THE DANDIE DINMONT. 



403 



slayers of cats, and some of us have heard of 

 dogs who have been skilful in catching fish, 

 but it has been left to a member of the race 

 of Dandies successfully to combine the two 

 accomplishments. A friend upon whose 

 word I can confidently rely tells me that 

 he made the acquaintance of a Dandie who 

 had a most original method of putting an 

 end to members of the feline race. This dog 

 would pay a \asit to a stream which ran 

 close to the house, and having caught a fish 

 would place it as a bait for poor puss, and 

 then mount on the table and keep watch ; 

 from his coign of vantage he would jump 

 down upon the cat, and seizing her by the 

 back soon kill her. 



But it must not be supposed from this 

 anecdote that all Dandies kill cats ! There 

 is, as a rule, very little difficulty in training 

 a Dandie puppy to live at peace with the 

 house cat, though sometimes considerable 

 difficulty is experienced in training him to 

 leave strange cats alone. 



A Dandie makes an excellent house 

 guard ; for such a small dog he has an 

 amazingly deep, loud bark, so that the 

 stranger, who has heard him barking on the 

 far side of the door is quite astonished when 

 he sees the small owner of the big voice. 

 When kept as a companion he becomes a 

 most devoted and affectionate little friend, 

 and is very intelligent. As a dog to be 

 kept in kennels there is certainly one great 

 drawback where large numbers are desired, 

 and that is the risk of keeping two 

 or more dogs in one kennel ; sooner or 

 later there is sure to be a fight, and when 

 Dandies fight it is generally a very serious 

 matter ; if no one is present to separate 

 them, one or both of the combatants is 

 pretty certain to be killed. But when out 

 walking the Dandie is no more quarrelsome 

 than other breeds of terriers, if properly 

 trained from puppyhood. In this connec- 

 tion I am reminded of a little incident that 

 happened with one of my own Dandies not 

 so very long ago. This dog, when about a 

 year old, was rather more prone to pick a 

 quarrel with strange dogs than he should 

 have been, and one day, when out for 

 exercise with me, he espied a Fox-terrier 



following immediately behind a heavy trap 

 in which two men were riding, and he 

 instantly made a rush for the Fox-terrier. 

 The wheel of the trap caught him in the 

 middle of his body and went right over him. 

 I, of course, expected that his back would 

 be broken, or that he had received some 

 other fatal injury. Not a bit of it. He just 

 growled at the retreating trap and terrier, 

 got up and shook himself, finished his walk 

 quite gaily, ate his supper that evening with 

 his usual gusto, and neither that day nor 

 afterwards did he seem any the worse for 

 his little adventure. This dog is a son of 

 the well-known Ch. Milverton King, and 

 certainly his adventure exemplified in a 

 wonderful way the maxim : " A Dandie's 

 body should feel so strong that a cart wheel 

 might pass over it without hurting it." 



There is one little matter in breeding 

 Dandies that is generally a surprise to 

 the no\'ice, and that is the very great 

 difference in the appearance of the young 

 pups and the adult dog. The pups are 

 born quite smooth-haired, the peppers are 

 black and tan in colour, and the mustards 

 have a great deal of black in their colouring. 

 The top-knot begins to appear sometimes 

 when the dog is a few months old, and some- 

 times not till he is a year or so old. It is 

 generally best to mate a mustard to a pepper, 

 to prevent the mustards becoming too light 

 in colour, though two rich-coloured mustards 

 may be mated together with good results. 

 It is a rather curious fact that when two 

 mustards are mated some of the progeny 

 are usually pepper in colour, though when 

 two peppers are mated there are very 

 seldom any mustard puppies. 



It may be of interest if I mention some of 

 the more prominent breeders and owners 

 of modem times, and some of the most 

 celebrated dogs. 



Mr. G. A. B. Leatham for several years 

 owned a most powerful kennel, some of his 

 best specimens being the pepper dog Ch. 

 Border King, the mustard dog Ch. Heather 

 Sandy, and his son Ch. Ainsty Dandie, also 

 of the same colour, and the mustard bitch 

 Ch. Heather Peggy. About the years 1893- 

 1895 Mr. J. E. Dennis was showing a very 



