6 The Sporting Dog 



brought out winners which seemed very small. 

 When these winners appeared alongside of the 

 larger and heavier dogs of older type the alarmists 

 cried out that the setters and pointers were 

 becoming degenerate from inbreeding and other 

 causes. Longer experience has rather dissipated 

 the alarm, though some of the city writers resume 

 the cry occasionally when they see a few small 

 celebrities benched near bigger beauties at a 

 show. Handlers and breeders who were among 

 the dogs saw that the quite small ones were 

 rather the exception at all times, and that winners 

 represented about a good, fair average ; more- 

 over, that the noticeably small-sized winners were 

 nearly always of exceptionally good make-up — 

 big little dogs — and, well mated, had a good 

 influence in perfecting the breed. Nowadays the 

 handlers and breeders work along, winning with 

 whatever can win, producing from what can pro- 

 duce ; finding that there are big ones, little ones, 

 and medium ones, and that academics must be 

 guided by practice, not practice by academics. 

 If the breeders do not stick to the game, the 

 handlers do ; and so far there has always been 

 a new crop of breeders coming on, with a few 

 leaders, like Mr. Pierre Lorillard and the late 

 Colonel Edward Dexter, who maintain their 

 patronage steadily through the years. The large 

 number of public events and the enormous pri- 



