KENNEL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 30 September 1936, Page 4

KENNEL NOTES

THE SHOW DOG. (By “Fancier.”) The relative utility value of the show dog as compared with the household pet of nondescript anctsstry has often been argued, and a comparison of methods of breeding and rearing should be ot interest. AY hep a person purchases a dog which is bred from show exhibit stock, a certified pedigree, usually showing live generations, is generally supplied by the breeder. The actual value and importance of such a document he, however, in the quality of the many animals named therein.

Every mongrel, of course, has an ancestry that could, in many cases, be written out in the orthodox way as a pedigree; hut unless the dog had been bred for some distinctive quality such as hunting ability, ratting competence, or some sucli desired trait, no value would be added to the animal.

All present-day show exhibits were evolved in the first place in such a way, and the standard in most breeds of pedigree dogs has been attained by careful selective mating over a very long period, in some cases, hundreds of years. In the case of the best known and standardised breeds, then, a certified pedigree from a breeder of good repute means that the dogs mentioned m the form are selectively bred from specimens of that particular breed for a period of at least fifty years, and in some cases ol hundreds of years. AYTien we consider the careful selection of breeders lor clogs with certain distinctive qualities, and bearing in mind that the breeder fancier is always striving to breed from the stock available a perfect specimen of the breed he is interested in, we might expect aitei. soy, one hundred years, that all the specimens bred would be of a standard high quality and that many flawless exhibits would be available; but such is not the case. Nature places a rigid restriction upon man’s efforts to control variations, and the perfect specimen of any breed still exists only as the ideal to be striven for, and perhaps in this lies the fascination ol breeding. Many dogs are bred which arc almost perfect specimens of their breed; hut the average is but an indifferent success when compared with the ideal; for this reason, really good quality dogs with no very apparent faults are of a very high commercial as well as intrinsic value, such prices as £’2ooo being offered for specimens which have been declared the best of their generation in a popular breed. It is possible to secure a valuable dog for a few pounds if one selects a puppy bred from good parents at an early age; it is a remarkable person who can determine a champion at six weeks of age, and a novice may choose a youngster which Inter becomes a famous show dog, and may bring in stud fees or by breeding operations hundreds of pounds in return for an outlay of six or sever, pounds, which is roughly the presentday average price of a puppy from parents of prize-winning ability. All pedigree dogs bred from show standard parents are not good enough for exhibition, and the pained look of surprise on the face of a novice exhibitor who has paid a few pounds for a puppy with a pedigree “ns long as your arm,” when a judge kindly tells him so. is a not uncommon sight at dog showrings. Many people imagine that the commercial value of a show bred dog is the amount they paid tor'it plus its age; but this, of course, is a fallacy. Some breeders are willing to add a few pounds to the price of a pup, if they feci that the purchaser void 1 he more pleased with their dog bv so doing. For Ibis reason, the sale of stock from kennels long established, by breeders of known integrity, is an easv matter to arrange; and novice fanciers, perhaps in the hope of saving a few shillings, or a pound or so, are sometimes disappointed to find that their bargain price pup, bought from a dealer or unfair breeder, is not worth a “tin of fish” commercially or otherwise. Most of the established breed* ers desire their stock to be their advertising medium, and for this reason many of them even undertake to replace puppies which do not come up to expectations with maturity. There is a good deal of support for the suggestion that show dogs are not healthy, vigorous, or intelligent; and in some cases, because of their breeding, pedigree dogs ,nre reared and bred from, whereas, had they been mongrels with no value of blood line, they would have gone at an early date to a hole in the garden.

