THE BULL TERRIER—BORN IN THE 
SWAGGERING DAYS OF THE REGENCY 
—WHY HE HAS BEEN CONSIDERED A 
BAD DOG—HOW TO KNOW HIS POINTS 
N INE good people out of ten consider the 
bull terrier a very bad dog. The mere 
mention of his name raises before their mind’s 
eye a great, hulking brute of a dog tugging at 
the end of a heavy chain. They associate him 
with thugs and corner loafers. They think 
of him only as a menace to mankind and a 
threat against all other dogs — in fact, they re¬ 
gard him as a sort of embodied canine curse. 
The Fates seem to have conspired together 
wickedly to paint this unfaithful portrait in 
lurid colors. 
In the first place, the poor bull terrier was 
unlucky enough to have been born too late, nor was he altogether 
fortunate in the selection of his parents. Lie made his first ap¬ 
pearance somewhere between 1800 and 1810, and he was literally 
just what his name implies, a cross-bred bull and terrier dog. 
In itself there is no fatal horoscope to be cast for a dog whose 
natal day happened to fall within the first decade of the past cen¬ 
tury, and we, of course, know very well what a good-looking, 
attractive dog results from the bull and terrier cross. But the 
two, his birthday and his parentage, proved to be an unhappy 
combination. They joined in giving the bull terrier, even in his 
puppyhood, a bad name that has stuck to him all these years. 
Ever since the days of Caradoc, King of the Britons, bull bait¬ 
ing had been a favorite pastime in England. The 
English bulldog, the bull terrier’s daddy, won his well- 
deserved reputation for pluck and perseverance as a very 
active participant in this so- 
called sport. His mother, the 
black and tan Manchester ter¬ 
rier, had also made a name 
for herself. It was pretty 
generally acknowledged that 
she could go into a rat pit, 
which she was then often 
called upon to do, and kill 
more rats in fewer seconds 
than any other dog. A son of 
such parents would quite 
naturally be expected to “do 
things,” and the bull terrier 
did. Pierce Egan, a sporting 
authority of those days, ex¬ 
pressed neatly the special 
recommendations of the bull 
terrier’s first friends when he 
wrote in The Annals of 
Sporting (1822) : “He is a more sprightly and 
showy animal than either of the individuals 
from which.he was bred, and equally apt for, 
and much more active in any kind of mischief, 
as has been well expressed. The true bull- 
terrier is but a dull companion, and the terrier 
does not Hash much size, nor is he sufficiently 
smart and cocking. The modern mixed dog 
includes all these qualities and is of an airy 
temper, without losing any of the fierceness, 
when needed, of his ancestors. His colors, 
too, are gay and sightly. We have been, how¬ 
ever, performing a work of supererogation, not 
at all necessary to our sporting salvation or Hash repute, in var¬ 
nishing this new dog, which has become so truly the go, that no 
rum kiddy or man of cash, from Tothill street in the West to 
Northeastern Holloway, far less any swell rising sixteen, with 
black, purple or green Indiaman round his squeeze, the corner of 
his variegated dab hanging from his pocket, and his pantaloons 
well creased and puckered, but must have a tyke of the new cut 
at the heels of himself or pracl.” 
The hard-drinking, high-betting, swaggering days of the Re¬ 
gency were spluttering out when the bull terrier appeared. In the 
moral reaction that followed, bull-baiting and rat-killing contests 
were viewed with just horror. There clung to the dog, however, 
the memory of his association with these barbarous 
sports. To-day no one feels called upon to prove 
that he is a man by betting a thousand golden guineas 
His Royal Highness’ entry 
will win the Derby, nor to 
show he is a gentleman by 
drinking so much old port he 
must be carried to bed. Nev¬ 
ertheless, we are not less man¬ 
ly and gentle than our fore¬ 
fathers. The bull terrier no 
longer gives practical demon¬ 
strations of his gameness in 
the bull pen, nor of his quick¬ 
ness in the rat pit, though he 
has still courage and agility. 
We do not cast slurs at a man 
and consider him a ruffian and 
a blackguard merely because 
his great - great - grandfather 
was a swaggering elegant of 
the days of King George. 
Does it seem quite fair to be 
Most people regard him as a sort of 
embodied canine curse 
Williams Haynes 
The Bull Terrier that wins at the bench shows to-day must be a bright, active dog, 
moving, as has been aptly said, "smoothly” 
334 
