1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dog
DOG, the English generic term for the quadruped of the domesticated variety of Canis (Fr. chien). The etymology of the word is unknown; “hound” represents the common Teutonic term (Ger. Hund), and it is suggested that the “English dog”—for this was a regular phrase in continental European countries—represented a special breed. Most canine experts believe that the dog is descended from the wolf, although zoologists are less certain (see Carnivora); the osteology of one does not differ materially from that of the other: the dog and the wolf breed with each other, and the progeny thus obtained will again breed with the dog. There is one circumstance, however, which seems to mark a difference between the two animals: the eye of the dog of every country and species has a circular pupil, but the position or form of the pupil is oblique in the wolf. W. Youatt says there is also a marked difference in the temper and habits of the two. The dog is generally easily managed, and although H. C. Brooke of Welling, Kent, succeeded in making a wolf fairly tractable, the experience of others has been the reverse of encouraging. G. Cuvier gives an interesting account of a young wolf which, having been trained to follow his master, showed affection and submission scarcely inferior to the domesticated dog. During the absence from home of his owner the wolf was sent to a menagerie, but pined for his master and would scarcely take any food for a considerable time. At length, however, he became attached to his keepers and appeared to have forgotten his former associate. At the end of eighteen months his master returned, and, the moment his voice was heard, the wolf recognized him and lavished on him the most affectionate caresses. A still longer separation followed, but the wolf again remembered his old associate and showed great affection upon his return. Such an association proves that there is very little difference between the dog and the wolf in recognition of man as an object of affection and veneration. H. C. Brooke succeeded in training his wolf so well that it was no uncommon sight to see the latter following his master like a dog. The wolf did not like strangers, however, and was very shy in their presence.
In the Old and New Testaments the dog is spoken of almost with abhorrence; it ranked amongst the unclean beasts: traffic in it was considered as an abomination, and it was forbidden to be offered in the sanctuary in the discharge of any vow. Part of the Jewish ritual was the preservation of the Israelites from the idolatry which at that time prevailed among every other people. Dogs were held in considerable veneration by the Egyptians, from whose tyranny the Israelites had just escaped; figures of them appeared on the friezes of most of the temples, and they were regarded as emblems of the divine being. Herodotus, speaking of the sanctity in which some animals were held by the Egyptians, says that the people of every family in which a dog died shaved themselves—their expression of mourning—adding that this was a custom of his own time.
The cause of this attachment to and veneration for the dog is, however, explained in a far more probable and pleasing way than by many of the fables of ancient mythology. The prosperity of Lower Egypt, and almost the very subsistence of its inhabitants, depended upon the annual overflowing of the Nile; and they looked for it with the utmost anxiety. Its approach was announced by the appearance of a certain star, Sirius, and as soon as that star was seen above the horizon the people hastened to remove their flocks to the higher ground and abandoned the lower pastures to the fertilizing influence of the stream. They hailed it as their guard and protector; and, associating with its apparent watchfulness the well-known fidelity of the dog, they called it the “dog-star” and worshipped it. It was in far later periods and in other countries that the appearance of the dog-star was regarded as the signal of insufferable heat or prevalent disease. In Ethiopia, not only was great veneration paid to the dog, but the inhabitants used to elect a dog as their king. It was kept in great state, and surrounded by a numerous train of officers and guards: when it fawned upon them it was supposed to be pleased with their proceedings; when it growled, it disapproved of the manner in which their government was conducted. Such indications of will were implicitly obeyed, or were translated by the worshippers as their own caprice or interest indicated.
Even 1000 years after this period, the dog was highly esteemed in Egypt for its sagacity and other excellent qualities; for when Pythagoras, after his return from Egypt, founded a new sect in Greece, and at Croton in southern Italy, he taught, with the Egyptian philosophers, that at the death of the body the soul entered into that of various animals. After the death of any of his favourite disciples he would hold a dog to the mouth of the man in order to receive the departing spirit, saying that there was no animal which could perpetuate his virtues better than that quadruped. It was in order to preserve the Israelites from errors and follies of this kind, and to prevent the possibility of such idolatry being established, that the dog was afterwards regarded with utter abhorrence amongst the Jews, and this feeling prevailed during the continuance of the Israelites in Palestine.
