34 8 ALL ABOUT DOGS 



ing also to see him take sixpence out of a bucket of 

 water, as he sometimes has his head under nearly two 

 minutes before picking it up. I taught him a very 

 clever trick which used to cause much amusement at 

 the shows. Whenever he was disturbed by any one 

 poking at him with a stick to make him rouse up and 

 show himself, he would rise gently, put his fore paws 

 on the shoulders of the disturber of his rest, and before 

 it was guessed what idea he had in view, seize and take 

 off the man's hat and deposit it in the pan of water, or 

 on the straw in his pen. Blaeney also is wonder- 

 fully clever, and a splendid hand at sport on land or in 

 water. After a game of croquet is finished, she invari- 

 ably brings in the hoops, mallets, balls, etc., and places 

 them in their proper box in the hall. Once when I was 

 engaged in separating four large Mastiffs who were 

 fighting, she came to my rescue, and considering the 

 best way of rendering assistance, seized the most stub- 

 born of the combatants by the tail and held on till the 

 fight was stopped. She would retrieve very long dis- 

 tances and often surprised people by seizing some stick 

 or other article, which had been put down on purpose 

 for her to fetch, and they had unknowingly picked up. 

 I have frequently known both these dogs jump into 

 the water from a distance of nearly thirty feet." 



I remember, on a recent occasion, when I had prom- 

 ised to judge at one of our largest London shows, hav- 

 ing the impression the show opened on the Tuesday, I 

 went up on the Monday, and did not discover my mis- 

 take until I got to the hotel I usually patronised for any 

 show in that part of the metropolis, but as I have always 



