My right-hand dog and atelier assistant is Paddy, the miniature schnauzer, with whom, it’s safe to say, I am completely besotted. Dapper, elegant and gentle without being a shrinking violet, Paddy has the trademark beard and eyebrows that give the mini schnauzer a quizzical, humanlike expression.

The beard on the muzzle is significant. In fact, schnauze means muzzle in German. Combined with bushy eyebrows, the schnauzer’s whiskers give him a distinctive look. The “silver” colour most people use to describe the miniature schnauzer is more correctly know as “salt and pepper.” Naturally, I prefer “silver.”

Over 700 years ago, painter Albrecht Durer included a schnauzer in his watercolour Madonna with the Many Animals.. The schnauzer also appears in a tapestry made in about 1500. In Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, Tramp is a schnauzer, the swaggering dog-about-town who seduces the cosseted cocker spaniel and with whom Lady shares the most famous strand of spaghetti ever.