170 Modern Dogs. 



dog, whatever it may do so far as appearance is 

 concerned. 



Much more could be written about the poodle 

 as a sporting dog, but as one of the Modern 

 Dogs of Great Britain he is used only as a pet and 

 companion, purely a fancy dog and as a performer 

 on the stage, in the circus, or in the streets. He 

 is a "show dog" in the proper acceptation of 

 the term, and although there are other varieties 

 of the canine race taught to perform tricks of 

 various kinds, the poodle is accepted as the per- 

 forming dog par excellence. It is he who stands 

 on his head, climbs ladders, walks on rolling 

 barrels, turns somersaults both backwards and 

 forwards, feigns death, and performs a host of 

 other accomplishments of which terriers are his 

 imitators. Writers on dogs have always had 

 anecdotes to tell of the sagacious poodle. 



Even Colonel Hutchinson, in his excellent work 

 on " Dog Breaking," cannot pass over the per- 

 formances in Paris of a celebrated poodle named 

 Domini, who not only made up any number that 

 might be desired by selecting corresponding cards 

 upon which numbers had been written, but told 

 the time by the clock, played a good game at 

 dominoes, and otherwise so astonished the gallant 

 Colonel that he gives two or three pages and 



