CHAPTER I. 



PREPARATORY WORK. 



The truth of the familiar and crude apothegm "It costs 

 no more to keep a good dog than a poor one " has evi- 

 dently found wide acceptance, for mongrels are rapidly 

 disappearing and their places are being filled by pure 

 breeds. With this salutary change, and a natural con- 

 sequence of it, the interest in competitive exhibitions 

 has been steadily growing, until now they are held yearly 

 in goodly number ; and so great is the pleasure they afford 

 and their value as furnishing abundant material for criti- 

 cal study of the dog in improved state they may confi- 

 dently be expected to multiply and eventually become as 

 fixed and popular institutions as the " cattle shows " of 

 olden times. 



So rendering the signs the writer feels that his work 

 would be far from complete were he to omit a discussion 

 of dog shows and the special treatment required by com- 

 petitors. 



But before fairly dipping into the subject he would disa- 

 buse the reader who is possessed of the prevalent belief 

 that dog shows in themselves are inimical to all com- 



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