Arthur Croxton Smith

“ The handsomest hound in the world is a sorry impostor if he will not own to the line when scent is light. Fox hunting is the essence of sport. There is nothing that can equal it, looking at it all round. Big game shooting has its excitements and hair breadth adventures, pig sticking in India, and hunting the wild boar in France are recreations fit for men, but when we come to consider the innumerable qualifications necessary to make a good follower of hounds the palm must be assigned to fox hunting. ”

“ When the hamper was opened the most delightful little Teddy Bear imaginable bounded out and proceeded to introduce herself A mass of white fluffy down, with here and there a splash of lemon, eloquent dark eyes, and plump as the proverbial partridge. That was Pandore as we first knew her. Time only served to strengthen and crystallize the early impressions. With manners as charming and irreproachable as her looks, before many days had passed she had won all hearts, becoming an important member of the household. ”

“ A DOG that's fit for anything, badger or fox, rats or rabbits, the Fox Terrier is of universal distribution. We meet him on the show bench, spruce and well groomed, exchanging wordy warfare with his neighbour; running with the hounds, ready for any work that may chance, or at his master's feet in the smoking room when the doings of the day are recounted---no matter where he may be, he will make himself at home, in cottage or in hall, so long as there is sport afoot in the daytime, and a dry bed to lie upon at nights. ”

“ What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate." The Chow gives one the impression of being a wise dog, who has inherited the impassive demeanour of his original Chinese masters. Mankind, as a whole, has no interest for him; he attaches himself to one person with great fidelity; to others, his demeanour, if not actually surly, is that of mere toleration. If you meet one with whom you have a bowing acquaintance, in the street, and speak to him, there is no responsive movement of the tightly-curled tail, no relaxation of the muscles of the grim face. ”

“ One would not care to say that four centuries later many ladies are not wholly free from a charge of extravagance in their relations with toy dogs, although this is a reproach that cannot be directed against the owners of Poodles, who prefer to treat these intelligent creatures with due regard to their dignity. If in size the miniature Poodle approaches the toys, he still retains the sagacity and sense of his larger brother, who is a sportsman, in spite of the fantastic, not to say grotesque, guise under which he is compelled to masquerade. ”

“ For many generations men have brought skill and experience to bear upon the improvement of nature, for nature in herself is not necessarily perfect. She supplies us with the raw material, which we mould and fashion to suit our intent. Some think that certain points are being pushed to extremes, such, for instance, as the craze for straight fronts. True, in a hound we want great bone, carried well down to the feet, but it is not an uncommon thing to see the forelegs knuckling over in a manner which is dangerously near unsoundness. ”

“ Bernard, without being quite so heavily built, and, although his head is less massive, it is still sufficiently large to be in keeping with the body. The expression conveys dignity and serenity as if conscious of power. The long white coat is marked about the head and in one or two other places on the body with brindle or lemon splashes. The whole appearance is that of a large powerful animal, remarkably active for its size, and capable of much endurance. ”

“ As far as disposition goes one terrier is practically as good as another, all sharing characteristics in common. Tafty is neither better nor worse than the others. Any kind of vermin that comes along is fair game for him, if he only gets the chance of using his powerful jaws. In the house he is a terror to tramps and all unauthorised intruders, his sharp ears at once detecting the advent of strange steps. ”

“ To watch the intelligence unfolding, to see the body developing, and the character chrystallising into the shape we desire it to assume, is a never ending source of joy. Day by day too, the little creature comes to depend more and more upon us, to recognise us as the chief god among the many strange beings that people this earth. ”

“ Ask him to unravel the intricacies of an invisible track left by the body scent of a person who may have passed many hours earlier, and, if he be well trained, down goes his nose, and he will follow yard by yard until the missing one is found. This is no imaginative picture conjured up by excessive devotion. That the thing can be done has been demonstrated times without number, and if there are failures, as failures there must be, we should not blame the hound so much as those who have had his education in hand. ”

“ But I love my dog as a companion, as well as for his merits in the field; and a setter is more sagacious, more attached, and fitter for his place on the hearth-rug, than a pointer---not,' he added, 'from any deficiency of intellects on the pointer's part, but he is generally so abused while in the management of brutal breakers and grooms that he loses all excepting his professional accomplishments, of finding and standing steady to game.'"
Sir Bingo could not understand why one should wish for anything more. ”

“ What the future has in store for the sport is another matter. Fields may grow so unwieldly as to be a menace to agriculture; Masters may find a pack too costly a luxury with a growing taxation and increasing outlay in other directions. In fact, many considerations might be urged which may, in years to come, be sufficiently potent to overcome the glamour and enthusiasm which now surround the pursuit. Who can say?
As for the hound himself, what can be said that has not already been well said by hundreds of writers? ”

“ THE United States is a great country, full of many beautiful and wonderful things, but strangely enough it has grown few dogs of its own, the native varieties being singularly limited in number. Although the Boston Terrier is also an exotic, being composed of materials imported in the first instance from Great Britain, we would not be so churlish as to rob our American cousins of one of their most cherished possessions. ”

