REAL live terriers turned up at the opening of the Terriers And Other Breeds exhibition at the John Noott Galleries in Broadway.

The exhibition opened last Saturday and continues until October 22 at Dickens House, the new gallery in the village.

A chance love affair with a Jack Russell terrier called Lottie led to a proliferation of the breed within the gallery and the love of dogs combined with a love of art spawned an obvious subject for the exhibition. Terriers being such sporting dogs, the other breeds are also sporting, including greyhounds, foxhounds and Irish water spaniels.

Dog painting was popularised by Queen Victoria during the 19th century, a period which saw a massive increase in the number of dogs and cats kept as domestic pets.

The Queen was particularly keen to have her animals immortalised by the top artists of the day and collectors now pay large sums of money for works by her favourite, Edwin Landseer, and contemporaries such as Arthur Wardle, John Emms and George Armfield.

In addition to the usual dog portraits there were sporting portraits, where the important thing was the performance of the dog rather than the way it looked and paintings which told a story or showed dogs in comic or sentimental situations or displaying human traits and emotions.