DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



case of foot-binding, particularly cruel. It is said that the 

 puppies, when small, were enveloped in wire cages closely 

 fitting the body and not removed until maturity was reached. 



The methods of securing shortness of nose were more 

 various than effective. They appear to have been in vogue 

 only among the more ignorant breeders, and the better 

 informed are persuaded that the only reliable means of 

 securing good points is by careful selection in breeding, a 

 matter which is becoming increasingly difficult in China 

 through dearth of good specimens. 



It is a common practice to break the cartilage of the nose 

 with the thumb-nail or a chopstick while the puppy is from 

 three to seven days old, but this can be detected on account 

 of the exaggerated snoring of the mutilated dog in after-life. 

 Dr. J. E. Gray, in describing the skull of a Chinese " Pug- 

 nosed Spaniel " in 1867, remarked, " The nose of the Chinese 

 or Japanese Pug is said by some to be artificially produced 

 by force suddenly or continuously applied, but this is cer- 

 tainly not the case in the skull that is in the British Museum ; 

 for the bones of the upper jaw and the nose are quite regular 

 and similar on the two sides, showing no forced distortion of 

 any kind, such as is to be observed in the skulls of some 

 Bull-dogs." * 



Other breeders feed their puppies from a flat plate, or 

 encourage them from the age of three months upwards to 

 bite pigskin stretched on a board. Others will massage the 

 nose daily, with the object of restraining growth of the 

 obstinate organ, which, only too often in Peking, appears to 

 be but little stunted by this persistent snubbing. 



Dogs are largely bred in Mongolia for their skins. f " There 



" On the Skull of the Chinese Pug-nosed Spaniel or Lap-dog," by Dr. J. E. 

 Gray, F.R.S., Proc. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 40. 

 f Alexander Hosie, " Manchuria," p. 205. 



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