EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN DOG.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9991, 22 March 1898, Page 2

EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN DOG.

(The Field, Ja.n. 15th. Not very long ago we came across the peculiar opinions expressed by a well-known fashionable novelist, who was writing with Respect to the treatment of dogs in England at the present time. The authoress violently attacked dog shows, trainers, and indoe -, did her best to vilify almost everyone ~oa nected with, mtters appei-taining to the canine race. But residing in a foreign country, one in which dogs, as well as other jtudrupeds, are treated most cruelly, she Sears to have taken her text from her own oorstep, whilst imagination doing the remainder, we were presented with the narration to which attention has been thus shortly drawn. Without taking the role as defender in chief of the dog show, it must be said that since the first was instituted nearly forty years ago, the life of the common dog *aas been much improved, whilst in many case* bis form has been altered to cause variety and to comply with the idiosyncracies of fashion. The latter has much to answer for, and on her account there ha* com*; about pretty well an evolution so far as dog* in appearance and in their treatment are concerned. There ure old men living who never heard, >until recently, of £200 being paid for a dog, which is often done nowadays (even £1200 has been realised for a single specimen), although we are told ;hst a few generations ago £100 or more tvat occasionally given for one. This latter was because he came of a noted sporting race was good in the Seld with hie master .in-1 his gun, ov fleet of loot and delicate in hi* nose when on the trail of fox or hare. 0 i the contrary, the exorbitant sums,paid nowadays are for noa sporting dogs, such n% are kept for their beauty alone; - for die prizes they win, or the money they my make in other ways. The collie dog which is skilled in his own 'special occupation driving and tending sheep, is not of much money value on that account, nor is Uβ St. Bernard who has saved the lives of Vela ted travellers over the mountains enhanced in value thereby. Appearance a the fashion under our new order of thingi, elegance of form and certain eo-catt*i

" points "-mostly exaggerations of nature —increase the value of an at. mal until the te seems to be no limit to the price which may be asked and paid for a dog. }nly last week three sales of collies were noticed, in which £200 was given for a puppy, and over £100 each for two other dogs. Yet the pu»labilities are that not in out inetaace would

the animal be of any use as a sheepdog according to the common acceptance of fche term. It is too much to believe that continual breeding from strains of dogs which have been produced for appearance alone, their intellectual faculties not being tafovi into account, will in the long run be the means of completely altering the nature of the creature ? We* fancy that we have already seen a baneful result of breeding on such lines in the decadence of the modem mastiff and in the change brought to bear m the character and appearance of the Brithn bulldog. A good specimen of the former one sound on his legs both tore and aft, is well nigh as difficult to find as the dodo, whilst the savage nature of the bulldog has almost entirely disappeared. A fin de siecle bulldog of the "champion type" is far removed from the brave, bold, somewhat bullying creature he was when he became the national dog of the British people, and thu : the abhorrence of our French cousins, who to satisfy their animosity imported specimens of the race, and after eating the big gest*, bred the reminder in and in to sucil an extent as to dwarf them in size and iu.rt them into " toys," ultimately ie-selling the,n to the British as a " new variety ' —the French bulldog. But by so doing they have not been much worse than some of our own so called "fanciers," who have produced * bulldog whole teeth are mostly constructed to protrude or fall out ; at any rate they do not answer any other purpose than th;t of gnawing a eoft bone. Other exagge-A-tif"is have been introduced in various parts oJ» his anatomy, until his rate of progression is little more than a crawl. A eoupl* «» hundred pounds and more hare been paid for specimens which could not keep pace with an average pedestrian, whilst "-vh* best dpg in England,' which was killed xa one of thej liqri;fightsat Warwick during old WombelTs time, could have been purchased for less than a ten pound nofeV Of course in these enlightened days we do not want our bulldogs to bait a bull or fight with <he " king of the forest," but it seems somewhat sad to find our national dog, emblem of courage and indomitable in pluck, to have become evoluted into a parlour pet, and a fawing, pampered creature whose disposition is pug-like and bland. Why in a "keanel journal" this month an advertiser inquires for a bulldog " as a child's pet," anJ he will have ho difficulty in undihg what he requires. Our terriers, too, are now worth'too much money to be sent to earth after fox or badger or otter —at least, the moat valuable of them are, such as fetch £200 or £300, as the case may be. Yet in many instances, these whose capacity for taking punishment has for the most part been untried, are such as are bred from, and artificially "straight fronts" are more valued than natural ability to destroy vermin. We have entirely lost some of the old-fashioned terriers of our grandfathers' time—the old black and tan and the equally old and useful brindled bull terrier. There has lately been exhibited in a window in Fleet street a stuffed presentment of the latter in the shape of the late Billy Shaw'e Pincher in the act of hie record performance of killing 500 rats in 36min 26£ sec. Useful good-looking dogs as be were common enough thirty-five years ago, about the time when this exhibition of endurance took place. They were not deaf, like some of our white modern bull terriers, and, moreover, were game, handy animals for all country purposes,and in a large town they never looked so dirty as white ones do. Other varieties of the dog have had their natures changed or have been altogether lost. The Dalmatian is seldom seen following the carriage nowadays, whilst not iong ago he was quite as much a part of the equipage as the burly coachman with rotund lace and the 6ft high footman with fat calves.

