462 The Dog Book 



effect in preventing many from taking up the breed, and with lack of good 

 buyers prices fell and fewer were bred. Then came the stopping of cropping 

 by enactment of the English Kennel Club and plenty of the old-timers 

 threw the breed up in disgust, for there is no gainsaying the radical difference 

 it makes in a dog, even taking one with nicely held natural ears, when one 

 has been used to the smartly cropped dog. Besides which, with a breed 

 which has been bred regardless of ear carriage, and when naturally stiff- 

 leathered ears will stand better when cropped and must therefore have been 

 developed by a process of selection, it could not be expected that the un- 

 cropped ears of dogs so bred would hang properly. We have not got the 

 dyer or the faker here, but we still have the cropper. 



To the credit of the black and tan terrier men be it said that none of 

 them opposed Dr. Foote's vigorous support of the effort made a few years 

 ago to suppress cropping by rule of the American Kennel Club, and in 

 addition to that he had classes and specials offered for uncropped dogs, but 

 all to no purpose. We were with Dr. Foote in that fight and our side was 

 disastrously defeated. We regretted at the time that what then seemed 

 to us an inevitable action had been foolishly delayed, but when we saw 

 the uncropped dogs of the English shows a year ago, long enough after the 

 rule had been passed for the necessary improvement to have been made, 

 we found it was not there in such breeds as bull terriers, black and tan 

 terriers and Great Danes, all of which looked sadly deficient in character 

 as compared with what we see in America. On the other hand the Irish 

 terrier, in the old days a cropped dog, with an occasional uncropped one 

 when the ears happened to be neat and small and were left on for those 

 reasons, has in no way suffered in expression, nor has the fox terrier. We 

 should perhaps say the wire-haired fox terrier, for while we do not remember 

 ever seeing a cropped smooth, unless cropped through ignorance, we have 

 seen a good many wire-haired so treated. The last we recall was at one 

 of the Agricultural Hall shows in London, about 1877. We had made up 

 our mind to give the catalogue price of ten pounds for this dog, though 

 he was of course passed by the judge, and on going to take another look 

 at him found two gentlemen discussing his points, one of whom had already 

 claimed and paid for the dog. 



We would much like to see a revival of interest in the black and tan 

 terrier, for he is a handsome dog, in addition to being a very nice house dog 

 and companion. He may not be so robust as most of the terriers, for his 