“ No one will pretend that the miniature bulldog is good for anything other than companionship. He could not throw an ox if we wished to set him to such barbarous work, but if we want an inmate of the house of manageable size and reasonable proportions, with the looks and attributes of a larger animal, we have one ready at hand. They are not easy to breed. ”

“ When we contemplate the wonderful creations we are amazed at the cleverness of the ladies engaged in the pursuit. Nature plays strange pranks in relation to her colour schemes, and the most skilful breeder is she who has an encyclopædic knowledge of the mingling of blood necessary to bring about a given result. ”

“ Remember though that youth has much to learn, experience is incomplete. Therefore, be tolerant, but let not your toleration be mixed with indulgence, unless you wish to rear up a tyrant, who will dominate the household and render your life a misery. Beyond certain well defined limitations the dog should not be allowed to step. As a sympathetic person you must treat him with kindliness, but never for a moment allow him to forget that respect which is due to you as a superior being. ”

“ I have on other occasions pointed out that the true toy at his best should not be merely a weed. Nearly anyone can get a light dog if he is bred from indifferent parents, and subjected to semi-starvation during the growing period. The real enthusiast, however, is not satisfied with such a miserable travesty, and people who buy Pekingese as pets should insist upon having those that have plenty of bone, and are sturdily put together. ”

“ IF you meet a dashing man about town, with a ferocious beard and moustache, a very much abbreviated nose and an ape-like face, you may be sure that he is a Griffon Bruxellois, or, as he is more familiarly termed, a Brussels Griffon. If his inches are few, and his weight is not more than from five to ten pounds, he has all the militant carriage and gay debonnair of an accomplished worldling. ”

“ Not content with what we have, we go on ransacking the world for something new, something strange, something that no one else has got, until in the process of time the variety we have acquired becomes so acclimatised that we almost think it our own. Among the strangers from the uttermost parts of the earth which have enriched the ranks of our domestic canidæ the Chow Chow holds high position, but, though he is with us, he never seems to be a part and parcel of our lives. Watch his demeanour. ”

“ The charm of so many Pekingese that I have seen is that although toys in weight there is nothing toyish in their dispositions. They have all the boldness of bigger dogs, a fine capacity for devotion to master or mistress, engaging manners, tenacious memories, and indefatigable activity, all of which are virtues to justify our regard. ”

“ Many of the characteristics of the West Highland White Terrier are similar to those of the Scottish. He is dead game, a glutton for work, and he, too, is exclusive in his attachments, with a dignity of demeanour that is particularly charming. He has not the demonstrative fussiness of some of the terrier family, for which reason he is a welcome member of the household. In his education firmness is needed to overcome a highly strung nervousness, which is only accentuated by correction. ”

“ Superficially, one might think that the English toy spaniels should never be supplanted by the Chinese, and as far as mere beauty is concerned one would assign the palm to the lovely Japanese, but the Chinaman has come and conquered. He must be endowed with some intrinsic merits which are not apparent to the casual observer, one of which undoubtedly is the soundness of his constitution, a capacity for withstanding diseases to which others succumb only too readily. ”

“ There is no doubt that the breed is improving, and getting more widely distributed. For a town dog the black and tan jacket has much to commend it, soiling less readily than that of a fox terrier. Indeed, one could not ask for a dog that causes less trouble, and this surely is a consideration in the eyes of busy men and women.
Time was when men were found to declare that the Welsh terrier was nothing more or less than the old-fashioned black and tan wire haired terrier once common in England, but they have retired worsted from the fray, and Welshmen are left in possession of the field. ”

“ The Scottie is a stout hearted little fellow with plenty of pugnacity, qualities which stand him in good stead when, in his native land, he is asked to turn the fox out of his lair in the rocks. The task is not always easy, but the labour in which he delights physics pain, and he proceeds with zest to bring Reynard to his master's gun, for in Scotland vulpicide is no sin. In the rough country hounds are useless, and foxes are to be kept under or they will become a nuisance. ”

“ In modern times the uses of the bloodhound, when properly applied, are wholly beneficent. Those marvellous scenting faculties of his, which astonish all who see them at their fullest development, may aid in bringing a criminal to justice or in discovering the whereabouts of a wanderer lost in the wilds. The hound little recks of the task to which he is being put. ”

“ Is it matter for surprise that lovers of the eccentric should profess a devotion for them, that when, for some reason or other, they fell out of favour with the great ladies of the courts and salons, small shopkeepers and working men in Belgium should take them up and pass them on to England, and that our own countrymen succumbed to their quaint looks and ways? ”

“ In a toy it is perfectly legitimate to lay stress upon colour and marking, for his main object in life is to please the eye, but in a working dog conformation and stamina should have precedence over everything else. Fire and courage are essentials, without which a fox terrier, or a terrier of any kind, is but a sorry impostor, suitable only to adorn a cushion by the fireside. There may be individuals who prefer this kind of creature, but happily few are to be found in the ranks of terrier breeders. ”

“ The objection to the employment of this word in such a connection is perfectly valid, for, in the real sense, the miniature bulldog is not a toy at all; he is merely a replica in little of the bigger brother from whom he has sprung. His lineage is as pure, his pretensions to breeding as justifiable. Probably if the French bulldog had never been imported we should have heard nothing of the miniature. ”