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| GREAT DANE. | SAINT BERNARD. |
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| DALMATIAN. | MASTIFF. | OLD ENGLISH SHEEP DOG. |
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| COLLIE. | CHOW. | NEWFOUNDLAND. |
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| POODLE. | BULL DOG. | FRENCH BULL DOG. | From “Country Life in America.” BOSTON TERRIER. |
| (From Photos by Bowden Bros.) TYPICAL NON-SPORTING DOGS. | |||
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| ENGLISH SETTER. | POINTER. |
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| IRISH SETTER. | LABRADOR RETRIEVER. |
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| FLAT-COATED RETRIEVER. | IRISH WOLF-HOUND. |
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| IRISH TERRIER. | DACHSHUND. | ROUGH-COATED FOX TERRIER. | FIELD SPANIEL. |
| (From Photos by Bowden Bros.) TYPICAL SPORTING DOGS. | |||
The Hindus also regard the dog as unclean, and submit to various purifications if they accidentally come in contact with it, believing that every dog is animated by a wicked and malignant spirit condemned to do penance in that form for crimes committed in a previous state of existence. In every Mahommedan and Hindu country the most scurrilous epithet bestowed on a European or a Christian is “a dog,” and that accounts for the fact that in the whole of the Jewish history there is not a single allusion to hunting with dogs. Mention is made of nets and snares, but the dog does not seem to have been used in the pursuit of game.
In the early periods of the history of other countries this seems to have been the case even where the dog was esteemed and valued, and had become the companion, the friend and the defender of man and his home; and in the 2nd century of the Christian era Arrian wrote that “there is as much difference between a fair trial of speed in a good run, and ensnaring a poor animal without an effort, as between the secret piratical assaults of robbers at sea and the victorious naval engagements of the Athenians at Artemisium and at Salamis.” The first hint of the employment of the dog in the pursuit of other animals is given by Oppian in his Cynegetica, who attributes it to Pollux about 200 years after the promulgation of the Levitical law. The precise species of dog that was cultivated in Greece at that early period cannot be affirmed, although a beautiful piece of sculpture in the possession of Lord Feversham at Duncombe Hall, representing the favourite dog of Alcibiades, differs but little from the Newfoundland dog of the present day. In the British Museum is another piece of early sculpture from the ruins of the villa of Antoninus, near Rome. The greyhound puppies which it represents are identical with a brace of saplings of the present day. In the early periods of their history the Greeks depended too much on their nets to capture game, and it was not until later times that they pursued their prey with dogs, and then not with greyhounds, which run by sight, but with beagles, the dwarf hound which is still very popular. Later, mention is made of large and ferocious dogs which were employed to guard sheep and cattle, or to watch at the door of the house, or even to act as a companion, and G. Cuvier expresses the opinion that the dog exhibits the most complete and the most useful conquest that man has made. Each individual is entirely devoted to his master, adopts his manners, distinguishes and defends his property, and remains attached to him even unto death; and all this springs not from mere necessity nor from constraint, but simply from gratitude and true friendship.
The swiftness, the strength and the highly developed power of scent in the dog, have made it a powerful ally of man against the other animals; and perhaps these qualities in the dog were necessary to the establishment of society. Instances of dogs having saved the lives of their owners by that strange intuition of approaching danger which they appear to possess, or by their protection, are innumerable: their attachment to man has inspired the poet and formed the subject of many notable books, while in Daniel’s Rural Sports is related a story of a dog dying in the fulness of joy caused by the return of his master after a two years’ absence from home.
It is not improbable that all dogs sprang from one common source, but climate, food and cross-breeding caused variations of form which suggested particular uses, and these being either designedly or accidentally perpetuated, the various breeds of dogs arose, and became numerous in proportion to the progress of civilization. Among the ruder or savage tribes they possess but one form; but the ingenuity of man has devised many inventions to increase his comforts; he has varied and multiplied the characters and kinds of domestic animals for the same purpose, and hence the various breeds of horses, cattle and dogs. The parent stock it is now impossible to trace; but the wild dog, wherever found on the continent of Asia, or northern Europe, has nearly the same character, and bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the British dog of the ordinary type; while many of those from the southern hemisphere can scarcely be distinguished from the cross-bred poaching dog, the lurcher.
Dogs were first classified into three groups:—(1) Those having the head more or less elongated, and the parietal bones of the skull widest at the base and gradually approaching towards each other as they ascend, the condyles of the lower jaw being on the same line with the upper molar teeth. The greyhound and all its varieties belong to this class. (2) The head moderately elongated and the parietals diverging from each other for a certain space as they rise upon the side of the head, enlarging the cerebral cavity and the frontal sinus. To this class belong most of the useful dogs, such as the spaniel, the setter, the pointer and the sheepdog. (3) The muzzle more or less shortened, the frontal sinus enlarged, and the cranium elevated and diminished in capacity. To this class belong some of the terriers and most of the toy dogs.
