2S8 The Dog Book 



card. The change in the standard was not made to correct an evil, but to 

 provide for one that breeders had not been able to cope with successfully. 

 Obo II. was always considered a small dog, and he weighed twenty-two 

 and one-half pounds. Mr. Mason records him as even twenty-three 

 pounds. 



To show that we are not writing fancies for facts, as many are apt to 

 do with regard to past dogs, we will take Mr. Mason's figures in "Our 

 Prize Dogs," being the record of the winning dogs during 1887. We 

 find sixteen cocker dogs recorded with weights, and nineteen bitches. Two 

 of the latter we will discard, for the reason that Mr. Mason says they 

 were not shov/ specimens in any way. They weighed twenty-one and 

 twenty pounds respectively, and those who wish to consider it right to bring 

 them into the discussion are at liberty to do so. If the cockers recorded 

 in this book were being shown to-day twenty-two out of the thirty-three 

 would be disqualified as being over weight, and five of the remaining eleven 

 are on the top mark of present admission weight, or exactly twenty-four 

 pounds. The dogs over twenty-four pounds included the following promi- 

 nent winners: Black Pete, Brant, Compton Boniface, Dandy W., Hornell 

 Silk, Keno, Ned Obo, Peerless Gloss and Royal. Of the five under that 

 weight Obo II. and Doc were the only two good ones. Master Shina and 

 Zeppo being a long way below them in quality. Of the bitches Miss Obo 

 II. was twenty-seven pounds, Juno W. a pound heavier, and Shina was 

 the best of the five recorded at twenty-four pounds, while Widow Cliquot 

 was twenty-six pounds. 



It would not matter so much if the weight of the majority ran toward 

 the upper limit of twenty-four pounds, but the tendency is the other way, 

 and there are more in the lower three pounds — that is, from eighteen to 

 twenty-one pounds — ^than from the latter weight up to twenty-four, and 

 unless the cocker is to be relegated to the parlour breeds it will be necessary 

 to counteract the tendency toward decreasing weight. For our part, we 

 would like to see the low limit raised to twenty pounds and keep what 

 are practically toys out of the classes. We are aware that breeders do not 

 support the ideas here presented, but as they do not seem to be able to 

 do anything but get a decreasing average in size, it is not to be expected 

 that they will condemn what they want to win with and to sell. The 

 reason that there was no opposition to the change in the weight rule was 

 that it interfered with no one, for no one had. or seemed able to breed 



