Dog Shows and Doggy People 



A Few Words on Dogs in General 



SINCE writing " All about Dogs " I have come across what I 

 think is the earliest attempt at classification of the varieties of 

 the canine race, as it occurs in a book over three hundred years 

 old, being a treatise on " Englishe Dogges," by Dr. Johannes Caius, 

 published in 1576, and he divides the many different breeds into 

 three grand divisions of Sporting Dogs, Useful Dogs otherwise 

 employed, and Toys. To use his old-world language, he says : 

 " Alle Englishe Dogges be eyther of a Gentle Kinde, servinge the 

 Game ; a Homelye Kinde, apte for sundrie necessarie uses ; or a 

 Currishe Kinde, meete for manye toyes." He subdivides the first 

 division into two sections one comprising the breeds used in 

 hunting, such as Harriers, Blood-hounds, Terriers, Greyhounds, 

 Lyemmers, Gaze-hounds, and Tumblers ; the other including the 

 breeds used in connection with shooting and fowling, such as the 

 Setter, the Fisher, the Land-spaniel, and the Water-spaniel. The 

 second division, a " Homelye Kinde," contains the " Shepherde's 

 Dogge, the Mastive, or Ban-Dogge," with some others not easily 

 distinguishable, referred to by him as " the Mooner," and the 

 " Tynekers' Curre," the latter being a most opprobious epithet, 

 applied to the most worthless specimens in the present day, and 

 corresponding with the common definition of an " outer Mongrel." 

 The third division, or the " Currishe Kinde," he designates 

 " Curres of the Mongrelle and Rascalle sorte," and sets these forth 

 as of three varieties, " the Wapp or Warner," " the Turnspete," and 

 "the Dancere." 



The fact of the arrangement in my "All about Dogs" being 

 roughly somewhat similar to that of the quaint old dog fancier who 

 flourished more than three centuries ago, and the description of it 

 being so quaint, must be my excuse for including it here, in case 

 some of my readers have not seen it. 



Dr. Caius, in another part of his treatise, when speaking of 

 some new breed of dog he had been shown as lately brought out of 

 France, says : " Englishemenne be marvellous greedye, gapinge 