Later, however, “Stonehenge” (J.H. Walsh), in British Rural Sports, classified dogs as follows:—(a) Dogs that find game for man, leaving him to kill it himself—the pointer, setters, spaniels and water spaniels. (b) Dogs which kill game when found for them—the English greyhound. (c) Dogs which find and also kill their game—the bloodhound, the foxhound, the harrier, the beagle, the otterhound, the fox terrier and the truffle dog. (d) Dogs which retrieve game that has been wounded by man—the retriever, the deerhound. (e) Useful companions of man—the mastiff, the Newfoundland, the St Bernard dog, the bulldog, the bull terrier, terriers, sheepdogs, Pomeranian or Spitz, and Dalmatian dogs. (f) Ladies’ toy dogs—King Charles spaniel, the Blenheim spaniel, the Italian greyhound, the pug dog, the Maltese dog, toy terriers, toy poodles, the lion dog, Chinese and Japanese spaniels. In 1894 Modern Dogs (Rawdon B. Lee) was issued, the simple classification of sporting and non-sporting dog—terriers and toy dogs, being adopted; but although there had been an understanding since 1874, when the first volume of the Kennel Club Stud Book (Frank C. S. Pearce) was issued, as to the identity of the two great divisions of dogs, an incident at Altrincham Show in September 1900—an exhibitor entering a Russian wolfhound in both the sporting and non-sporting competitions—made it necessary for authoritative information to be given as to how the breeds should be separated. Following petitions to the Kennel Club from exhibitors at the club’s own show at the Crystal Palace, and also at the show of the Scottish Kennel Club in Edinburgh during the autumn of 1900, the divisions were decided upon as follows:—
Sporting.—Bloodhound, otterhound, foxhound, harrier, beagle, basset hound (smooth and rough), dachshund, greyhound, deerhound, Borzoi, Irish wolfhound, whippet, pointer, setter (English, Irish and black and tan), retriever (flat-coated, curly-coated and Labrador), spaniel (Irish water, water other than Irish, Clumber, Sussex, field, English springer, other than Clumber, Sussex and field: Welsh springer, red and white and Cocker); fox terriers (smooth- and wire-coated); Irish terrier, Scotch terrier, Welsh terrier, Dandie Dinmont terrier, Skye terrier (prick-eared and drop-eared), Airedale terrier and Bedlington terrier.
Non-Sporting.—Bulldog, bulldog (miniature), mastiff, Great Dane, Newfoundland (black, white and black, or other than black), St Bernard (rough and smooth), Old English sheepdog, collie (rough and smooth), Dalmatian, poodle, bull terrier, white English terrier, black and tan terrier, toy spaniel (King Charles or black and tan, Blenheim, ruby or red and tricolour), Japanese, Pekingese, Yorkshire terrier, Maltese, Italian greyhound, chow-chow, black and tan terrier (miniature), Pomeranian, pug (fawn and black), Schipperke, Griffon Bruxellois, foreign dogs (bouledogues français, elk-hounds, Eskimos, Lhasa terriers, Samoyedes and any other varieties not mentioned under this heading).
On the 4th of May 1898 a sub-committee of the Kennel Club decided that the following breeds should be classified as “toy dogs”:—Black and tan terriers (under 7 ℔), bull terriers (under 8 ℔), griffons, Italian greyhounds, Japanese, Maltese, Pekingese, poodles (under 15 in.), pugs, toy spaniels, Yorkshire terriers and Pomeranians.
All these varieties were represented at the annual show of the Kennel Club in the autumn of 1905, and at the representative exhibition of America held under the management of the Westminster Kennel Club in the following spring the classification was substantially the same, additional breeds, however, being Boston terriers—practically unknown in England,—Chesapeake Bay dogs, Chihuahuas, Papillons and Roseneath terriers. The latter were only recently introduced into the United States, though well known in Great Britain as the West Highland or Poltalloch terrier; an application which was made (1900) by some of their admirers for separate classification was refused by the Kennel Club, but afterwards it was granted, the breed being classified as the West Highland white terrier.
The establishment of shows at Newcastle-on-Tyne in June 1859 secured for dogs attention which had been denied them up to that time, although sportsmen had appreciated their value for centuries and there had been public coursing meetings since the reign of Charles I. Lord Orford, however, established the first club at Marham Smeeth near Swaffham, where coursing is still carried on, in 1776. The members were in number confined to that of the letters in the alphabet; and when any vacancy happened it was filled up by ballot. On the decease of the founder of the club, the members agreed to purchase a silver cup to be run for annually, and it was intended to pass from one to the other, like the whip at Newmarket, but before starting for it, in the year 1792, it was decided that the winner of the cup should keep it and that one should be annually purchased to be run for in November. At the formation of the club each member assumed a colour, and also a letter, which he used as the initial of his dog’s name. The Newcastle dog show of 1859 was promoted by Mr Pape—a local sporting gunmaker—and Mr Shorthose, and although only pointers and setters were entered for in two classes immense interest was taken in the show. But neither the promoters nor the sportsmen who supported it could have had the faintest idea as to how popular dog shows would become. The judges at that historic gathering were: Messrs J. Jobling (Morpeth), T. Robson (Newcastle-on-Tyne) and J. H. Walsh (London) for pointers, and E. Foulger (Alnwick), R. Brailsford (Knowsley) and J. H. Walsh for the setters. Sixty dogs were shown, and it was said that such a collection had not been seen together before; while so even was the quality that the judges had great difficulty in making their awards. The prizes were sporting guns made by Mr Pape and presented by him to the promoters of the show. So great a success was scored that other shows were held in the same year at Birmingham and Edinburgh; while the Cleveland Agricultural Society also established a show of foxhounds at Redcar, the latter being the forerunner of that very fine show of hounds which is now held at Peterborough every summer and is looked upon as the out-of-season society gathering of hunting men and women.
