254 Modern Dogs. 



trimmed, as is the common practice with the bull 

 terrier and one or two other varieties at the present 

 time, the pug's ears were shorn off, and rounded close 

 to the head ; so close, indeed, in some instances, as to 

 give the impression, which was curiously believed to 

 be correct, that they had been torn out by the roots. 

 The vagaries of fashion are certainly most difficult 

 to comprehend, and why a delicate lady's pet dog 

 should have been tortured in this way there is not 

 ths slightest reas3n to show Fighting dogs had 

 their ears cut off to prevent their offering a hold for 

 the teeth of an opponent ; ears of terriers had been 

 cut to produce a smarter and brighter appearance, 

 and perhaps the tail had been docked in the first 

 instance under the vulgar superstition that the " dis- 

 temper worm " was thereby destroyed ! A pug 

 with the ears shorn off was rendered hideous, though 

 may be its profile thus looked more like the shadow 

 of a clenched fist than it would with the ears on ; 

 the pug no doubt obtaining its name from the Latin 

 word pugnus, a fist. 



The pug has never been claimed in this country as 

 a native breed, but was supposed to have been a 

 native of Holland, and even to this day is sometimes 

 called the Dutch pug. As it happens, at present 

 more of them are with us now than is the case in 

 any other country on the Continent, although the pug 



