The Chesapeake Bay Dog g24 
and tapering fore face, the high-set-on ears and the short neck, the yellow 
eye and the long tail are not quality characteristics at all, and the gentlemen 
who framed the standard missed an opportunity to set a far higher mark 
for the dog. 
If we had the making of a standard we should frame it more on the 
model of the description of the English retriever: The head of moderate 
width and good length, with a strong, well-carried-out jaw and sound 
teeth, evenly meeting. Eye dark hazel, and we should specify that the 
yellow eye is a great detraction and must. be got rid of. Ears to be neat 
in size, set on low, and without fold. Neck of good length, and, in place of 
the upright shoulders which invariably. accompany. the short. neck, we 
should particularly specify. the sloping position -of the shoulders, without 
which a dog cannot.reach out with his feet when swimming. ‘Then the legs 
should not be short-for a swimming dog, and to state that the feet have 
to be webbed means only that they have to be ordinary feet, for all dogs’ 
feet are webbed. ‘It is right: that they. should: be:large. The tail or stern 
for such a dog should be only long enough not. to look short, carried gaily 
in a curve, but not over the back. It should be bushy, thicker in the middle, 
and show no feather. With regard to the coat, our belief\is in the kind that 
has a crisp wave in it, as it is almost sure to be dense. and close, and that is 
what is wanted. But whether with this kink or: not, the coat must be so 
dense that, owing to the undercoat, it cannot be parted down to the skin. 
The desirable colour is a yellow: liver, which goes by the name of 
sedge. Liver is too dark for the correct thing, though there are doubtless 
many good dogs nearly approaching that colour, and we do not think 
colour should overrule everything. We also know very well that this 
shade as well as the liver becomes weather bleached as it ages, and when 
ready to shed it is many shades lighter than the incoming coat. Sedge is 
most decidedly preferable, but not to the extent of knocking out a far better 
dog of a darker shade. We mean that we could not put an open-coated, 
badly made sedge dog over one good in these respects but dark in colour. 
The late Mr. Pearson was a recognised authority on the breed, and in 
1882, wrote to the American Field supporting a previous communication 
from a gentleman who roundly criticised the Baltimore show committee 
for making two classes, one being for long, curly coated dogs. That 
writer held that the Chesapeake was not a long-haired or curly dog, but 
should have a short, close coat, “without a wrinkle in it.” As usual with 
