The Black and Tan Terrier 461 



The first exhibitor in the States to take up the breed systematically 

 was Mr. Edward Lever, of Philadelphia, whose Vortigern and Reveller 

 were well-known winners. These were terriers of rather more substance 

 than black and tans of later days. Mr. Lever then went in for bull terriers 

 and Irish, and it was not until Dr. H. T. Foote of New Rochelle took up the 

 breed that we got a fancier with the necessary persistence for this breed, 

 for it is one of the hardest to breed to perfection, and calls for unwearying 

 patience and disregard of disappointments. Dr. Foote stuck to the breed 

 for twenty years, and even he gave it up when Mrs. Foote took to Scottish 

 terriers and he fell a victim to their enticing qualities. With his withdrawal 

 the death knell of the black and tan in the United States seems to have 

 been sounded. Canada, particularly the Ottawa district, is the stronghold 

 of the fancy, and at Chicago good turn-outs of black and tan terriers may 

 be seen, but if it was not for the support of the Canadians New York shows 

 would have meagre displays of this undoubtedly handsome dog, as can be 

 understood when we state that out of seventeen dogs shown at New York 

 this year, 1905, nine were from Canada, while another Canadian bred was 

 owned at Erie, and these took the lion's share of the money. 



These Canadian dogs are of better type than those bred in the Chicago 

 district, for there they are getting too much substance for their size, and 

 with that comes width of front and lack of the symmetry which is essential 

 in this breed. It is this call for symmetry and also the imperative demand 

 for correct colour and markings, that makes the black and tan such a difficult 

 dog to turn out with any claim to merit. It is a breed that finds its best 

 support from the class of fanciers one finds in England almost exclusively, 

 the working man or mill operative who has it bred in him for many genera- 

 tions, and to whose stick-at-it-iveness we are indebted for nearly all the 

 fancy breeds of England, to which we have become heir by purchase. 



In addition to this drawback in the way of breeding the black and 

 tan has suffered from two causes, though this is more applicable to England 

 than America. Dyeing is resorted to by unscrupulous exhibitors to over- 

 come nature's colour errors, and erratic tan hairs on the hind legs and else- 

 where are plucked. This we are pleased to say is practically unknown 

 here, though we doubt not but that the most honest exhibitor, who would 

 spurn the suggestion of altering colour, would not hesitate to get rid of a tan 

 hair or two which had got beyond the line of demarkation. Still the pure 

 and deliberate faking that was much too prevalent in England had its 



