PET DOGS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 108, 8 May 1909, Page 13

PET DOGS.

FOLLIES OF A MODERN CRAZE. The censorious Scottish judge who drew pungent character sketches of the principal figures in the Stirling divorce case the other, might find another target for his sarcasm in the extravagant amount of affectionate care and the large sums of money which Englishwomen (the fashionable section of the "odd million]') expend on pet dogs. Some of these little animals — so far ha* the crazo for keeping them gone — cost as much hard cash as would suffice to eet up a business, provide a substantial annuity, or buy and stock a colonial farm (writes a London correspondent). Expert evidence just given in a London law suit, which arose out of the deatii of a lady's toy terrier, shows how profitable the fancy for canine pets has become within the last few years to those who breed them. Reference was made to a Pekinese dog, for which its owner had refused £3000, and the value of another Chinese dog was given as £5000. A Yorkshire terrier weighing 3Jllb, is "worth £1000" as a pet if his hair happens to combine the rarest shades of blue and tan. But the Yorkshire terriers are now "going out of fashion," like the earlier eccentricities of the "Directoire" gown. One was mentioned as being worth £175; the value of another was said to be £100 ; but those of the more plebeian sort can be got for anything down to £10 or £12 apiece. It appears that pet dogs, like pictures and furniture, are extensively fake<3 by dealers of the unscrupulous kind. An official of a terrier club declared that"a great deal of dyeing is done to produce the required blue," but this fraud now imposes only upon the unwary amateur buyer.