CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RETRIEVER. 419 



of the control under which his dogs are kept, Mr. Shirley, at the Brighton dog show of 

 1879, took off the bench his well-known Trace, and after making her follow him for some 

 distance amongst the benches, sent her back to guard some articles he had left behind. We 

 were witness to the steady way she went to work, and the little flurry with which she 

 carried out her master's orders under certainly very trying circumstances. The Rev. W. 

 Serjeantson and Messrs. Brewis have owned and shown good specimens, and Mr. E. G. 

 Farquharson, too, of Blandford, has been a very successful breeder and exhibitor of Wavy- 

 coated Retrievers, though, in our opinion, some of the dogs belonging to his kennel have 

 shown too much of the Labrador in their formation to quite come up to our ideas ; nor 

 should the names of the Rev. T. Pearce and Major Allison be omitted from the list. 



A Retriever should be big enough and powerful enough to do his work ; but there is a 

 limit to all things, and coarseness in a dog of this variety is certainly no exception to the rule. 

 Opinions have, no doubt, differed greatly upon the question of size ; but it is generally ad- 

 mitted that, in this respect, the Wavy-coated Retriever should err rather on the side of coarse- 

 ness than on that of lightness. He must, in short, show power, for after a hard day's work he 

 may at any moment be called upon to retrieve a wounded hare, and leap a gate or stone wall 

 with it in his mouth. A little dog is practically useless, except for feather, and, as few 

 owners care to keep a Retriever solely for recovering birds, are not looked upon with favour 

 by sportsmen or by keepers. There is, moreover, one Labrador characteristic which is viewed 

 with much distrust by breeders of the Wavy-coated Retriever, and that is in a most 

 important organ, viz., the eye. The small sunken eye of the Newfoundland is just what is 

 not wanted in the dog of whom we are treating, and by many breeders is looked upon 

 with feelings of the utmost horror. In fact, the Setter's eye is by ajl considered as by 

 far the most correct thing for a Retriever, and is encouraged where the beetling brows of 

 the Newfoundland are decidedly objected to. A sullen-looking Retriever is almost sure to be 

 hard to break, or headstrong, which, as we have before suggested, is fatal to all chances of his 

 giving satisfaction in the field. Any indication of Bull blood is likewise most objectionable, 

 as it is a sure and certain result of this cross that the dog possessing it is hard in mouth. 

 All authorities do not agree, however, on this question, and when Dr. Bond Moore, in 1876 

 or 1877, threw out a bitch (we think, if memory serves us right, it was Mr. Thorpe Bartram's 

 Nell) at Wolverhampton, because she was slightly only slightly underhung, great was the 

 uproar his behaviour caused. Though, personally, we are quite of Dr. Moore's opinion that 

 an undershot dog should be put out, because of the suspicion of Bull blood which this 

 formation naturally creates, very many high opinions were given against it, though the matter 

 was never thoroughly set at rest, but ended, as many others of a similar nature have done 

 and will do again in leaving things precisely where they first commenced. 



There is a custom in connection with Retrievers, which, though it has been known by 

 a few to exist for some time in certain quarters, yet requires attention in a work of this 

 description. We allude to the practice of shortening their tails by the removal of a few 

 of the joints ; and this is done avowedly for the purpose of improving the carriage of the 

 stern, and, admittedly, for no other purpose than for improving the appearance of the dog. 

 It is not on account of the unnecessary pain which such an operation causes to the animal 

 for this is, in our opinion, very slight if the operation is performed skilfully and at an early 

 age that we feel it our duty to protest against the practice. In our opinion such "improve- 

 ment" is little less than fraud upon the public who are not aware of its existence, and 

 credit the animal operated upon with being handsomer than he really is. If these " improve- 