Mr Brailsford was the secretary of the show at Birmingham, and he had classes for pointers, English and Irish setters, retrievers and Clumber spaniels. Another big success was scored, and the National Dog Show Society was established for the purpose of holding a show of sporting dogs in Birmingham every winter. Three years later proposals were made in The Field to promote public trials of pointers and setters over game, but it was not until the 18th of April 1865 that a further step was taken in the recognition of the value of the dog by the promotion of working trials. They were held at Southill, near Bedford, on the estate of S. Whitbread, M.P., and they attracted great interest. The order of procedure at the early field trials was similar to what it is to-day, only the awards were given in accordance with a scale of points as follows: nose, 40; pace and range, 30; temperament, 10; staunchness before, 10; behind, 10. Style of working was also taken into consideration. In 1865 a show was held in Paris, and after the National Dog Club—not the Birmingham society—had failed, as the result of a disastrous show at the Crystal Palace, a further exhibition was arranged to be held in June 1870 under the management of G. Nutt and a very strong committee, among whom were many of the most noted owners of sporting dogs of that time. The details of the show were arranged by S. E. Shirley and J. H. Murchison, but the exhibition, although a most interesting one, was a failure, and the guarantors had to face a heavy loss. A second venture proved to be a little more encouraging, although again there was a loss; but in April 1873, the Kennel Club, which is now the governing body of the canine world, was founded by S. E. Shirley, who, after acting as its chairman for many years, was elected the president, and occupied that position until his death in March 1904. His successor was the duke of Connaught and Strathearn; the vice-presidents including the duke of Portland, Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, J. H. Salter and H. Richards. The progress of the club has been remarkable, and that its formation did much to improve the conditions of the various breeds of dogs, to encourage their use in the field by the promotion of working trials, and to check abuses which were common with regard to the registration of pedigrees, &c., cannot be denied. The abolition of the cropping of the ears of Great Danes, bull terriers, black and tan terriers, white English terriers, Irish terriers and toy terriers, in 1889 gained the approval of all humane lovers of dogs, and although attempts have been made to induce the club to modify the rule which prohibits the exhibition of cropped dogs, the practice has not been revived; it is declared, however, that the toy terriers and white English terriers have lost such smartness by the retention of the ears that they are becoming extinct. The club has control over all the shows held in the United Kingdom, no fewer than 519 being held in 1905, the actual number of dogs which were entered at the leading fixtures being: Kennel Club show 1789, Cruft’s 1768, Ladies’ Kennel Association 1306, Manchester 1190, Edinburgh 896 and Birmingham 892. In 1906, however, no fewer than 1956 dogs were entered at the show of the Westminster Kennel Club, held in Madison Square Garden, New York; a fact proving that the show is as popular in America as it is in the United Kingdom, the home of the movement. The enormous sum of £1500 has been paid for a collie, and 1000 guineas for a bulldog, both show dogs pure and simple; while £500 is no uncommon price for a fox terrier. Excepting for greyhounds, however, high prices are rarely offered for sporting dogs, 300 guineas for the pointer “Coronation” and 200 guineas for the retriever “High Legh Blarney” being the best reported prices for gun dogs during the last few years.
The foreign and colonial clubs which are affiliated to the Kennel Club are: the Guernsey Dog Club, the Italian Kennel Club, the Jersey Dog Club, La Société Centrale (Paris), Moscow Gun Club of the Emperor Alexander II., New South Wales Kennel Club, Nimrod Club (Amsterdam), Northern Indian Kennel Association, Royal St Hubert’s Society (Brussels) and the South African Kennel Club (Cape Town). Its ramifications therefore extend to all parts of the world; while its rules are the basis of those adopted by the American Kennel Club, the governing body of the “fancy” in the United States. A joint conference between representatives of the two bodies, held in London in 1900, did much towards securing the uniformity of ideas which is so essential between associations having interests in common.
