472 The Dog Book 



breeders of Irish terriers, but among those of shady reputation or when it 

 comes to a dog bred by a man totally unknown, with the probability that the 

 name is only a stop gap. It is very risky breeding from any such dog^ or 

 his or her descendants. In our show going, which has extended from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific and through Canada, we have met with large red 

 dogs, frequently smooth-coated, all possessing the heavy side-placed ears 

 and the comparatively sluggish look of the Airedale, and invariably we 

 have found that they have been bred from dogs of Yorkshire origin. 



It was to Yorkshire we owed that monstrosity, the "Taneous" head, 

 the narrow round skull with sunken temples, sometimes with an exaggera- 

 tion of length of foreface, the narrowness of which was covered up with a 

 wealth of fluffy hair, not Irish at all. None of the old dogs we illustrate 

 show any of this exaggeration of whiskers. "Oh," says the new 

 beginner who has learned Irish terriers thoroughly in a few weeks, "that 

 is the beard, the standard says it has to have a beard; it is the beard." 

 Not at all; the beard is a tuft or two of hair growing on the under jaw, and 

 the old Irish terrier was about as clean muzzled as an Airedale. We do 

 not object to a little bristly growth along the jaws, so long as it is free from 

 lintyness or fluff, for that most assuredly indicates that the body coat is not 

 sound, no matter if it looks so for the time being. Dogs of this kind 

 are seen now and again throughout the year, but have periods of 

 retirement during which the all - the - year - round, sound-coated dog is 

 being shown. 



Americans are not so much to blame for getting astray, as they did a 

 year or so ago, on the question of type. Dogs sent from the other side were 

 represented to them as being the correct type. We saw one communication 

 from an importer to the effect that the dog he was then trying to sell was 

 "the new type that is doing all the winning on the other side." 



Relying upon the representations regarding these dogs, good prices 

 were paid for them, the purchasers not realising that they had not the 

 correct thing until the next importation of the only genuine, correct type 

 was received, when they realised that "type" meant only the dog that was 

 for sale, and varied as the dogs did. 



This could not last for ever, and the importation of a large number of 

 good dogs that were winning on the other side, where also there had been 

 a radical return to something nearer the old type, settled the question, and 

 the day of the dog with the "Taneous" head was at an end. The name 



