THE PUG 567 



Every writer on Pugs since the issue of " Stonehenge's " work, 

 in 1859, has informed his readers that twenty, thirty, or fifty years 

 ago according to the date of their writing the Pug dog was 

 exceedingly scarce, and, indeed, all but lost. There is no need to 

 lament any such scarcity now. As soon as the tide of fashion 

 turned and again set in for Pugs, the creation of the supply com- 

 menced, and now, like so many others, the Pug market is over- 

 stocked, and everywhere, in town and country, these animals abound. 



" Idstone," writing in 1872, hazards the opinion, or, rather, 

 expresses a doubt, whether we could produce half a dozen specimens 

 equal to what existed a century ago. " Idstone " apparently under- 

 valued the Pugs of the day when he penned the remarks quoted ; 

 and ever since there have been dozens of first-class Pug dogs shown, 

 and there are and always have been a very much greater number 

 in private hands which are never exhibited. There are, however, 

 still too few good ones, an immense quantity of mediocre ones, 

 and a superabundance of " weeds." The fact is, dog shows have 

 given a tremendous impetus to breeding. Yet, very few who take 

 up dog breeding as a sort of " hobby that can be made to pay " 

 seem to have any idea that there are certain laws of breeding which 

 must be followed if success is to be attained, and that, together with 

 the exercise of a grasping spirit, which will turn every pup, however 

 worthless, into coin of the realm, fills the country with rubbish. 

 It is quite certain that there are far more puppies of this and other 

 breeds born than ought to be allowed to live. Many are so weak 

 in vitality that they are sure, if they live at all, to grow up diseased 

 and " weedy," and a majority are so wanting in the essential qualities 

 of the breed that no one with a real desire to improve our dogs 

 would think of rearing them. But such dogs are reared and bred 

 from on account of a supposed value attaching to their pedigrees, 

 and so faults are propagated and intensified. 



Much has been written on the origin of the Pug, but all seems 

 to be merely conjecture. One writer says we first obtained the 

 Pug from Muscovy, and that he is an undoubted native of that 

 country ; another, that he is indigenous to Holland ; whilst others 

 assert the Pug to be a cross between our English Bulldog and the 

 small Dane. 



Dogs of Pug character are widely distributed : a dog nearly 

 akin to him is met with in China and Japan, he is well known in 

 Russia, a favourite in Germany, plentiful in Holland and Belgium, 

 and common enough in France. 



From the date of his resuscitation in this country his history 

 is much clearer, and by the aid of the Stud Books and other 

 means will be kept so. In "Dogs of the British Islands" "Stone- 

 henge" states, and no doubt on the best authority, that in the 

 decade 1840-50, among other breeders who attempted to bring the 



