736 The Dog Book 



Japanese spaniels became more rare in later years but a revival set in 

 after a time and the breed has always held its own since then. The steady 

 demand of the I*Jew York dealers for these dogs caused continued importa- 

 tions at the Pacific Coast ports, until the constant drain led to a scarcity 

 of the better class of dogs, and it is only occasionally that anything 

 really Worth while comes across the continent. The employees on 

 the English steamers plying between Japan and ports on the Pacific coast 

 have visually the privilige of bringing over dogs and these are sold in bulk to 

 a few local dealers, who take everything that comes at a set price per dog. 

 As the majority of the dogs are of poor quality the price is not large and 

 many have to be sold at little or no profit, the returns for the risk of accli- 

 mating being dependent upon the life of the few good ones that may be in 

 each lot. 



The prevailing faults to our mind are an inclination to shelliness, in 

 place of the cobby body the standard calls for. We would also like to see 

 larger heads. They run high enough and wide enough across the front, but 

 are narrow in profile, looking too small for the size of the dog. The head 

 in this respect should we think be in keeping with the size of the dog and not 

 suggest being " under-headed." We do not consider ourselves competent to 

 speak authoritatively on this breed, but no dog ought to suggest a fault to 

 one accustomed to look for symmetry in proportions, and many of these 

 spaniels certainly suggest a lack of size in head in the way we mention, and 

 which is not noticeable to anything like the same extent if at all in other toy 

 spaniels. 



We have a Japanese Spaniel Club and so have English fanciers, but 

 their description and standard is much inferior to the one drawn up by the 

 American club, both in its detail and other essentials. The English restrict 

 colours to white, with either black or lemon markings, while our club recog- 

 nises "all white" and considers "all black" exceedingly scarce, and pre- 

 sumably correspondingly valuable. The very objectionable protruding 

 tongue should, we think have been added to the list of disqualifications, 

 and a "general appearance" paragraph included in which reference might 

 have been made to what is a feature in the Japanese — its high action in 

 movement. 



Descriptive Particulars 



Head. — The head should be large, with a very broad skull, and high 

 dome, the neck short and moderately thick. 



