The Irish Water Spaniel. 151 



pocket when I took the puppies out for a run, and for a period of at least 

 three months they each retrieved it some dozen times nearly every day, 

 without injuring the pigeon in the least. I have seen one of them (the 

 dog I think) so afraid of harming it as to take hold of it by the wing and 

 fairly lead it to me. Can any other breed of retriever beat that for tender 

 mouths ? Their dam, Juno, was also as tender-mouthed, and as clever a 

 retriever as any sportsman could wish to be master of, but I will freely admit 

 that some of the breed have been made hard-mouthed, and so also have 

 hundreds of retrievers from the same cause. The Irish water spaniel, as 

 everyone knows who has owned one, is never satisfied unless he is doing 

 something to please his master ; for this reason he is kept as a companion, 

 and taught to carry a stick, fetch stones, balls, &c. This kind of 

 education it is which causes them to be hard-mouthed especially if this is 

 done before they have been taught to retrieve game. They are high- 

 couraged like the Irish setter, and, like them also, when well broken, 

 cannot be beaten. 



There is considerable diversity of opinion as to their points for 

 exhibition purposes, and since Mr. M'Carthy brought them to what he 

 considered perfection, there has been a great confusion brought about by 

 judges (who have never been breeders) giving prizes to a class of dog 

 that was far from correct. For instance, Mr. McCarthy, in his description 

 in the Field in 1859, says the head should be capacious, forehead pro- 

 minent, whilst his dogs, and the dogs of his day, were all square on 

 the muzzle. A dog with a head of this description would be ignored 

 nowadays, but I am by no means disposed to say that the snipe-nosed 

 ones, which certain of our judges go in for, are correct ; it is the fashion 

 to call a weak bitch-faced dog " full of quality." This so-called quality in 

 the Irish water spaniel cannot be got without a corresponding loss of 

 bone and, in my opinion, constitution. 



The head from the apex to the eye is large and capacious, giving the 

 appearance of being short, which is by no means the case, only appear- 

 ing so from its being so heavily furnished with topknot ; the dog, which 

 looks long as a puppy, loses it as he gets older. The topknot is one of 

 the chief characteristics of the breed, and it does not arrive at perfection 

 as a rule until the dog attains the age of about two and a half years ; 

 it should not grow straight across the face to between the eye like a wig, 

 but from the front edges of the ears should form two sides of a triangle, 



