Dulux Paint first adopted the OES as part of their branding in the early 1960s, initially in Australia, then internationally and so successful have the advertising campaigns been and so synonymous has the breed become with the brand that many people today call the breed by the generic name of 'The Dulux Dog'.

One piece of trivia from me, I remember back in the 1970s, going into a paint and paper shop in Brighton’s Kemptown to buy a tin of brown gloss paint. This was in the days before the DIY super stores and small independent decorating shops abounded. This particular shop was quite small and tatty and the owner wore one of those old brown cotton coats. I remember seeing a rather large china model of a Sheepdog, with his paw on a tin of paint, being used as a door stop, I thought it was wonderful and tried to buy it, even offering the heady sum of five pounds for it, but the shopkeeper point blank refused to sell; pity as these Beswick Dulux Dog models can sell today for £500 and more!

The breed has also had an illustrious film career. Back in 1959 Fred MacMurray starred in the Disney classic “A Shaggy Dog Story”, the film broke box office records the year it was released even out-grossing Ben-Hur! The film spawned many spin offs including a sequel twenty years later 1979 – “The Shaggy D.A.”) and “Digby the Biggest Dog in the World” also staring a OES.

But when it comes to celebrity, they probably don’t come any bigger than Sir Paul McCartney, especially back in the heady days of Beatlemania in the 1960s. Paul has not only owned more than one Old English Sheepdog, he even wrote a song about his first one. It’s not a shaggy dog story that the song "Martha My Dear", From the Beatles “white” album was composed in her honor, despite speculation that it was written about his former girl friend, Jane Asher. Indeed when Paul was staying in the Asher household he would delight in leaping into a taxi with Martha, to take her walking on nearby Primrose Hill, where he would love the fact that fellow dog owners would chat happily about their pets, clueless as to who he was. It is even said that at the end of the song "A Day in the Life" McCartney recorded an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, specifically for Martha.

So with all that pedigree and promotion, you would think that the OES would be universally popular wouldn’t you? Twenty years ago in 1989, the OES registered 2384 pups at the KC, ten years later that had reduced to 988, whilst in 2008 it had dropped to 529, making this one of the largest reductions in Kennel Club registrations during this period for a British Heritage Dog Breed.

However is this bad news or have the numbers just reduced to a more sustainable and sensible figure for the breed? If anyone has any knowledge about this most recognizable of British breeds do please post a comment.

In the meantime please enjoy this great Beatles song and the photos of Paul McCartney and friends with the eponymous “Martha” the Old English Sheepdog:

...and a Heineken!:

...and do it your way with a bit of Frank and Dulux:

© article and images strictly copyright Paul Keevil & British Heritage Dog Breeds. Exception: first image freely available from Wikipedia.