CHAPTER III 



Exhibition Dogs 



BEGINNER, or the ordinary onlooker when dogs are being 

 judged, seeing that a good many of the ribbons go to a 

 select number of those who are showing dogs, is apt to 

 conclude that it is impossible to win against these success- 

 ful showers. The disappointed exhibitor, chagrined at 

 want of success, is apt to attribute it to the connivance on the part of the 

 judge and the men who win so many prizes. But what has the disap- 

 pointed exhibitor done to deserve success ? Consider the fact that he feeds 

 his dog till it is more fit to win at a fat-stock show; that he brings it to the 

 show " in the rough " — perhaps with a lot of old dead coat still on it. An 

 immense blue bow is tied to its collar, and when he is asked to walk his dog 

 around the ring, he has to drag it through the sawdust because it does not 

 know how to follow on the chain. On the other hand, the successful owner 

 or kennel-man has educated his dog to show himself to the best advantage. 

 It has been early taught to wear a collar and has been accustomed to the 

 chain. Every day perhaps he has been led into a counterpart ring, his 

 handler having a few little dainty pieces in his pocket. Then the youngster, 

 if a terrier, collie, or Great Dane, is set to face his handler, who gives him a 

 piece of meat and keeps him in expectation of more. The dog has to go 

 through this little act so often that he is alert when he is led into the ring at 

 a show; all his mind is on the good things he is going to get a nibble of. The 

 result is, that the dog is full of life and animation. Then, too, he has been 

 groomed daily, the old coat was taken off weeks before, and with every 

 attention to his condition of flesh, he is put down " fit." Not only is it a 

 case of merited reward to the dog, but also to the man at the other end of 

 the chain, just as much as the trainer of the winner of a great event on the 

 turf is deserving of praise, where horses are said to be "in the pink of con- 

 dition." 



Another point is that these experts know where their dog is wrong, for 

 much as it may surprise some very confident owners, there has never been a 



SI 



