30 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



brindles ; this is the case in cattle, and 

 there seems no reason why it should not 

 be so in Mastiffs — in fact, it is asserted 

 that this system of breeding was resorted 

 to many years ago. 



Although, as I have said, brindle was 



MR. SPALDINGS BITCH CH. MARCHIONESS, 

 BORN 1901, BRED BY MR. A. W. LUCAS BY 



DALSTON BENEDICT LYNDHURST JENNY, 



Photograph by Russell. 



the original colour, and was an ordinary 

 one in Mastiffs in tlie early part of the last 

 century, its ])lace was gradually usurped 

 by the fawn, and twenty-five years or so 

 ago there was great risk of the colour be- 

 coming extinct. Mr. J. Hutchings kept a 

 kennel of Mastiffs of tliis colour, but tlie 

 type of his dogs did not meet the \-iews of 

 the breeders of the day. Wolsey (5,315), 

 by Rajah out of Mr. Hanbury's Queen 

 (2,396), a magnificent brindled bitch, was 

 about the only dog of note in those davs, 

 but liis stud services could not be ob- 

 tained by breeders generally, and so it 

 devolved upon Wolsey's grandson Cardinal 

 to perpetuate the colour. \Mthin the last 

 five years tliere ]ia\-e been more brindles 

 exhibited than fawns, judging by the fact 

 that more of the former have won prizes 

 than the latter. 



White is not a desirable colour, but it 

 will frequently appear on the chest and 

 feet, and in some cases puppies are born 

 with white running some distance up the 

 leg. This, however, disappears almost en- 



tirely — or, at any rate, to a great extent — 

 as the puppy grows up. Light eyes, which 

 detract so much from the appearance of a 

 Mastiff, were very prevalent a few years 

 ago, and, judging from some of the young 

 stock exhibited recently, there seems a 

 great risk of them becoming so again. 

 When this eye appears in a brindle it is 

 e\en more apparent than in a fa\ui ; the 

 remedy is to breed these dogs to brindles 

 with a good dark eye, and of a strain 

 possessing this quality. 



One of the great difficulties that breeders 

 of the present day have to contend against 

 is in rearing tlie puppies ; so many bitches 

 being clumsy and apt to kill the whelps 

 bv lying on them. It is, tlierefore, always 

 better to be pi-o\-ided with one or more 

 foster bitches. At about six weeks old 

 a fairly good opinion may be formed as 

 to what the puppies will ultimately turn 

 out in certain respects, for, although they 

 may indeed change materially during 

 growth, the good or bad qualities which are 

 manifest at that early age will, in all proba- 

 bility, be apparent when the puppy has 

 reached maturity. It is, therefore, fre- 

 quently easier to select the best puppy 

 in tlie nest tlian to do so when tliey are 

 from six to nine or ten months old. 



The colour is sometimes deceptive, and 

 what appears to a no\-ice as a brindle 

 puppy turns out to be a \-ery dark fawn, 

 which gradually gets lighter as the puppy 

 grows. It has occurred that Mastiffs bred 

 from rich dark brindles have been whelped 

 of a blue or slate colour. In course of 

 time the stripes of the brindle appear, but 

 puppies of this colour, which are very 

 rare, generally retain a blue mask, and have 

 light eyes. Many such puppies have been 

 destroyed ; but this practice is a mistake, 

 for although it is not a colour to be de- 

 sired, some of our best Mastiffs have been 

 bred through dogs or bitches of this shade. 

 As an instance I may mention my own 

 dog. Constable (22,705). His grand-dam 

 Columbine was a blue brindle. I parted 

 with her as a puppy to a well-known breeder, 

 who afterwards offered her back to me on 

 account of her colour. Knowing how she 



