DOGS. (FOX-TERRIER, SKYE-TERRIER.) 



261 



a poodle ; he is destined to be the pet dog, for 

 all but ladies, in the future. 



The skull should be long and flat, wedge-shaped,_ 

 i. e., wide behind, with the smaller end at the place of 

 the brow, which should not be at all prominent. The 

 line from the occiput to the end of the nose should be 

 as straight as possible, without either brow or hollow- 

 in front of the eyes. This line is never absolutely 

 straight, but the nearer it approaches to a straight line 

 the better. The skull should, however, be " broken 

 up," but not to anything like the same extent as in 

 the bull-dog. The jaws must be long and powerful, 

 nose large and black, though many otherwise first- 

 rate dogs have had spotted or "butterfly" noses. 

 Eyes small, black, and sparkling. The upper lip 

 should be as tight over the jaw as possible, any super- 

 fluous skin or approach to chop being undesirable. 

 The under lip also should be small. The teeth should 

 be regular in shape, meeting exactly, without any de- 

 viation from the straight line. A pig-jaw is as great 

 a fault as being underhung. The ears are always 

 cropped for show ; they should be brought to a fine 

 point, and exactly match. In their uncropped state they 

 vary a good deal in shape, and seldom reach their full 

 proportion till after teething. The neck should be 

 rather long, and gracefullv set into the shoulders, from 

 which it should taper to the head, without any throati- 

 ness or approach to dewlap, as in the bull-dog. The 

 shoulders should be strong and slanting, with a wide 

 and deep chest ; but the last ribs are not very deep, 

 though brought well back toward the hips. The back 

 should be short and well furnished with muscle, run- 

 ning forward between the shoulder-blades in a firm 

 bundle on each side. The fore-legs should be long 

 and perfectly straight, the elbows lying in the same 

 plane as the shoulder-points, and not outside them, as 

 in the bull-dog. The hind-legs should also be long 

 and muscular, with straight hocks placed near the 

 ground. The feet are rather long than cat-like, but 

 the toes should be well arched and close together. 

 The coat must be short and close, but hard rather 

 than silky, though when in show condition it should 

 shine from constant friction. The color for show pur- 

 poses must be pure white, though there are many 

 well-shaped dogs of other colors. This is, however, 

 purely a fancy breed, and there is not the slightest 

 reason why an arbitrary rule should not be made. 

 The tail or stern should be set on low, fine in bone, 

 and carried straight out, without any curl over the 

 back. 



Fox-Terrier. The skull of the fox-terrier 

 should be flat and moderately narrow, broad- 

 er between the ears and gradually decreasing 

 in width to the eyes. Not much " stop " 

 should be apparent, but there should be more 

 dip in the profile between the forehead and 

 top jaw than is seen in the case of the grey- 

 hound. The other points are as follow : 



The ears should be V-shaped and rather small, of 

 moderate thickness, and dropping forward closely to 

 the cheek, not hanging by the side of the head like a 

 fox-hound's. The jaw should be strong and muscu- 

 lar, but not too full in the cheek should be of fair 

 punishing length, but not so as in any way to resem- 

 ble the greyhound or modern English terrier. There 

 should not be much falling away below the eyes ; this 

 part of the head should, however, be moderately chis- 

 eled out so as not to go down in a straight slope like 

 a wedge. The nose, toward which the muzzle must 

 slightly taper, should be black. The eyes should be 

 dark-rimmed, small, and rather deep-set, full of fire 

 and life. The teeth should be level and strong. The 

 neck should be clean and muscular, without throati- 

 ness, of fair length, and gradually widening to the 

 shoulders. The shoulders should be fine at the points, 

 long and sloping ; the chest deep and not too broad. 



The back should be straight and strong, with no ap- 

 pearance of slackness behind the shoulders ; the loin 

 broad and powerful (and particularly so if the back is 

 long) and very slightly arched. The dog should be 

 well ribbed up with deep back ribs, and should not 

 be flat-sided. The hind-quarters should be strong 

 and muscular, quite free from droop or crouch ; the 

 thighs long and powerful ; hocks near the ground, 

 the dog standing well upon them, like a fox-hound, 

 without much bend in the stifles. The stern should 

 be set on high and carried gayly, but not over the 

 back or curled. It should be of good strength, any- 

 thing approaching a pipe-stopper tail being especially 

 objectionable. The legs, viewed in any direction, 

 must be straight, showing little or no diminution in 

 the size of the ankles when viewed in front. They 

 should be of strong bone throughout, the elbows 

 working freely just clear of the sides. Both fore and 

 hind legs should be carried straight forward hi travel- 

 ing, the stifles not turning outward. The feet should 

 be round, compact, and not too large, the toes mod- 

 erately arched and turned neither in nor out. There 

 should be no dew-claws behind. The coat should be 

 smooth but hard, dense, and abundant. In color, 

 white should predominate ; brindle or liver markings 

 are objectionable ; otherwise, this point is of little or 

 no importance. The dog must present a generally 

 gay, lively, and active appearance. Bone and strength 

 in a small compass are essentials ; but this must not 

 be taken to mean that a fox-terrier should be cloggy 

 or in any way coarse. Speed, to some extent, and 

 endurance, must be looked to as well as power, and 

 the symmetry of the fox-hound taken as a model. 

 The terrier, like the hound, must on no account be 

 leggy, neither must he be too short on the leg. He 

 should stand like a cleverly-made hunter, covering a 

 lot of ground, yet with a broad and powerful loin. 

 He will thus attain the highest degree of propelling 

 power, together with the greatest length of stride 

 compatible with the length of his body. Weight, 

 within certain limits, is not a criterion of a terrier's 

 fitness for his work. General shape, size, and contour 

 are the main points, and if a dog can gallop and stay 

 and follow his fox up a drain, it matters little what 

 his weight is to a pound or so, though, roughly speak- 

 ing, it may be said he should not "scale over twenty 

 pounds in show condition. 



Skye-Terrier. The Skye-terrier was bred in 

 the Island of Skye, and has existed for many- 

 years on the west coast of Scotland and the 

 adjacent islands. He is a low, weasel-like dog, 

 measuring from the nose to the tip of -his tail 

 at least three times his height. 



The eyes are small and sharp in expression, vary- 

 ing in shade from hazel to a dark brown. The head 

 has a large appearance when the coat is dry, but, when 

 wetted, it is found to be long and rather narrow be- 

 tween the ears, increasing in width between the eyes, 

 with a flat skull, little or no brow, and a pointed nose. 

 The teeth should be very strong, and meet level. The 

 nose and roof of mouth are a very dark brown or black. 

 The ears are set on rather highj and are by no means 

 large, measuring barely three inches in length;. but 

 the hair on them, mixing with that arising from the 

 head, neck, and cheeks, makes themlook much longer. 

 The coat on the body and head should be quite long, 

 overhanging the eyes, often so as to conceal them 

 completely. The tail should not be raised above the 

 back, except under great excitement. Weight, sixteen 

 to twenty pounds. The col ors most admired are steel- 

 gray, with ears and tail tipped with black, fawn with 

 dark-brown tips, black and pure fawn. The prick- 

 eared Skye-terrier differs from the drop-eared in hav- 

 ing a larger head, a shorter body, and a rougher coat. 

 The ears are covered with short, silky hair, and 

 should stand well up, without anv outward inclina- 

 tion. 



