5i8 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



wolf that a Hungarian has been known to 

 mistake a wolf for one of his own collies. 

 Dogs of the Pyrenean and Komondor 



MISS LEFROYS KOMONDOR CSINOS. 



t\-pe, with drop ears and deep white coats, 

 are curiously distributed over Europe. The 

 pastoral dog of the Abruzzes, often called 

 the sheepdog of the ]\Iaremmes, is decidedly 

 of this character, and might readily pass for 

 the Kdmondor. 



The Leonberg. — It may be 

 expected that something should 

 here be said of the Leonberg 

 dog, as it is supposed also to 

 be a worker among flocks and 

 herds. The variety is recog- 

 nised in Germany and France 

 as a legitimate breed, and spe- 

 cimens may be seen at most of 

 the Continental shows, but in 

 England we have discarded the 

 dog as a transparent mongrel, 

 even as we rejected the Berg- 

 hund. 



Some thirty years ago, when 

 large dogs were in much re- 

 quest, efforts were made to 

 establish the Leonberg in this 

 country, but it was admittedly 

 a cross between the Newfound- 

 land and the St. Bernard, and its 

 merits were recognised by none so much as 

 by the enterprising gentlemen who presented 

 it as " a new breed." Its history is very 



simple. When a disastrous avalanche and a 

 visitation of distemper decimated the kennels 

 of the St. Bernard Hospice, Herr Essig, of 

 Leonberg, generously returned to the superior 

 of the hospice a St. Bernard dog and bitch, 

 which had been presented to him. Before 

 returning them he allowed the dog to be 

 mated with a Newfoundland, and the result 

 was the so-called Leonberg dog. This was 

 -lime fifty years ago, since when the variety 

 lias prospered spasmodically. At the Paris 

 (log show of 1907, ten Leonbergs were 

 I ntered in the Chiens de Montague class. 

 fhey were good-looking dogs, favouring the 

 -Newfoundland rather than the St. Bernard. 

 ;\Iost of them were sables with dark points ; 

 but the English \isitor, remembering their 

 origin, reflected that in a country where we 

 have St. Bernards such as Cinq Mars, and 

 New^foundlands such as Shelton Viking, there 

 is no occasion to covet the descendants of 

 Hcrr Essig's experiment. 



Of tlie Berghund it is enough to say that 

 it was a large dog fabricated in Waldheim as 

 a ri\'al to the Leonberg. 



The Owtchar, or Russian Sheepdog. — 



RUSSIAN OWTCHAR (SHEEPDOG' OLGA. 



It is pleasing to turn fnjm a mongrel 

 to a genuine breed. Such certainly is the 

 old Russian Sheepdog, who is a yeoman of 



