"Faking " the Ears. 61 



scissors with which this operation had been successfully 

 performed on a dog that won a number of prizes. One of 

 the first duties of a judge in the ring at that time was, and 

 for years later continued to be, to examine the ears to see 

 whether they had been what was slangily called " faked." 

 This usually meant cutting the tendons of the ears to make 

 the latter drop properly, for many terriers had naturally 

 prick or erect ears, and with these appendages so carried 

 there was no chance of winning a prize. The teeth, too, 

 could be filed to a level where those on the lower jaw 

 projected in front of the upper ones. When they did so 

 project, the dog w r as said to be undershot, a fault which 

 was then absolute disqualification. Curling sterns, over- 

 gaily carried, could be straightened, so the clever artist in 

 the matter of dog showing, had, even with these almost 

 white terriers, ample opportunity for a display of his skill 

 and ingenuity in dishonest practices. And so he has now, 

 he does so in many cases, and " faking," to my mind, quite 

 as bad as such cases as I have alluded to is permitted. 

 The sin, however, of this modern " faking" does not appear 

 to be so much in its commission as in its discovery, and 

 means are now adopted by which a terrier's ears may be 

 made to drop artificially and no tell-tale marks remain. 

 This is done in many instances by weights plastered oh to 

 the inside of the ears and sometimes on the outside. Again, 

 one sees advertisements from " up to date" dealers who 

 manufacture and sell appliances which are said to answer 

 the purposes of " ear-dropping " admirably; "ear pads" 

 they are called. 



This en passant, however. Immediately following 1870 

 there were still more notorious terriers shown than those 

 already mentioned, some good that did not win prizes,. 