A mongrel puppy is usually pretty and attractive, as are most young things which are clean anti healthy, and for this reason it is not difficult, as a rule, to find a boy or boys to take the youngsters home; in some cases the new pet is a bitch which grows to maturity and unless destroyed she will do her part to perpetuate the canine race. The general thing with a mongrel bitch is to find that she whelps a litter to her fancy, and father scouts around to give the puppies to his friends’ children; the females are often destroyed, and any sickly nr malformed puppies are put away. In effect, a rigid selection is very often made by owners of mongrel bred litters, which almost unwittingly ensures that those which survive and are left to breed, have some desired characteristic; in the case of a person too uninterested • or perhaps too soft-hearted to destroy any of the mongrel mother’s offspring, and they all find new homes, the ranger often conies into tile picture at the female pupnies’ first heat, and lie has the job of putting her away. The male puppies, shoii f d they develop anti-social tendencies, or any other quality, not desired by the owner, will be destroyed, so that even in character the best survive and in their turn become fathers and grandfathers. Because all people like beauty, the dog of ugly form is not permitted to live long, hut is lost or destroyed un’ess it has value in other directions. A litter of pedigree show dogs on the other hand are reared by some breeders irrespective of their true utility value, simply because, ns wo have seen, the blood is mire and the difficulties of producing the best specimens so great, that even a malformed dog or one of definite-mental instability hns a commercial value, or n possibility of value a« a stud or brood. Inbreeding is practised by some breeders in order to preserve the value of a eertnin dog’s blood, and although it does not appear to have been proven that this is of itself detrimental to health or vigour, we know that in many eases it does lead to degeneration, especially' So when not carried out on sound intelligent Her A again, the ininortanee of the ability of breeders and the relative value of their stock are apparent. To sum up we find that mongrel bred dogs are rigidly culled for appearance, health and intelligence, because their commercial value i« nil or very little, and the noiidescrips dog on the street its invariably well I>jhaved. reasonably

presentable and healthy, this last also accounted for by the fact that sick mongrels either get over their illnesses or die ; whereas pedigree dogs are usually attended with all care and have a. veterinary to prescribe for them. Many mongrels have the best of attention, too, but not as a gene ml rule. Pedigree show dogs from breeders of repute will prone to be healthy, intelligent and good specimens of a standard breed, usually suitable as companions and also of sufficient merit to lie exhibited at shows. If a man is willing to add a dog to his family a. pedigree show dog will give him a greater interest because he will immediately become a member of a huge world fraternity who a.Ve interested in the breed he lias chosen, and because of their standardisation dogs of a breed invariably have something of a ronimpn character, but never so much so that variety is altogether absent. Although many a mongrel is quite a. small looking fellow, and many a blooded specimen but of indifferent appearance, a comparison of the well bred, well groomed show dog with the other übiquitous canine leaves our pedigree show bred ■animal on his iredestnl. Because of his varied ancestry, ■i mongrel cannot reproduce a dog like himself; whereas a show bred pedigree dog invariably produces a doe more or less of his own tvpo. and although there may be a good deal in the saving that variety is the spice of life, we feel that the uniformity in most of the essentials in the prize-winning sort of dogs gives the greater satisfaction to owners, and commercially, of coursethere is no basis of comparison.

DOGS AND GRASS. Dogs ought always to have free access to grass and he allowed to help themselves. Grass has no doubt tonic properties. It leaves the bowels in a half-digested condition, and mechanically not only increases the flow of mucus in its passage through the intestines, hut also increases the peristaltic motion of the bowels, thus acting as an aperient, writes Rev. G. B. Gillies in an exchange. Grass is sometimes used by dogs as an emetic when they swallow anything that disagrees and does not easily leave the stomach; you will find them eating grass until they throw it up. As an emetic they always choose the very roughest of grass, and eat it in large quantities. Grass is so useful to the clog that I have soon it stated that no dog can he in perfect health who docs not at times have access to grass. Because of this most of us dog lovers premit our friends to have a run on grass whenever possible.

When, however, your dog is allowed to romp and play on grass there are some things that have to be specially looked to.

In warm weather dust particles and seeds will secrete themselves in his coat and cause him such irritation as to provoke him to scratch or bite the affected parts incessantly. If his teeth and toe nails are not clean, he will very likely make open sores which fester and do not yield to treatment easily. In summer days, specially, it is wise to give the dog’s coat a thorough examination every day, and if the cause of irritation is found to ho parasites, an easy and simple way to clear them is to brush him over thoroughly with a strong brush which has been dipped in paraffin. This will effectually destroy all mites except ticks. To" free the coat from irritating seeds and particles, the hair should be combed thoroughly and then brushed with a brush whose bristles are strong enough and long enough to penetrate right to the skin. In spite of the most meticulous care of the coat a dog sometimes becomes irritated in the .skin in the summer, and the cause is not infrequently due to the fact that the owner, because it is hot weather, has stopped the meat ration and is feeding the dog on starchy foods. If your dog is scratching, stop all starchy foods and feed only on raw meat. As an alternative boiled fish is good, and an occasional teaspoonful of Epsom salts or a little sulphur sprinkled oil the food is of great value in keeping the blood cool and the skirt healthy.