If you dislike dogs, don’t bother viewing this.

If your parents were wise enough to expose you to the four legged set – no, not cats or horses – when you were a child, chances are you turned out pretty well. After all, anyone who can conduct a conversation with a dog knows that this is a pursuit of an intellectual kind on a level sadly lost to those lonely souls who have never enjoyed canine company.

I do not have the keyword ‘dogs’ in my Aperture library. It simply never occurred to me to do that. But leafing through my early monochrome snaps the other day, I was struck by the sheer number of pictures where a pup featured heavily in the subject matter.

Some maintain that people ‘own’ dogs simply because of the guaranteed love the animals unselfishly offer. Well, that may be true for Labradors and Golden Retrievers, hardly the intellectual end of the genus dog, but for me I like a little more challenge and discourse in my canine relationships, meaning it starts and stops with terriers. These chaps can give you a fair run for the money when it comes to politics, economics or even affairs of the heart, and who ever encountered a terrier interested in political office? No, terriers are too smart and honest for that.

So here, without more ado, are some old doggy snaps from the archive which just happen to feature special canines. And, in my book, all dogs are special. Why, there’s even a terrier or two to be found here.

Greenwich, London

Cruft’s Dog Show, London

Brighton, England

Kensington, London

Tuileries Gardens, Paris

Montmartre, Paris

Cruft’s Dog Show, London