Most of the leading breeds have clubs or societies, which have been founded by admirers with a view to furthering the interests of their favourites; and such combinations as the Bulldog Club (incorporated), the London Bulldog Society, the British Bulldog Club, the Fox Terrier Club, the Association of Bloodhound Breeders—under whose management the first man-hunting trials were held,—the Bloodhound Hunt Club, the Collie Club, the Dachshund Club, the Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club, the English Setter Club, the Gamekeepers’ Association of the United Kingdom, the International Gun Dog League, the Irish Terrier Club, the Irish Wolfhound Club, the St Bernard Club, the National Terrier Club, the Pomeranian Club, the Spaniel Club, the Scottish Terrier Club and the Toy Bulldog Club have done good work in keeping the claims of the breeds they represent before the dog-owning public and encouraging the breeding of dogs to type. Each club has a standard of points; some hold their own shows; while others issue club gazettes. All this has been brought about by the establishment of a show for sporting dogs at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the summer of 1859.
America can claim a list of over twenty specialist clubs, and in both countries women exhibitors have their independent associations, Queen Alexandra having become one of the chief supporters of the Ladies’ Kennel Association (England). There is a ladies’ branch of the Kennel Club, and the corresponding clubs in America are the Ladies’ Kennel Association of America and the Ladies’ Kennel Association of Massachusetts.
The Gazette is the official organ of the Kennel Club. The Field, however, retains its position as the leading canine journal, the influence of J. H. Walsh (“Stonehenge”), who did so much towards establishing the first dog shows and field trials, having never forsaken it: the work he began was carried on by its kennel editor, Rawdon B. Lee (d. 1908), whose volumes on Modern Dogs (sporting, non-sporting and terriers) are the standard works on dogs. Our Dogs, The Kennel Magazine, and The Illustrated Kennel News are the remaining canine journals in England. Several weekly papers published on the continent of Europe devote a considerable portion of their space to dogs, and canine journals have been started in America, South Africa and even India: while apart from Lee’s volumes and other carefully compiled works treating on the dog in general, the various breeds have been written about, and the books or monographs have large sales. At the end of 1905 E. W. Jaquet wrote The Kennel Club: a History and Record of its Work, and an edition de luxe of Dogs is edited by Mr Harding Cox; Mr Sidney Turner, the chairman of the Kennel Club committee, edited The Kennel Encyclopaedia, the first number of which was issued in 1907. Dog lovers are now numbered by their tens of thousands, and in addition to shows of their favourites, owners are also liberally catered for in the shape of working trials, for during the season competitions for bloodhounds, pointers, setters, retrievers, spaniels and sheepdogs are held.
Breeds of Dog.
Nothing is known with certainty as to the origin of the vast majority of breeds of dogs, and it is an unfortunate fact that the progressive changes which have been made within comparatively recent times by fanciers have not been accurately recorded by the preservation, in museums or collections, of the actual specimens considered typical at different dates. No scientific classification of the breeds of dogs is at present possible, but whilst the division already given into “sporting” and “non-sporting” is of some practical value, for descriptive purposes it is convenient to make a division into the six groups:—wolfdogs, greyhounds, spaniels, hounds, mastiffs and terriers. It is to be remembered, however, that all these types interbreed freely, and that many intermediate, and forms of wholly doubtful position, occur.
Wolfhounds.—Throughout the northern regions of both hemispheres there are several breeds of semi-domesticated dogs which are wolf-like, with erect ears and long woolly hair. The Eskimo dog has been regarded as nothing more than a reclaimed wolf, and the Eskimo are stated to maintain the size and strength of their dogs by crossing them with wolves. The domestic dogs of some North American Indian tribes closely resemble the coyote; the black wolfdog of Florida resembles the black wolf of the same region; the sheepdogs of Europe and Asia resemble the wolves of those countries, whilst the pariah dog of India is closely similar to the Indian wolf. The Eskimo dog has small, upright ears, a straight bushy tail, moderately sharp muzzle and rough coat. Like a wolf, it howls but does not bark. It occurs throughout the greater part of the Arctic regions, the varieties in the old and new world differing slightly in colour. They are fed on fish, game and meat. They are good hunters and wonderfully cunning and enduring. Their services to their owners and to Arctic explorers are well known, but Eskimo dogs are so rapacious that it is impossible to train them to refrain from attacking sheep, goats or any small domesticated animals. The Hare Indian dog of the Great Bear Lake and the Mackenzie river is more slender, gentle and affectionate than the Eskimo dog, but is impatient of restraint, and preserves many of the characters of its wild ally, the coyote, and is practically unable to bark.
The Pomeranian dog is a close ally of the Eskimo breed and was formerly used as a wolfdog, but has been much modified. The larger variety of the race has a sharp muzzle, upright pointed ears, and a bushy tail generally carried over the back. It varies in colour from black through grey to reddish brown and white. The smaller variety, sometimes known as the Spitz, was formerly in some repute as a fancy dog, a white variety with a black tip to the nose and a pure black variety being specially prized. Pomeranians have been given most attention in Germany and Belgium, while the so-called Spitz has been popular in England and America.
