The Dalmatian 337 



The life of the Dalmatian in this country as a show dog has been brief. 

 We have always had the Dalmatian, one may say, but only occasionally 

 was one to be seen about New York, almost invariably about some stable. 

 This was only what might be expected, for, whoever brought them from 

 abroad, it is fair to assume that they were mainly coachmen or grooms, and 

 the dogs went with them to the stables. In the early seventies we remember 

 a Dalmatian kept at a livery stable in Charles Street, New York, and 

 this was the first dog we ever saw running between the horses when out 

 with a carriage and pair. The English style, when the dog was not running 

 in advance, was for it to run underneath the carriage and close behind the 

 horses. Bewick, in one of his quaint little tailpieces, shows a coach drawn 

 by a pair, one horse ridden by a postilion, with the dog running by the 

 roadside. 



Perhaps the most thoughtless statement regarding the development 

 of the Dalmatian, and repeated up to the latest English dog book, is that 

 he is a production of a cross with the bull terrier, or that the bull terrier 

 has been used to improve the Dalmatian. How a dog that was so thoroughly 

 established in 1800 could be improved by a dog not known at all until 

 1825 or thereabouts is somewhat beyond our comprehension. By a vivid 

 stretch of the imagination one might hold that the mottling sometimes seen 

 on the skin of the bull terrier was caused by a cross with the Dalmatian, 

 but the bull terrier to help in building up the Dalmatian is ridiculous. 

 To be quite up to date they ought to say it was the Boston terrier, and that 

 with just as much foundation in fact. 



In looking up the career of the Dalmatian as a show dog in this country 

 it is somewhat surprising to find New York without classes for the breed 

 for many years after they were provided at many other shows. As far 

 as San Francisco and Los Angeles we have records of winning Dalmatians 

 when New York provided nothing for the breed, and it was not until 1896 

 that the premier show of the country opened classes for Dalmatians. There 

 was not much support, however, until Doctor Longest added them to his 

 mastiff and bloodhound kennels, and, with a few passably good dogs, had 

 matters his own way for a year or two. Mr. Martin and Mr. Sergeant Price, 

 of Philadelphia, then took up the breed, and just before the first shows of 

 the present year Mr. J. B. Thomas, Jr., of Simsbury, and Mr. H. T. Peters, 

 of Islip, L. I., decided to add Dalmatians to those they were individually 

 connected with — Russian wolf hounds and beagles — and formed a partner- 



