336 The Dog Book 



ears." As each of these independent delineators of the Dalmatian shows 

 this tanned eye mark, and two of them the black ear — Reinagle shows a 

 dark rim to the outer edge of the ear and a largish splash close behind, 

 so that the ear was undoubtedly black in its entirety — it is simply one of 

 the oddities of "fancy" for present-day exhibitors to say the Dalmatian 

 must not have black ears, and must have no liver or tan if black spotted. 

 Fully half of the show Dalmatians, notwithstanding the efforts of thirty 

 years' breeding to get rid of the black ears, still have them, and when you 

 do get a dog with spotted ears he is usually lightly spotted over the body. 

 A very good spotted dog in body is seldom near right in ear, and, if we 

 must speak our mind, we see no objection to a black ear. It is as old as 

 the hills with the breed, and why now assert that it is wrong ? We really 

 must say that we have very little patience with some of these modern im- 

 provements, and when we see dogs that would tire at the end of a mile or 

 two, owing to their faulty conformation, getting places over true-made 

 dogs because of a little advantage in spotting, we get very tired of the fads 

 of fancy. 



The Dalmatian is primarily a dog that should be able to run all day 

 long, and that not over springy pasture land but on hard roads and paved 

 thoroughfares ; therefore he should be as nearly perfect in legs, feet, shoulders 

 and running symmetry as possible. Then, when you have got a dog that 

 can run, the spots should count, but not the spotting first. Take that dog 

 of Reinagle's; how many of our present-day winners could he not beat, 

 "one down, t'other come on," following a coach on an all-day run ? Spot- 

 ring is all well enough if we are merely to consider the Dahnatian as a 

 dog about the premises, as we do a mastiff or St. Bernard, but the moment 

 we undertake to judge him as a coach dog then the principal requirement 

 is the conformation that will enable him to run as a coach dog is supposed 

 to do. Really it is a very difficult thing to do justice in a Dalmatian class, 

 or at least to give satisfaction, for if it is a judge who goes for spotting 

 because it is easier than conformation plus spotting, the owner of a well- 

 made dog feels aggrieved, and, vice versa, the man who must have a dog 

 that can run has a disgruntled exhibitor in the owner of the bad-shouldered, 

 nicely marked dog who has won a whole lot of prizes elsewhere. It is 

 really one of those breeds where the judge should practice the art of self- 

 defence and resort to point judging; then if he does not put the dog satis- 

 factorily it is the dog's fault and not his. 