The sheepdogs and collies are still further removed from the wolf type, and have the tip of the ear pendent. The tail is thick and bushy, the feet and legs particularly strong, and there is usually a double dew-claw on each hind limb. The many varieties found in different countries have the same general characters. The bark is completely dog-like, and the primitive hunting instincts have been cultivated into a marvellous aptitude for herding sheep and cattle. The training takes place during the first year, and the work is learned with extreme facility. The Scotch collie is lighter and more elegant, and has a sharper muzzle. Since it became popular as a pet dog, its appearance has been greatly improved, and whilst it has lost its old sullen concentration, it has retained unusual intelligence and has become playful and affectionate. The wolfdogs all hunt chiefly by scent.
Greyhounds.—These are characterized by slight build, small ears falling at the tips, elongated limbs and tails and long narrow muzzles. They hunt entirely by sight, the sense of smell being defective. The English greyhound is the most conspicuous and best-known member of the group, and has been supposed to be the parent of most of the others. The animal is thoroughly adapted for extreme speed, the long, rat-like tail being used in balancing the body in quick turns. The favourite colour is a uniform sandy, or pale grey tone, but characters directly related to capacity for speed have received most attention. The Italian greyhound is a miniature greyhound, still capable of considerable speed but so delicate that it is almost unable to pull down even a rabbit, and is kept simply as a pet. The eyes are large and soft, and a golden fawn is the colour most prized. The Scotch deerhound is a larger and heavier variety of the English greyhound, with rough and shaggy hair. It has been used both for deer stalking and for coursing, and several varieties exist. The Irish wolfhound is now extinct, but appears to have been a powerful race heavier than the deerhound but similar to it in general characters. Greyhounds have been bred from time immemorial in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, while unmistakable representatives are figured on the monuments of ancient Egypt. The existing Oriental varieties are in most cases characterized by silky hair. The hairless dogs of Central Africa are greyhounds employed chiefly in hunting antelopes, and there are somewhat similar varieties in China, Central and South America.
The whippet is a local English dog, used chiefly in rabbit coursing and racing, and is almost certainly a cross between greyhounds and terriers.
The lurcher is a dog with the general shape of a greyhound, but with a heavier body, larger ears and rougher coat. Lurchers are cross-bred dogs, greyhounds and sheepdogs, or deerhounds and collies, being the parents.
Spaniels are heavily built dogs with short and very wide skulls rising suddenly at the eyes. The brain is relatively large and the intelligence high. The muzzle is short, the ears large and pendent, the limbs relatively short and heavy, and the coat thick and frequently long. It is supposed, from their name, that they are of Spanish origin. They may be divided into field spaniels, water spaniels and the smaller breeds kept as pets. Field spaniels are excellent shooting dogs, and are readily trained to give notice of the proximity of game. The Clumber, Sussex, Norfolk and Cocker breeds are the best established. The Clumber is long, low and heavy. It is silent when hunting, and has long ears shaped like vine leaves. The ground colour of the coat is white with yellow spots. The Sussex is a lighter, more noisy animal, with a wavy, golden coat. The Cockers are smaller spaniels, brown, or brown-and-white in the Welsh variety, black in the more common modern English form. The head is short, and the coat silky and wavy. Of the water spaniels the Irish breeds are best known. They are relatively large dogs, with broad splay feet, and silky oily coats.
The poodle is probably derived from spaniels, but is of slighter, more graceful build, and is pre-eminent even among spaniels for intelligence. The best known pet spaniels are the King Charles and the Blenheim, small dogs with fine coats, probably descended from Cockers.
Setters owe their name to their having been trained originally to crouch when marking game, so as to admit of the net with which the quarry was taken being drawn over their heads. Since the general adoption of shooting in place of netting or bagging game, setters have been trained to act as pointers. They are pre-eminently dogs for sporting purposes, and special strains or breeds adapted to the peculiarities of different kinds of sporting have been produced. Great Britain is probably the country where setters were first produced, and as early as the 17th century spaniels were used in England as setting dogs. It is probable that pointer blood was introduced in the course of shaping the various breeds of setter. The English setter should have a silky coat with the hair waved but not curly; the legs and toes should be hairy, and the tail should have a bushy fringe of hairs hanging down from the dorsal border. The colour varies much, ranging according to the strains, from black-and-white through orange-and-white and liver-and-white to pure white, whilst black, white, liver, and red or yellow self-coloured setters are common. The Irish setter is red without trace of black, but occasionally flecked with white. The Gordon setter, the chief Scottish variety, is a heavier animal with coarser hair, black-and-tan in colour. The Russian setter has a woolly and matted coat.
