520 
same in type as those of Belgium, but are 
perhaps less carefully bred. Those of Ger- 
many may also be divided into three types 
BELGIAN WIRE-HAIRED SHEEPDOG. 
of rough-haired, smooth-haired, and wire- 
haired dogs, and there is one variety not 
very different from the Highland bearded 
Collie, with drop ears. Many of the German 
sheepdogs approximate to the Spitz type, 
and this type is even more marked when 
one goes further north, to Denmark, Norway, 
and Sweden, where there is difficulty in 
distinguishing the sheepdog from the Elk- 
hound or the Samoyede. The best of the 
German pastoral dogs, however, are those 
which still show traces of the wolf blood, 
which was particularly apparent some 
twenty-five years ago. They are now bred 
with extreme care not only 
THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 
shape and purity of strain is second only 
to the British Collie. 
In France two types of shepherd dogs are 
recognised, and these are class:fied respec- 
tively as the Chien de Berger de Beauce, and 
Chien de Berger de la Brie. The catt.e dogs 
seem merely to be declassé sheepdogs. 
The Chien de Beauce is a large well-built 
short-coated dog. Often he is black, or 
black with tan markings, occasionally grizzle 
and grey, with black patches. The ears are 
sometimes cut, but when uncut they are 
semi-erect. The tail is never docked. The 
Chien de Brie has a shorter head than the 
Beauce variety, the muzzle is less pointed, and 
the ears are short and erect, never pendulous. 
He wears a shaggy woolly coat, which is 
either black or slate coloured, grizzle or 
ruddy brown with darker brown shading. 
The hair is lank rather than fluffy, and it 
lends itself to grooming. The general shape 
of the dog is not unlike the Old English 
Sheepdog, but the tail grows naturally long, 
and is kept so. A good example of the 
breed is Madame Victor-Thomas’s Ch. Polka 
de Mont'oye. 
Other French varieties of shepherd dogs 
are those of Languedoc, La Camargue, La 
Crau, Picardie, the Ardennes, and the 
Garigues, but they are not recognised as 
distinct breeds. 
The Rottweil Dog.—The early pictures 
of wild-boar hunting in Germany show 
that the ancient Boarhounds from which 
the modern race was evolved were much 
for work among the sheep, 
but also for competition in 
shows, and in this latter 
respect they have reached 
a very high order of per- 
fection. Much of the im- 
provement in the breed 
has been due to the efforts 
of Herr Rittmeister von 
Stephanitz, of Oberbayern, 
who has devoted years to 
the work of eliminating the 
wolf character and impart- 
ing a fixity of type to a 
ected eee, 
breed which for beauty of 
TYPICAL 
GERMAN SHEEPDOGS. 
