230 The Fox Terrier. 



A wire-haired fox terrier requires a little more attention 

 than the smooth one, and it is the custom to trim and pluck 

 the former to make him appear to the best advantage. 

 Mr. Raper on a previous page gives his valuable and 

 practical judgment on the coats of wire-haired terriers. 

 My experience is that considerable skill and experience are 

 required to trim some of the wire-hairs properly, and 

 without being disqualified for overdoing the thing or 

 working clumsily, especially in the manner in which the 

 hair is pulled off the face in front of the eyes. Then some 

 strains require the jacket taken off the body by plucking, 

 singeing, or burning; others have their jackets made 

 crisper or harder by artificial means, alum being fre- 

 quently utilised for such purposes. Such procedure is 

 more or less unfair, and it is much to be regretted that the 

 Kennel Club has proved its inability to put a stop to the 

 practice. Indeed, this "faking" or trimming, by whatever 

 name it is known, has come to such a pass that a disruption 

 was very nearly caused between the members of the Fox 

 Terrier Club — those who kept the smooth variety being, of 

 course, opposed to the practice. Whether such trimming 

 will continue with the little check it occasionally receives time 

 alone will show ; but so long as it is tacitly allowed, which 

 is the case in almost all instances, I do not in justice see why 

 the owners of black and tan terriers should be disqualified 

 for pulling any brown or white hairs out of their dogs, as they 

 undoubtedly would be were they discovered to have done 

 so. Surely in these cases what is sauce for the goose 

 must be sauce for the gander. 



The only method by which such malpractices are to be 

 stopped is by drawing a hard-and-fast rule as to what 

 constitutes this faking and over-trimming; and tacit consent 



