CHAPTER XIII 

 PERFORMING AND TOY BREEDS (Continued) 



TOY SPANIELS KING CHARLES PRINCE CHARLES 



BLENHEIM RUBY JAPANESE 



I NOW come to another group of undoubted pets 

 and companions, I mean the Toy Spaniels, and a 

 charming lot they are. I will briefly notice them in their 

 usually accepted order, taking our old friend, the King 

 Charles, first. I am afraid I shall be thought " laudator 

 temporis acti," and old-fashioned, but hardened " all- 

 round dog lover " as I am, and have been, ever since I 

 knew one end of a dog from another, I must say, I 

 dearly love a good " King Charles," and, as I always go 

 through the classes for them, at all the big shows, even 

 when I have nothing, judicially, to do with them, I am 

 grieved to see such small entries of these beautiful dogs, 

 and so few good enough to " fill the eye " of a critical 

 fancier. It is not so much of the size, or colours I com- 

 plain, as the coats, which are so, very often, curly, a bad 

 fault, in my opinion, and many of them are " smutty " 

 and dark in their tan. Of course there are notable ex- 

 ceptions, but I greatly fear that other dog breeds, 

 which have been warmly " pushed " of late years, in 

 every possible way, and, generally, by interested parties, 

 have disheartened the breeders of some of the Toy 



245 



