72 Modern Dogs. 



With few exceptions the breeders of the dog have 

 become educated to the mutilation, and believe 

 the black and tan terrier looks smarter and hand- 

 somer with ears tapered almost to a point than he 

 does with small aural appendages dropping down 

 like those on a fox terrier. I know several admirers 

 of the variety who gave over breeding their favourites 

 because to compete successfully against what were 

 perhaps inferior specimens the ears had to be 

 operated upon. However, it is not a mere matter 

 of opinion that a " cropped " dog can never be a 

 popular animal, and if the present " black and tan 

 terrier clubs" desire him to be so, they will have to 

 return to the system adopted by the original club, 

 and persevere in offering prizes to be competed for 

 by unmutilated dogs only. 



To leave this unpleasant part of my subject, let 

 me say that the black and tan terrier as he is found 

 to-day is of modern manufacture. Daniel in his 

 "Rural Sports" (1802) certainly describes a terrier 

 of that colour common in his time, but this was a 

 more stoutly built dog, made on the lines of a 

 modern fox terrier and used for a similar purpose 

 and as a gamekeeper's assistant. Indeed, the 

 common terrier of a hundred years ago was for the 

 most part black and tan in colour, with white on 

 his chest and on his feet. 



