26 Modern Dogs. 



contemporaries, the general type has become more 

 uniform, and in consequence owners of those dogs 

 which would appear to be mastiff only in colour, 

 have learnt the futility of showing them. 



" It is, perhaps, not too much to say that the 

 ' Description of the Mastiff/ issued by the Old 

 English Mastiff Club, and given on another page, 

 has, as a description of a perfect dog, never been 

 approached, and if it were but possible now to 

 produce a mastiff as a living model of the des- 

 cription, we should be able to point to it as deserving 

 of admiration from the fancier, the artist, and from 

 him who keeps his mastiff as companion and friend. 



" But there is one point which has no place in the 

 required show points of the mastiff. Still it is, in 

 all dogs, and more especially in a large, powerful 

 creature, of fundamental importance. It is the 

 temper. Now, so long as the owner remain merely 

 the exhibitor, keeping a dog as a machine with 

 which to win prizes, bestowing no pains upon the 

 education of his puppies, or, at most, leaving any 

 tuition in the hands of an indifferent kennelman, so 

 surely will the inherent courage, docility, and beauty 

 of temper of the mastiff gradually become mere 

 history of the past. 



11 Dog shows unquestionably tend to develop 

 excitability, and if this be fomented by neglect and 



