426 BRITISH DOGS 



so intermingled strange blood with the real article that if he were 

 not informed it would puzzle Professor Bell to discover to what race 

 the so-called Fox-terrier himself belongs." 



Except in the matter of coat, the two varieties of the Fox-terrier 

 differ little, if at all, though the Smooth-haired (Fig. 95) is decidedly 

 more popular than its Wire-haired relative (Fig. 96), at any rate as a 

 show-dog and general companion. For sporting purposes the latter 

 is usually preferred to the former. The partiality exhibited by some 

 sportsmen for the Wire-haired is not, as is popularly supposed, due to 

 the dog's superior stamina or pluck, but to the coat alone ; indeed, 

 the two varieties are sometimes judiciously blended by breeders for 

 the purpose of improving jackets generally. Every one who has kept 

 working Terriers, and is fairly observant, can hardly fail to be aware 

 of the advantages that a good water- and cold-resisting coat possesses 

 over one inferior in this respect, when the dogs are called upon to 

 perform arduous duties under varying climatic conditions and 

 exceptional circumstances. In the one case the dogs can work for 

 hours exposed to wet or cold ; in the other, be they ever so game 

 by nature, they suffer considerably, as they can neither throw off the 

 water nor are their coats thick enough to enable them to withstand 

 the exposure to which, in pursuit of their game, they are subject. 

 It may be simply as aids to the gun ; or, on the other hand, it may 

 be as assistants to Hounds in the hunting of fox or otter. 



By nature our hardier Terriers have been provided with a 

 jacket to suitably equip them for the duties they are from time to 

 time called upon to perform. Man, in his wisdom, frequently en- 

 deavours to improve upon Nature in the matter of coat, in order 

 to give, according to his ideas, a smarter appearance to this or that 

 variety, and the result is that those which grow heavy coats are 

 " stripped " of their jackets before they can be shown with any hope 

 of success upon the exhibition bench. The Bedlington Terrier is a 

 case in point. To be in so-called show condition this game terrier 

 must be deprived of its natural coat, or a very large proportion of it. 

 And so it is with many other breeds, including Fox-terriers. 



In fact, trimming in the past has been very largely responsible 

 for the inferior position the Wire-haired Terrier occupied as com- 

 pared with the Smooth. The ruling of the Kennel Club in respect 

 thereto, and the endeavours made by the Fancy to eliminate certain 

 undesirable characteristics by breeding, have tended to restore some 

 of the lost confidence of the dog-loving public in the breed. For 

 all that, the work of the so-called " moulting room " is still too much 

 in evidence, and the skilful hair-dresser is very largely responsible 

 for the position in the prize list many dogs even at the present day 

 occupy. Combined with trimming, there is the difficulty experienced 

 in breeding really good specimens of the Wire-haired Terrier, and 

 these together have worked against its popularity. Despite what 