The retriever is a large dog used for retrieving game on land, as a water spaniel is used for the same purpose in water. The breed is almost certainly derived from water-spaniels, with a strong admixture of Newfoundland blood. The colour is black or tan, and the hair of the face, body and tail is close and curly, although wavy-coated strains exist.
The Newfoundland is simply an enormous spaniel, and shows its origin by the facility with which it takes to water and the readiness with which it mates with spaniels and setters. It has developed a definite instinct to save human beings from drowning, this probably being an evolution of the retrieving instinct of the original spaniels. The true Newfoundland is a very large dog and may reach 31 in. in height at the shoulder. The coat is shaggy and oily, and is preferred with as little white as possible, but the general black coloration may have rusty shades. The eyes and ears are relatively small, and the forehead white and dome-shaped, giving the face the well-known appearance of benignity and intelligence. Although these dogs were originally brought to Great Britain from Newfoundland and are still bred in the latter country, greater size, perfection and intelligence have been attained in England, where Newfoundlands for many years have been the most popular large dogs. They are easily taught to retrieve on land or water, and their strength, intelligence and fidelity make them specially suitable as watchdogs or guardians. The Landseer Newfoundland is a black and white variety brought into notice by Sir Edwin Landseer, but the exact ancestry of which is unknown. The Labrador Newfoundland is a smaller black variety with a less massive head. It occurs both in Newfoundland and England, and has been used largely in producing crosses, being almost certainly one parent of the retriever.
The St Bernard is a large breed taking its name from the monastery of Mount St Bernard in the Alps, and remarkable for high intelligence and use in rescuing travellers from the snow. The origin of the breed is unknown, but undoubtedly it is closely related to spaniels. The St Bernard attains as great a size as that of any other breed, a fine specimen being between 60 and 70 in. from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail. The colour varies, but shades of tawny-red and white are more frequent than in Newfoundlands. In the rough-haired breed the coat is long and wavy, but there exists a smooth breed with a nearly smooth coat.
Hounds.—These are large dogs, hunting by smell, with massive structure, large drooping ears, and usually smooth coats, without fringes of hair on the ears, limbs or tail. The bloodhound is probably the stock from which all the English races of hounds have been derived. The chief character is the magnificent head, narrow and dome-like between the huge pendulous ears, and with transverse puckers on the forehead and between the eyes. The prevailing colour is tan with large black spots. Bloodhounds, or, as they are sometimes termed, sleuthhounds, have been employed since the time of the Romans in pursuing and hunting down human beings, and a small variety, known as the Cuban bloodhound, probably of Spanish origin, was used to track fugitive negroes in slaveholding times. Bloodhounds quest slowly and carefully, and when they lose the scent cast backwards until they recover the original trail and make a fresh attempt to follow it.
Staghounds are close derivatives of the bloodhound, and formerly occurred in England in two strains, known respectively as the northern and southern hounds. Both breeds were large and heavy, with pendulous ears and thick throats with dewlaps. These strains seem to be now extinct, having been replaced by foxhounds, a large variety of which is employed in stag-hunting.
The modern English foxhound has been bred from the old northern and southern hounds, and is more lightly built, having been bred for speed and endurance. The favourite and most common colour is black-white-and-tan. The ears are usually artificially clipped so as to present a rounded lower margin. Their dash and vigour in the chase is much greater than that of the bloodhound, foxhounds casting forwards when they have lost the trail.
Harriers are a smaller breed of foxhounds, distinguished by their pointed ears, as it is not the custom to trim these. They are used in the pursuit of hares, and, although they are capable of very fast runs, have less endurance than foxhounds, and follow the trail with more care and deliberation.
Otterhounds are thick, woolly harriers with oily underfur. They are savage and quarrelsome, but are naturally excellent water-dogs.
Beagles are small foxhounds with long bodies and short limbs. They have a full bell-like cry and great cunning and perseverance in the tracking of hares and rabbits. They are relatively slow, and are followed on foot.
Turnspits were a small, hound-like race of dogs with long bodies, pendulous ears, out-turned feet and generally black-and-tan coloration. They were employed as animated roasting jacks, turning round and round the wire cage in which they were confined, but with the employment of mechanical jacks their use ceased and the race appears to be extinct.
Basset hounds are long and crooked-legged dogs, with pendulous ears. They appear to have been produced in Normandy and the Vendée, where they were employed for sporting purposes, and originally were no very definite breed. In comparatively recent times they have been adopted by English fanciers, and a definite strain with special points has been produced.
The dachshund, or badger hound, is of German origin, and like the basset hound was originally an elongated distorted hound with crooked legs, employed in baiting and hunting badgers, but now greatly improved and made more definite by the arts of the breeder. The colour is generally black-and-tan or brownish, the body is extremely long and cylindrical; the ears are large and pendulous, the legs broad, thick and twisted, with everted paws. The coat is short, thick and silky, and the tail is long and tapering.
