266 BRITISH DOGS 



as a rule, do not breed on any system ; far oftener will they 

 purchase any winner, with little or no regard to looks or pedigree, 

 and then breed from it with no science or discrimination. 



The original object of dog shows i.e. as far as sporting dogs are 

 concerned was of course to promote and preserve in the greatest 

 possible perfection the properties and attributes, as well as the 

 form-beauty, of the various breeds used in the field, and for some 

 years after their first establishment this most laudable and useful 

 purpose was to a great extent accomplished. At that time, however, 

 it must be remembered that the animals shown were invariably 

 used for shooting, and also that the judges were always sportsmen. 

 It naturally followed, therefore, that although the prize winners were 

 not necessarily superior in their field work, but sometimes even 

 inferior to the dogs which were passed over, still, the winners 

 must have had some merit in their special province, or they would not 

 have remained in existence. Now all this is changed ; dog shows 

 have become a medium for money-making, and so the breeding 

 of sporting dogs (so called) has become a regular business in itself 

 and entirely divorced from the proper use of the animal. 



Where, twenty-five years ago, there was one show, there are now 

 one hundred ; where three prizes at most were given for one particu- 

 lar breed, there are now a dozen or more, and the merits of the 

 winners are thus complicated and lessened. The judges, too, are 

 not invariably sportsmen ; it is even probable that some of them 

 have never seen the work of a Setter or a Pointer in their lives. 

 How, then, is it possible for them to know that that dog of beautiful 

 quality to which they give a first prize has shoulders so loaded that 

 he could not gallop for an hour, or quarters so short or so weak 

 that he could never get to the top of a high hill at all ? There 

 seems also to be no standard for size, so the Setter gets smaller 

 every year. Again, how can it be expected that the modern show 

 Setter can be anything but useless in "the field"? He spends 

 nearly the whole of his time in a hamper or on a show-bench ; he 

 is fed on stimulating food, kept in warm kennels, and washed and 

 brushed and combed and pampered. What chance can he ever 

 have of cultivating or even preserving the sporting instincts of his 

 far-away progenitors far away indeed, for it must be remembered 

 that this dog showing has been going on now for many canine 

 generations. Of course it must stand to reason that the dog 

 should lose altogether the sporting faculties of his forbears ; and 

 the worst of it is, nobody cares a cent whether he does or not ! 



The show-bench winner in the seventies and early eighties may 

 be defined as the most refined member of a family of well-formed 

 and keen, intelligent working Setters. 



Now it presents a type peculiar to itself a heavier type more 

 after that of the Clumber Spaniel. It is clean cut and well formed, 



