DOG JUDGING.

Evening Star, Issue 9470, 15 August 1894, Page 4

DOG JUDGING.

JO THE EDITOR. Sir, —There is a question I would respectfully ask the judges in the dog class at the late show: Are their rules for judging based on performances of dogs in New Zealand ? If not, then let them consider for the future what we need. We are raising dogs that will be useful and stand our climate, and tried dogs can alone guide us. At present visitors come here with dogs, get rules drawn «n or altered to suit their exhibits, receive the prize, and are off in the next train. They make no secret that their dogs constitutionally are not suitable for this climate. They that any dog would judge Must e’er eschew head, tail, cr ; - Points of color are only fudge, Pet chest and loins alone decide, if they show the chest and loins they possess all that man need see; let performance prove the rest. Kildare, as good » .greyhound as was ever bred or reared in Ireland, was sentenced to death for bis ungainly appearance, and was only saved by a

boy dragging him out of the waterhole. Where would our Carbine be if he had been judged by his head ? If it depended ou symmetry, Maud S. or Young America—the two greatest trotters ever known —would not be admitted into an ordinary livery stable. Among the fox-terriers exhibited was one which' showed a goodly number of points, but the dog is useless for anything but sitting on a hearthrug and playing with children. Even for that it is not trustworthy, for it would not attack an invading rat, nor would it put out its paw to knock a mouse off a cheese plate. Perhaps the Council could fix a dog-tax that would suit exhibiting visitors to these shows. Were the dog-tax raised throughout we might have more room to walk the streets, besides giving an opportunity to working men to obtain now and again a piece of inferior yet wholesome meat. Were each policeman to report the number of householders on his beat who kept a dog, or the number of dogs kept on the property of the householder, and his list compared with the registrar’s catalogue, I wonder how many would be found wanting?—l am, etc., J. Morrison. Dunedin, August 13.