The pointers, of which there are breeds slightly differing in most European countries, are descendants of the foxhound which have been taught to follow game by general body scent, not by tracking, nose to the ground, the traces left by the feet of the quarry, and, on approaching within sight of the game, to stand rigid, “pointing” in its direction. The general shape is like that of the foxhound, but the build is lighter and better knit, and the coat is soft, whilst white and spotted colorations are preferred. Pointers are employed to mark game for guns, and are especially useful in low cover such as that afforded by turnip fields.
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| BORZOI. | GREYHOUND. |
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| DEERHOUND. | BLOODHOUND. |
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| FOX HOUND. | HARRIER. | OTTER HOUND. |
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| AUSTRALIAN TERRIER. | SKYE TERRIER. | SCOTCH TERRIER. | BEDLINGTON TERRIER. |
| (From Photos by Bowden Bros.)TYPICAL SPORTING DOGS. | |||
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| Photo, Bowden Bros. POMERANIAN. |
Photo, Thos. Fall. ITALIAN GREYHOUND. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. TOY BULL TERRIER. |
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| Photo, Bowden Bros. TOY SPANIEL. |
Photo, Walker. BLENHEIM. |
Photo, Thos. Fall. PAPILLON. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. SCHIPPERKE. |
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| Photo, Bowden Bros. MALTESE. |
Photo, Thos. Fall. TOY BLACK AND TAN. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. YORKSHIRE TERRIER. |
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| Photo, Bowden Bros. PUG. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. GRIFFON. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. JAPANESE. |
Photo, Bowden Bros. PEKINGESE. |
| TYPICAL TOY DOGS. | |||
Mastiffs are powerful, heavily built dogs, with short muzzles, frequently protruding lower jaws, skulls raised above the eyes, ears erect or pendulous, pendulous upper lips, short coats and thin tails. The English mastiff is a huge and powerful dog with pendent ears but short and silky coat. Fawn and brindle are the colours preferred. The Tibetan mastiff is equally powerful, but has still larger pendent ears, a shaggy coat and a long brush-like tail. Mastiffs are employed for fighting or as watchdogs, and for the most part are of uncertain temper and not high intelligence.
The bulldog is a small, compact but extremely heavily built animal of great strength, vigour and tenacity. The lower jaw should be strongly protruding, the ears should be small and erect, the forehead deeply wrinkled with an indentation between the eyes, known as the “stop.” The coat should be thick, short and very silky, the favourite colours being white and white marked with brindle. Bulldogs were formerly employed in bull-baiting, and the tenacity of their grip is proverbial. Their ferocious appearance, and not infrequently the habits of their owners, have given this breed a reputation for ferocity and low intelligence. As puppies, however, bulldogs are highly intelligent and unusually docile and affectionate, and if well trained retain throughout life an unusual sweetness of disposition, the universal friendliness of which makes them of little use as guardians.
The German boarhound is one of the largest races of dogs, originally used in Germany and Denmark for hunting boars or deer, but now employed chiefly as watchdogs. The build is rather slighter than that of the English mastiff, and the ears are small and carried erect.
The Great Dane is somewhat similar in general character, but is still more gracefully built, with slender limbs and more pointed muzzle. The ears, naturally pendent at the tips, are always cropped. It is probable that the strain contains greyhound blood.
The bull-terrier, as its name implies, is a cross between the bulldog and the smooth terrier. It is a clever, agile and powerful dog, extremely pugnacious in disposition.
The pugdog is a dwarf race, probably of mastiff origin, and kept solely as a pet. The Chinese pug is slender legged, with long hair and a bushy tail.
Terriers are small dogs of agile and light build, short muzzles, and very highly arched skulls. The brains are large, and the intelligence and educability extraordinarily high. The number of breeds is very large, the two extreme types being the smooth fox-terrier with compact shape, relatively long legs, and the long-bodied, short-legged Skye terrier, with long hair and pendent ears.
All the well-known breeds of dogs are highly artificial and their maintenance requires the constant care of the breeder in mating, and in rejecting aberrant progeny. The frequency with which even the most highly cultivated strains produce degenerate offspring is notorious, and is probably the reason for the profound belief in telegonic action asserted by most breeders. When amongst the litter of a properly mated, highly bred fox-terrier, pups are found with long bodies and thick short legs and feet, breeders are disposed to excuse the result by the supposition that the bitch has been contaminated by some earlier mating. There is ample evidence, however, that such departures from type are equally frequent when there was no possibility of earlier mismating (see Telegony).
Glossary of Points of the Dog.
Apple Head. A rounded head, instead of flat on top. |