134 Modern Dogs. 



I have sometimes wondered why the management 

 at the Birmingham show, held three weeks or so 

 before Christmas each year, does not provide special 

 classes for sheep dogs that have won prizes or 

 performed creditably at trials with sheep. This is 

 the only one which gives special classes for field 

 trial winning pointers and setters, and it would 

 certainly be a feather in the cap of the executive 

 were they to encourage working collies in a similar 

 manner. If the committee of a dog show cannot 

 afford to do this, why does not one of the much 

 vaunted collie clubs come to the rescue ? Talk to 

 the members of such societies, and they will dilate 

 upon the excellence of their own particular strain, so 

 far as the work connected with shepherding is 

 concerned ; but I am sadly afraid that for the most 

 part such is merely talk, and the real purpose of 

 the collie clubs is to provide prizes for their own 

 members, whether the dogs which win them are of 

 any use in the field or not. 



At the show at Curzon Hall, in November, 1893, 

 there were a lot of useful collies on view, and I was 

 much struck with the awards, which, except in 

 about one solitary instance, were made to dogs 

 which from their appearance of docility and intelli- 

 gence might be as useful in the field as they are 

 handsome in the judging ring. 