Our actual sporting dogs have been less evoluted. The setter and pointer remain much as they were; the retriever has been introduced to meet the modern mode of shooting, and some of the spaniels have been changed in accordance with the mischievous taste for abnormalities. It can be said that there are now two grades of the latter, the show spaniel and the working spaniel, and if further proof of this were required than ie met with daily,"there is the hard and stern fact that there is a special club for sporting spaniels irrespective of the ordinary spaniel clubs. Perhaps of all doge that have changed the least under modern rule and shows are the greyhounds, and naturally hounds generally are less subject to a passing erase than more fancy dogs; and it seems strange that the latter should be the more valuable. As this came to be the case the better were such creatures treated. The time was when the poor man kept his bulldog in the cellar, and his terrier in a barrel in a common back yard; but when his pets came to be worth pounds instead of shillings different treatment was meted out to them. They had the best place in the house, and were, perhape, more carefully fed than the children, ana washed quite as often. Then,the bettor class of peo» Sle had comfortable ranges of kennels built, ry and warm, with & Hospital at one end or quite apart, and a snog-little surgery "where medicine of all kinds was kept in case of need, and made up in capsules if the patient objected to the taste, as a biped would most likely do. The best of dog food was care* fully manufactured by enterprising firms, homes were established for lost dogs, the vulgar craze that dogs went mad in hot weather was dissipated, and even the mischievous urchin who tied a tin to the tail of his neighbour's puppy saw the wickedness of such an act. On all hands dogs came to have as much care bestowed upon them as could he desired, and iv this country it was made a criminal offence to cut their ears as was once the fashion. But their aggrandisement did not stop Here. Olubs were established for their benefit, including a most powerful one of ladies, newspapers and magazines were run in their interest (or in that of their owners), and that they could hot use their methods of warfare against each other, a beneficent Government granted them a law to wear a muzzle/ The latter answer several purposes, it prevents them fighting and quarrelling, is against their picking up poison in the streets and elsewhere, serves as a hindrance to the spread of rabies, and gives the wearer a certain degree of legality he never before possessed. . A thief has a severer punishment if he steals the dog and the muzzle ox collar than if lie stole the dog •lout.

In the face of all that has been done ior th« dog during the past thirty years it seemi strange that there are still persons who deerji his treatment as a scandal to civilisation If there be error at all it is in a contrary direction, and that the modem dog is treated too well. A correspondent in last week'» "Field" alluded to a dog's obituary notice appearing in a daily paper iv close proximity to similar notices dedicated to our friehdf and relatives; surely this is going too f«v, Then there is the adornment of pet and toy: dogs, dressing them up in pantellettes and jackets designed in expensive material, and moreover it is not unusual to find the leg* and necks of these pampered creatures-i little darlings they are—adorned with goldeij anklets and collars studded with preciaur stones. This, too, is carrying such nutter? somewhat forward, especially when we are told, from Paris, thut two such collars were recently sold for £1400 and £200 respectively, but how much their value had been increased on account of their owner being ft. popular French actress we are not informed. * Michael the Archangel, a, celebrated and valuabl* Bulldog, was, with other Bulldogs, eaten during; lh» •iege of Paris.