438 BRITISH DOGS 



The Coat should be smooth, but hard, dense, and abundant. 

 Colour. White should predominate. Brindle, red, or liver markings are 

 objectionable. Otherwise this point is of little or no importance. 



Colour is frequently a puzzle to the beginner, who is usually in 

 doubt as to how far a judge's opinion would be influenced thereby. 

 Generally the most taking-looking dog as regards colour is the 

 one with a black-and-tan marked head and a white body. Yet the 

 only time when colour would be seriously considered is when, say, 

 two or three dogs of very equal merit were left in a competition. 

 Suppose say that one all white, a heavily patched dog, and a 

 black-and-tan headed one are so evenly matched as regards Fox- 

 terrier points that colour alone can decide the question. In such 

 a case the judge would doubtless decide in favour of the last named. 

 A black-and-tan marked dog has a more business-like look than an 

 all white one ; but this, of course, is an individual opinion. The 

 objection to brindle markings are readily accounted for, as they 

 betoken a remote cross. 



Symmetry, Size, and Character. 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 and endurance must be looked to as 

 well as power, and the symmetry of the Foxhound taken as a model. The 

 Terrier, like the Hound, must on no account be leggy ; neither must he be too 

 short in the leg. He should stand like a cleverly made hunter covering a lot of 

 ground, yet with a short back, as before stated. He will thus attain the highest 

 degree of propelling power, together with the greatest length of stride that is 

 compatible with the length of his body. Weight is not a certain 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, it matters little what 

 his weight is to a pound or so, though, roughly speaking, it may be said that he 

 should not scale over 2olb. in show condition. 



Since that good all-round dog-judge and sportsman Mr. S. E. 

 Shirley, at the Fox-terrier Club's Show at Cheltenham, in 1901, 

 showed a marked partiality for a smaller type of dog, size, always 

 more or less a vexed question, has been continuously exercising the 

 minds of the leading lights in the Fox-terrier Fancy. The writer 

 is of opinion that the average show Fox-terrier is far too large and too 

 leggy to figure as a workman. To strike the happy medium is not 

 perhaps so easy as it seems. If, however, an attempt were made 

 to breed a Fox-terrier that, while it did not scale above i61b. or 

 i81b., yet had plenty of bone and the requisite gameness, the 

 difficulty that at present exists with the large dog of not being able 

 to take a small covered drain would be non-existent. No one, of 

 course, would advocate the very small Fox-terrier, which} is just as 

 objectionable as the big leggy dogs, with their abnormally narrow 

 skulls and Whippet-like fronts. 



In adopting a standard of excellence, the Club obeyed a law of 

 necessity. In such breeds as Greyhounds, the standard of excel- 



