Exhibition Dogs 59 



Watch the judge, and when his back is turned or he has put you in the corner 

 after a satisfactory inspection of your dog, let doggy be at ease. If you are 

 not yet picked out for a mark of some kind, never lose track of the judge. 

 As his eye travels your way, have your dog ready in his best possible pose, 

 standing square on his legs, not struggling to get at other dogs, or back on 

 his haunches looking up at you too much. That looks all right to you, per- 

 haps, but the judge may have him all out of shape from his point of view. 



Many make the mistake of trying to show dogs of one breed as they do 

 of another breed, whereas there are certain characteristics pertaining to 

 each variety which should not be overlooked. In St. Bernards, mastiffs, 

 greyhounds, hounds, setters and pointers you want no particular keenness 

 in expression, and the elevation or lifting of the ears is a detraction in the 

 case of the first two breeds, the look of size in skull and dignity in expression 

 being lost. In setters, pointers and hounds, the shape of the skull is spoilt 

 by ears too high on the head, they being required, in their cases, to hang 

 well down and close to the side of the head; in greyhounds and wolfhounds 

 the symmetry is spoilt very much by a pricked or lifted ear, even admitting 

 that the Russian fanciers speak of the horse's ear as proper. Nothing that 

 detracts from appearance can be beneficial — even if for fancy's sake some 

 call it proper. 



Terriers, prick-eared and cropped-eared dogs call for a keen or a smart 

 look, and should have all encouragement to hold their ears well up if pricked 

 or cropped, and smartly and with a keen look of the eyes in the case of 

 natural-eared terriers. So also with the collie and his semi-erect ear when 

 at attention. It is usual to get the collie to "throw his ears" by throwing 

 something on the ground a short distance in front of him, but this calls for 

 judgment. Some dogs carry a rather high ear, and in such a case do not 

 throw too far ahead, but so that the dog will look rather more down in front 

 than ahead. Of course, in the case of ears not quite high enough, have the 

 dog look up slightly if possible, or well ahead. In spaniels the one great char- 

 acteristic is a tail carried down, yet it is very common to see even spaniel men 

 of prominence holding their spaniel's tail slightly elevated instead of leaving 

 it alone. Some foolish showers will, in the case of a spaniel short of lip, keep 

 drawing the attention of the judge to this defect by pulling the lip down and 

 holding it so. Such a course is merely saying to the judge that the dog is 

 defective there. 



The less one handles a dog in the ring the better, as a rule, but some 



