704 The Dog Book 



long coated dogs, and the impossibility of making a pet and com- 

 panion of any of the long, silky-coated toys. The pug needs no more cod- 

 dling than a hardy terrier, nor any more care in coat. He is a dog that has 

 always had a reputation for keeping himself clean and tidy and they used to 

 say that he had less doggy perfume than any other house dog. He may not 

 be quite so demonstrative as some of the effervescing little toys, but he is 

 just as intelligient and has a dignity and composure all his own. 



Ere long we fully expect to see the black pugs become popular for they 

 are certainly very attractive in their brilliant coat of black satin. As Mr. 

 Mayhew says they are apt to be " tight-skinned " and fail to show the 

 wrinkle such as Ding Dong displays, but a few do show improvement in that 

 direction and it is only a matter of careful selection and breeding such as 

 one has to carry out in all breeds to reach success. There is a good field 

 here for those who want to take up something that is bound eventually to 

 become a popular breed. 



The illustrations of old pugs are copied from Dr. Cryer's "Prize Pugs" 

 the publication of which we supervised and necessarily passed upon the pen 

 and ink drawings by Miss Cutler. These were worked over solio prints, 

 the half tone process not having then been developed, and they stood 

 the test of very critical examination as faithfully reproducing the originals 

 in all detail. 



Considering the lack of competition and the small number of pugs 

 being bred there has been no such deterioration in what are now shown as 

 might be expected. We may not have pugs up to the standard of the best of 

 the old days when classes of from ten to fifteen was the rule, but on the 

 other hand we have not the long tail of poor ones then to be seen. We have 

 kept closer to the ideal size than they seem to have done in England, where 

 some pug breeders want to raise the weight to accomodate dogs of the old 

 Comedy and Tragedy days. We formerly considered a pug of 12 pounds the 

 ideal size, but had to put up with larger ones when he could not get that. 

 Bradford Ruby at i6 pounds was considered as winning in spite of his 

 being somewhat large. 



There is a Pug Club in England which adopted a slightly changed 

 description and standard from that published in the Book of the Dog and 

 in one instance at least it is not an improvement. It allows rose ears, which 

 are not pug ears by any means. The only correct ear for a pug is the drop 

 ear, small and very dark in colour. Twenty years ago no one ever thought 



