The Chesapeake Bay Dog 329 



Millbank bred several generations of Chesapeakes, and was for several 

 years the most successful exhibitor of these dogs at the New York show. 



We have not much knowledge of Chesapeakes in Maryland, other 

 than having seen such dogs as were shown at the various Baltimore shows. 

 Some years ago there was far less uniformity in the benched specimens 

 than has been the case of late, and we remember our old friend, Mr. Mallory, 

 showing two dogs at a Philadelphia show which were of very different 

 type. One was of the short, close-coated sort and the other decidedly 

 curly. We told him we could not stand the curly as the proper type, and 

 he fully agreed with us and said he only entered the latter to help fill the 

 class. 



When at Seattle and Portland shows in the spring of 1904 we were 

 agreeably surprised at the number of good Chesapeakes in that section of 

 the country. Well grown dogs with excellent coats were at both shows and 

 the winners at Seattle were as good if not better than any dog or bitch we 

 have seen in the East. 



There is a mistaken idea that dogs such as the Chesapeake Bay dog 

 call for expert knowledge of the breed in order to judge them. Such a 

 claim is only true of dogs that have been specialised and improved to a high 

 state of perfection, which is not the case with the Chesapeake, and we 

 venture to state that those who are best acquainted with them as working 

 dogs are not so competent to judge symmetry and an approach to quality as 

 is an all-round judge of dogs. Give a man who is accustomed to ring work 

 a class of Chesapeakes to judge, and all he needs to be told is what they 

 are used for and the preferred colour. From him you will probably get 

 far better selections than from those who may have had plenty of experience 

 with the breed as workers but have little knowledge of dogs in general and 

 do not possess the judging eye. 



We have stated what in our opinion should be the guide for judging 

 this breed, and it will be seen by what we give below that it differs in several 

 essentials from what was presented to the American Kennel Club, as the 

 work of a committee appointed in 1885 to submit a standard. The club 

 did not adopt any of the standards so submitted, and this one remains but 

 the expression of the opinion of Messrs. Pearson, Norris and Malcolm, who 

 formed the committee. We believe there was a Chesapeake Bay Dog Club 

 before that, and that this was the standard of that club, with the exception 

 that in the scale of points each of the four properties for which a value of 



