The Boston Terrier 527 



judges have to bow to the ruling power of the Boston Terrier Club. The 

 members will permit us to recall the fact that it is not more than ten or 

 twelve years ago since double dewclaws were as much an essential in St. 

 Bernards, but a few then took up the cry that they were deformities and 

 not the essential which had been held by their advocates. It was actually 

 claimed that these loose, dangling claws on the hind legs assisted the dog 

 in walking on snow. Common sense prevailed and we hear no more of 

 them, so that perhaps when a new generation of Boston terrier breeders 

 realise that screw tails are a deformity they will also be bred out, and the 

 short, straight tail substituted. Even if the gnarled tail was not a deformity 

 it is not a terrier tail by any means. Lead in a long-tailed terrier with 

 the tail that is being bred for in the Boston terrier and how long would 

 the judge keep it in the ring ? 



We thus have ears changed from the rose ear of the bulldog to the 

 cropped ear of the terrier and the short, straight tail of the early specimens 

 to the gnarled tail of the extreme flat button type of the bulldog. In the 

 matter of colour there have also been some changes, and punctuation has 

 played a conspicuous part in published standards. We have books in which 

 it reads, "Any colour, brindle, or brindle and white, etc." The late Dr. 

 Varnum Mott's brochure on the breed renders it thus: "Any colour; 

 brindle, evenly marked with white strongly preferred." The official 

 standard reading is, "Any colour brindle, evenly marked with white, 

 strongly preferred." Finally Mr. Dwight Baldwin wrote to the American 

 Stockkeeper that he was the member of the standard committee who 

 drew up the colour clause and that the committee agreed that a Boston 

 terrier might be any colour and that the standard should read, "Any 

 colour; brindle, evenly marked with white, strongly preferred." By and 

 by some mighty man of Boston will arise in his strength and we will have 

 this sentence correctly punctuated. 



On the subject of size the tendency of late has been to a decrease 

 until we have got far too close to the regulation toy size of other terriers. 

 At first the club bitterly opposed this innovation, and it cannot be beyond 

 the memory of the youngest member of the club that the case of a club 

 having provided classes under fifteen pounds was carried before the American 

 Kennel Club, with a view towards having such classes prohibited. That 

 was done so recently that it is difficult to account for the club having already 

 changed the standard weight so as to admit of the very dogs the American 



