FASHIONS IN DOGS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1932, Page 15

FASHIONS IN DOGS

I have never been able to discover Why there are fashions in dogs, still less wiy"these fashions should change; but change they do, almost as. often as women change the shape of their hats or the cut of their clothes, or the way ia which they, do" their hair, writes G. Cornwallis-West in the London "Daily Telegraph. '! '-'■,■■■ ■V Looking ■ at,old numbers of 'c Punch'» 'in the late "Victorian period, one finds that no'artist ever drew a. fashionable .old lady without adding, as part.of her ; Equipment, a pug; and when it was announced by,; our; parents at luncheon that .bid Lady :Sb-and-So was coming to,, aa .my ' father'" called it, "drink tea, JVthere was- a chorus from the> chil -dreh: she bring her pug?"

It viras always'a source of wonder to us -why and how, the creatures kept their! tongues out—-distinctly bad manners, according to : nursery ethics! . . Another dog' frequently seen in those days was the Dalmatian, or " carriage " dog. :' The bnly. difference' between this ■ and any other dog accompanying a carriage," was that he invariably trottted underneath instead' of alongside it, which wasj perhaps, the reason why he was considered an. indispensable parh of the general turn-but" of a gentleman driving a "phaeton and a pair of highBtepping horses. My father had one which was known to his children as "the blotting-paper dog." In. earTy, Edwardian days many ladies carried a miniature Pomeranian —objectionable little beasts that barked . shrilly. on the : slightest provocation. Then,- for a time, griffons were popular; .but the Pekingese seems to have oust-

FROM PUGS TO POMERANIANS

Ed all rivals, and now stands supreme, indifferent to competition.

However drastic the malo view may be concerning lap-dogs, there is no gainsaying the attraction of the Peke, unless, of course, he happens to be in the last stage of senile decay. There is something so ridiculously independent about him, and a despotism due, no doubt, to the subconscious knowledge that his ancestors were Venerated for thousands of „ years in their Eastern home. . _

Another Chinese dog which has lately come much into favour, especially in London, is the Chow. Chows never seem to get lost, and arc the only breed of dogs I know which have the intelligence to exercise themselves without supervision.

Speaking of intelligence leads one to think of the Alsatian. t to my mind a much maligned dog, whose traducers still fondly imagine -that ho is half a wolf. Originally used by French and Germans as police dogs, it is only within, the last ten years that they have become fashionable in England. The greatest tribute to their.intelligence is that they are. the only breed which have been "cast" to play, a leading.part in the movies, and marvellously well they do it.

Many classes of spaniels areseon at dog shows, but. I douht, whether they are as much used as they were years ago, when at many\large places: a pack of Springers or Clumbers, were"; kept. Highly .trained, they were employed regularly in the line of beaters whencoverts wero shot, and were of !grcat assistance.' ■