CHAPTER VII. 

 THE POODLE. 



THERE used to be an impression abroad that 

 there were two varieties of poodle, the Russian 

 poodle and the French poodle ; but the error, 

 however it arose, is now corrected, and we know that 

 the black and the white poodle are common to 

 both nations, as they are to other countries in 

 Europe. A huge black or brown dog occasion- 

 ally seen in England, where it went by the name 

 of the Russian retriever, was originally imported 

 to cross with our own retrievers to increase the 

 size of the latter. At any rate this was said at 

 the time, but our retrievers were already quite big 

 enough, and the so-called Russian dog was nothing 

 more than a huge poodle. 



As a fact, there are more than two varieties of 

 the poodle, and I cannot bring myself to believe 

 that this great big dog from Russia, 8olb. weight 

 or more, is of the same variety as the little mite 

 of a creature 61b. in weight, or even less, which is 

 well known and can be trained to perform sundry 



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