60 The Dog Book 
judges seem to be at the mercy of handlers who put a dog in a fancy position 
he cannot assume naturally, place each foot of a setter in a particular place, 
hold his head just so, and then his tail straight. Now, if any man has ever 
seen a setter hold his tail stiff and straight naturally, he has seen a curiosity. 
The setter has a sickle- or sabre-carried tail, but we have got so used to this 
conventional fashion that we must now have the setters’ tail pulled straight 
out with a string when having them photographed, whereas in that sup- 
posedly natural easy standing position nine out of ten setters would carry a 
curved or down tail. Like the ladies, we must perforce bow to the decrees 
of fashion even in dog-showing! 
