1 14 Modern Dogs. 



a dummy baby in its mouth, with which it descended 

 and placed in safety. The dog fell over on its 

 side, evidently dead either through the smoke and 

 fire or of its exertions. It was then placed on a 

 stretcher, and eventually two other collies came on 

 to the scene pushing an ambulance in front of them. 

 The " fireman's " dead dog was placed thereon, 

 and, to the tune of the " Dead March " from the 

 orchestra, the curtain fell as the ambulance was 

 being wheeled off the stage. The trainer of the 

 dogs, " Professor" Duncan, had done his work well, 

 and, throughout, the performance was one of the 

 best of its kind I ever saw. 



The first dog show that contained a class for 

 sheep dogs was that at Birmingham in 1860, when 

 the late Mr. W. Lort and the late Mr. J. H. Walsh 

 ("Stonehenge") awarded the prize, which they gave 

 to a " pure Scotch bitch," exhibited by Mr. W, 

 Wakefield, of Hurley, Warwickshire, who thus 

 had the honour of taking the first show bench 

 prize offered for a shepherd's dog. There were 

 but five entries then, now in 1892 it is not unusual 

 to find over 100 entries at our modern shows, and 

 at Liverpool in 1 892 the total reached 260 ; whilst 

 at Ayr, in Scotland, in the same year, no fewer 

 than 395 entries were made. Several of the dogs, 

 in both cases, competed in more than one class, but 



