20 Modern Dogs. 



would be better with straight legs, so would the 

 terriers. The Dandie Dinmont is, perhaps, the most 

 crooked legged of any of our terriers ; he is not an 

 active dog, and is little use for work in a " stone 

 wall country," nor is his " crook " the slightest 

 advantage in any way. I fancy breeders are now 

 trying to produce them with legs as straight as 

 possible, and this can be done if length of body 

 is to an extent sacrificed. The prototype of the 

 original Dandie Dinmont was a more active and 

 useful animal than is the case with our modern 

 specimens. 



The Scottish terrier is another crooked legged 

 dog, but his admirers have already seen that he is 

 more active and comely on straight fore legs ; and in 

 due course we shall see as few Scottish terriers 

 winning whose legs are crooked as we do fox terriers 

 and black and tans with a similar deformity ; and I 

 repeat emphatically that no terrier should have 

 crooked fore legs. I have had them, Dandie Dinmonts 

 and Scottish ones too, Skye terriers likewise ; but, 

 game and well trained as they were, they were of 

 little use with hounds. They could not keep up with 

 those with which we used to hunt the otter, much 

 less with the fleeter foxhound ; and again, in an earth 

 amongst the rocks and crevices, a short-legged, 

 heavily-bodied terrier might get down a shelf up 



