305 



AN EXPECTANT TEAM 



PROPERTY OF MR. SIDNEY WOODIWISS. 



rlwlograpl: by T. Fall. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

 THE DACHSHUND. 



BY JOHN F. SAYER. 



''Six years ago I brought him down. 

 A baby dog from London Town : 

 Round his small throat of black and brown 



A ribbon blue. 

 And vouched by glorious renown 

 A Dachshund true." 



— Matthew Arnold. 



1")ERS0NS unfamiliar with the sporting 

 properties of this long-bodied breed 

 are apt to refer smilingly to the 

 Dachshund as " the dog that is sold by the 

 yard," and few even of those who know 

 him give credit to the debonair little fellow 

 for the grim work which he is intended 

 to perform in doing battle with the vicious 

 badger in its lair. Dachshund means 

 " badger dog," and it is a title fairly and 

 squarely earned in his native Germany. 



Good things are said to be done up in 

 small parcels, and the saying is eminently 

 true of the little dog under notice. Whether 

 he be kept for sport or merely as a com- 

 panion, he is to my mind the best dog of 

 his size. Given proper training, he will per- 

 form the duties of several sporting breeds 



rolled into one. Possessing a wonderful 

 nose, combined with remarkable steadiness, 

 his kind will work out the coldest scent, and 

 once fairly on the line they will give plenty 

 of music and get over the ground at a pace 

 almost incredible. Dachshunds hunt well in 

 a pack, and, though it is not their recognised 

 vocation, they can be successfully used on 

 hare, on fox, and any form of vermin that 

 wears a furry coat. But his legitimate 

 work is directed against the badger, in 

 locating the brock under ground, worrying 

 and driving him into his innermost earth, 

 and there holding him until dug out. 

 It is no part of his calling to come to 

 close grips, though that often happens in 

 the confined space in which he has to work. 

 In this position a badger with his powerful 



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