkies in the arts and entertainment

After the war, Smoky and Wynne traveled to Hollywood and around the world, performing on some of the earliest television shows in the Cleveland area. Smoky appeared in 42 live television shows without ever repeating a trick. Wynne also tried to find Smoky film work in Hollywood, working alongside trainers who handled dogs such as Lassie and Benji, but no role suited a four-pound Yorkshire terrier at the time. If you have ever watched your own dog do a trick for an audience, you can imagine the appeal she had.

Part 4

What these famous dogs tell us about the breed today

Ben had a strong influence in setting the breed type for the Yorkshire terrier, a breed still being developed in his day. If you share your life with a Yorkshire terrier, you are looking at a breed shaped partly by a wartime hero and partly by a Victorian show dog.

• Smoky learned to walk a tightrope, ride a small scooter, and spell her own name using cutout letters.
• Huddersfield Ben won 74 prizes across his show career, including wins at the Crystal Palace dog shows.