QUIBBLETOWN

The Quibbletown Story essentially begins when a 13 year old girl, Edith Kistler, sees a picture of a Lady disembarking from the Queen Mary with a beautiful large white dog. This lady in the picture was Mary Crane who, along with her husband Frances, introduced the breed into North America. Edith Kistler, the 13 year old girl, kept the picture for over 20 years, until it literally disintegrated. The large white dog was a Great Pyrenees., subsequently known in Great Britain as the Pyrenean Mountain Dog and always known in France as Le Grand Montagne des Pyrénées. Several years later, Edith Kistler located Marjorie Butcher of Cote de Neige Kennels in Western Massachusetts. From Mrs. Butcher, she got her first Great Pyrenees and took him to college with her.

Edith K. Smith with her first puppy, later to be known as Champion Cote de Neige Guerrier

From these beginnings began a lifetime of unparalleled activity in the world history of the breed. Much of the information that follows was part of a series of articles written for the Bulletin of the Great Pyrenees Club of America. The central theme is the wonderful bitches that gave the world all those wonderful puppies, but in the process much of the history of Quibbletown and subsequently the breed in North America itself is covered.

C. Seaver and Edith K. Smith with AKC Champion Quibbletown Jim Dandy-1974

We are now some 50 plus years later from those early college days. Edith and Seaver Smith established, arguably, the finest breeding program in the world history of the breed. Certainly it ranks right at the top with only a few others world wide. It is almost impossible to find a quality dog in North America who does not owe a major part of its pedigree to Quibbletown. Edith Smith was lost to us all several years ago, but Seaver still is here for our benefit. Quibbletown no longer breeds. Seaver is judging the National Specialty Show of the Great Pyrenees Club of America in 1997. So the Quibbletown legend continues to build. May we all study it and benefit from it in our breeding programs. Seaver and Edith Smith had a simple plan. They intended to breed dogs that looked like the French Dog that Mary Crane imported, American and Tri-International Champion Estat d'Argeles.

American and Tri-International Champion Estat d'Argeles of Basquaerie

Edith and Seaver stayed true to the course over the 50 years. The course was enhanced by the natural breeder genius of Edith Smith, plus a lifetime of dedication and hard work in fulfillment of the course. In the process they left the rest of us a linebred gene pool that is potent. The gene pool is behind almost all the top dogs today and for the past 30 years in North America. It is a stable gene pool without any major genetic faults. They essentially bred these problems out of the gene pool years ago.

I have reproduced the Articles, each with its own page. There are some pictures with each, but much of it is text. It is not complete but it is extensive. Keep in mind the series started in the fall of 1995 and is written from the perspective of North America geographically.