A Shade too Big. 149 



judges, to be indifferent to the question of size, and to 

 forget that every pound of weight over 1 61b., in working 

 condition, is a set-off against a dog's utility. A 2olb. dog, 

 if well and strongly made, is not necessarily useless, but one 

 three pounds less can do a great deal more. I have been 

 gravely told, and by those who should know better, that a 

 dog of 1 81b. is undersized. I constantly, too, see dogs 

 advertised as sires who are confessedly too big for show, 

 i.e., probably about 231b. weight. It stands to reason that 

 if we keep on using big sires, we shall gradually get a 

 breed of big dogs." 



Writing in January, 1902, Mr. Doyle says: "It is years since 

 I penned the preceding remarks, and I still think that at 

 present judges and breeders pay rather too much attention 

 ■ — or, I should rather say, too exclusive an attention — to 

 ' liberty,' reach in front and slope of shoulder, and not enough 

 to spring, or ribs and strength of loin. In the matter of size 

 we have, I think, improved. This is specially the case with 

 bitches. I can only think of one bitch that of late years 

 has taken high honours which would have been improved by 

 being reduced. On the other hand, while it is ridiculous to 

 describe our winning dogs as ' useless, overgrown brutes ' 

 — a term which I have more than once heard applied — 

 they would certainly be the better for being reduced in size 

 all round. At the late Crystal Palace show I only saw one 

 bitch in all the classes that I would have wished smaller. 

 At least sixty per cent, of the dogs were a shade, though 

 generally no more than a shade, over the proper size. 

 Good bitches, too, at present outnumber good dogs, I 

 should say as two if not three to one. As the dog is a 

 polygamist, probably this is a hopeful state of things. 



11 On one point we are, I think, in danger of going back 



