THE WEST HIGHLAND WHITE TERRIER. 



393 



the bright, intelligent eye, the look of interest sort— I do not, of course, speak of bench 



shown in the faces, is quite remarkable. dogs — earn their hving following fo.\. 



There is another point of very great badger, or otter wherever these went under- 



importance which not even the photograph ground, between, over, or under rocks 



can show— this is the under coat. that no man could get at to move, and 



Onlv the outer coat can be shown bv some of such size that a hundred men 



could not move them. (And oh ! the 

 beauty of their note when they come across 

 the right scent !) I want my readers to 

 understand this, and not to think of 

 a Highland fox-cairn as if it were an Eng- 

 lish fox-earth dug in sand ; nor of badger 



such illustrations ; this should be very soft 

 on the forehead and get gradually harder 

 towards the haunches, but the harsh coat 

 beloved of the show bench is all nonsense, 

 and is the easiest thing in the world to 

 " fake," as anyone can try wlio will dip 

 his own hair into the 

 now fashionable " ant- 

 uric " baths. 



The outer coat should 

 be distinctly long, but 

 not long in the " fancy " 

 or show sense. Still, it 

 should be long enough 

 to hang as a thatch 

 over the soft, woolly real 

 coat of the animal, and 

 keep it dry so that a 

 good shake or two will 

 throw off most of the 

 water ; while the under 

 coat should be so thick 

 and naturally oily that 

 the dog can swim 

 through a fair - sized 

 river and not get wet, 



or be able to sit out through a drenching work as if it were a question of locating the 

 rain guarding something of his master's badger and then digging him out. No ; the 

 and be none the worse. badger makes his home amongst rocks. 



This under coat I, at least, have never the small ones perhaps two or three tons 

 seen a judge look for, but for the working in weight, and probably he has his " hinner 

 terrier it is most important. end" against one of three or four hundred 



The size of the dog is perhaps best in- tons — no digging him out — and, moreover, 

 dicated by weight. The dog should not the passages between the rocks must be 

 weigh more than i8 lb., nor the bitch more taken as they are ; no scratching them a 

 than i6 lb. little wider. So if your dog's ribs are a 



There is among judges, I find — with all trifle too big he may crush one or two 

 respect I say it — an undue regard for weight through the narrow slit and then stick. 

 and what is called strength, also for groom- He will never be able to pull himself back — 

 ing, which means brushing or plucking at least, until starvation has so reduced 

 out all the long hair to gratify the judge, him that he will probably be unable, if 

 One might as well judge of Sandow's set free, to win (as we say in Scotland) 

 strength, not by his performances, but by his way back to the open, 

 the kind of wax he puts on his moustache ! I remember a tale of one of my father's 



The West Highland Terrier of the old terriers who got so lost. The keepers went 



COL. MALCOLMS SONNY AND SARAH. 



