456 BRITISH DOGS 



preserved. A good many of the fox-hunter's dogs are coloured like 

 their Deerhounds a tawny brown with often a white paw and 

 sometimes a whole white leg. This no doubt arises from careless 

 breeding. 



Fanciers of recent years have tried to alter the original type of 

 Terrier, by trying to engraft on a short, cobby body a long, senseless- 

 looking head, to get which they had to breed dogs almost, if not 

 quite, twice the size of the original, and to alter the formation of the 

 head. That great Scotsman Thomas Carlyle said of Lord Ashley, 

 'Very straight between the eyes a bad form of physiognomy.' 

 Yes, bad, I would say, whether in man or in dog. This straight- 

 face craze began in Black-and-tan Terriers, extended to Fox- 

 terriers, is seen in Bedlington Terriers, is now contaminating the 

 Collie, and is threatening our national Scottish Terrier. Coats are 

 also getting softer and more woolly in texture, as they are inclined 

 to do when the dog is kept in the house as a pet, and not exposed 

 daily to the elements. There is also a tendency in some strains to 

 grow a long coat, which the 'improver' shortens by removing the 

 hair by a process known as ' trimming.' Such coats have always 

 a soft, furry feel, reminding one of a cat's coat instead of a 

 pig's, the bristles which resemble the true coat of the Scottish 

 Terrier." 



Mr. Thomson Gray, in the above, drew no fancy picture of the 

 game little dog he loved so well, and in every word that he wrote, 

 whether praise or blame, was prompted by one idea the mainten- 

 ance of the working type of dog rather than the setting up of a 

 fashionable beauty. The trimming to which attention is directed 

 prevails and has prevailed for many years to an extent unknown 

 outside the fanciers' circle. Mr. Ludlow, however, in his review of 

 the Scottish Terrier in the Kennel Gazette for February, 1900, was 

 most severe on the practice of trimming, which he condemned in 

 no measured terms, and pointed out the danger to the breed that 

 is run thereby. As Mr. Ludlow very truly says, there is nothing 

 to prevent the painstaking exhibitor making the best of his Terrier, 

 and if it stops at removing the "frill" and taking out all the dead 

 coat, no great harm is done. But does it stop there ? Personally, 

 he believes that in very many cases it stops nowhere until every bit 

 of long coat has been pulled out, the sides of the head have been 

 trimmed down pretty well to the bare skin ; and, in fact, until the 

 animal has been thoroughly transmogrified. He then proceeds to 

 state that if it comes to a matter of skilful barbering, the novice will 

 have no chance, and, as in the case of Bedlingtons, and to a less 

 degree in Dandie Uinmont Terriers, the Scottish Terrier will be 

 left in the hands of the few who have the ability and will take the 

 trouble to catch the judge's eye, to the possible disadvantage of a 



