THE DANDIE DINMONT. 403 
slayers of cats, and some of us have heard of 
dogs who have been skilful in catching fish, 
but it has been left to a member of the race 
of Dandies successfully to combine the two 
accomplishments. A friend upon whose 
word I can confidently rely tells me that 
he made the acquaintance of a Dandie who 
had a most original method of putting an 
end to members of the feline race. This dog 
would pay a visit to a stream which ran 
close to the house, and having caught a fish 
would place it as a bait for poor puss, and 
then mount on the table and keep watch; 
from his coign of vantage he would jump 
down upon the cat, and seizing her by the 
back soon kill her. 
But it must not be supposed from this 
anecdote that all Dandies kill cats! There 
is, as a rule, very little difficulty in training 
a Dandie puppy to live at peace with the 
house cat, though sometimes considerable 
difficulty is experienced in training him to 
leave strange cats alone. 
A Dandie makes an excellent house 
guard; for such a small dog he has an 
amazingly deep, loud bark, so that the 
stranger, who has heard him barking on the 
far side of the door is quite astonished when 
he sees the small owner of the big voice. 
When kept as a companion he becomes a 
most devoted and affectionate little friend, 
and is very intelligent. As a dog to be 
kept in kennels there is certainly one great 
drawback where large numbers are desired, 
and that is the risk of keeping two 
or more dogs in one kennel; sooner or 
later there is sure to be a fight, and when 
Dandies fight it is generally a very serious 
matter; if no one is present to separate 
them, one or both of the combatants is 
pretty certain to be killed. But when out 
walking the Dandie is no more quarrelsome 
than other breeds of terriers, if properly 
trained from puppyhood. In this connec- 
tion I am reminded of a little incident that 
happened with one of my own Dandies not 
so very long ago. This dog, when about a 
year old, was rather more prone to pick a 
quarrel with strange dogs than he should 
have been, and one day, when out for 
exercise with me, he espied a Fox-terrier 
J 
following immediately behind a heavy trap 
in which two men were riding, and he 
instantly made a rush for the Fox-terrier. 
The wheel of the trap caught him in the 
middle of his body and went right over him. 
I, of course, expected that his back would 
be broken, or that he had received some 
other fatal injury. Nota bit of it. He just 
growled at the retreating trap and terrier, 
got up and shook himself, finished his walk 
quite gaily, ate his supper that evening with 
his usual gusto, and neither that day nor 
afterwards did he seem any the worse for 
his little adventure. This dog is a son of 
the well-known Ch. Milverton King, and 
certainly his adventure exemphfied in a 
wonderful way the maxim: “A Dandie’s 
body should feel so strong that a cart wheel 
might pass over it without hurting it.” 
There is one little matter in breeding 
Dandies that is generally a surprise to 
the novice, and that is the very great 
difference in the appearance of the young 
pups and the adult dog. The pups are 
born quite smooth-haired, the peppers are 
black and tan in colour, and the mustards 
have a great deal of black in their colouring. 
The top-knot begins to appear sometimes 
when the dog is a few months old, and some- 
times not till he is a year or so old. It is 
generally best to mate a mustard to a pepper, 
to prevent the mustards becoming too light 
in colour, though two rich-coloured mustards 
may be mated together with good results. 
It is a rather curious fact that when two 
mustards are mated some of the progeny 
are usually pepper in colour, though when 
two peppers are mated there are very 
seldom any mustard puppies. 
It may be of interest if I mention some of 
the more prominent breeders and owners 
of modern times, and some of the most 
celebrated dogs. 
Mr. G. A. B. Leatham for several years 
owned a most powerful kennel, some of his 
best specimens being the pepper dog Ch. 
Border King, the mustard dog Ch. Heather 
Sandy, and his son Ch. Ainsty Dandie, also 
of the same colour, and the mustard bitch 
Ch. Heather Peggy. About the years 1893- 
1895 Mr. J. E. Dennis was showing a very 
