KENNEL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 10 December 1936, Page 28

KENNEL NOTES

(By “Fancier.”) I I Pedigree dog breeding, or dog cot- | ing as it is more fashionably named, : has of late years become an enormous industry in England and America, and l in New Zealand some part of this activity has been noticeable. In England there are quite a number of purely commercial establishments, some of them having as many as 500 dogs, and employing large staffs of attendants, kenneJmen and kennel-maids, veterinarians. secretarial staff, and the usual general assistance connected with business. The greatest number of pedigree dogs bred, however, are those reared by private persons as a hobby. In New Zealand there are very few commercial kennels and the majority ; of our pedigree canine stock comes j j from small kennels, the running of i I which is the liobby of a man or liis j wife, or in some cases both. : There is no royal road to the : heights of a successful breeder and exhibitor, and a really good specimen pan be evolved at the first attempt by a novice, provided luck is with , him and intelligent interest is taken. I The use of good blooded animals as stud dogs and brottl bitches is important. Sometimes a novice picks up cheaply a poor specimen of some popular breed and uses it as a means of getting a few puppies, the sale of which provides the necessary capital to secure a good typo of brood bitch from an established breeder. Sentiment must not be allowed to enter into dog breeding activities, and many a keen admirer of dogs finds this one of the difficulties of disposing of surplus stock. It is so easy to become attached to a good-natured dog which really has no right to a place in a kennel of pedigree dogs. j There is good foundation stock in

New Zealand for most of the popular breeds and some really fine specimens are being bred in cockers, fox terriers, Scotties, setters, collies, and toys. Cockers are fairly well established in this country, and goodly numbers of decent sorts are bred. Competition is very keen at the large shows. Wire fox terriers have received a boost lately, due to the importation of some high-grade specimens from England. These imported dogs are usually at the stud at a fee of a few pounds, and a working-class owner who has secured a good brood bitch can start with the best possible chance. There is no guarantee, of course, that the most carefully selected stock will breed show specimens. This is perhaps why the game has such a fascination. Really outstanding specimens are not common, and to breed one such in fifty is quite a satisfactory average. However, the majority of carefully-bred ones are suitable for minor classes at shows and are sufficiently typical usually to satisfy their owners that they have secured what they required.

Many disappointments are met with, and frequently we hear of people starting out to establish a kennel with high hopes who later find the difficulties too much for them, and they drop out of the game. To the keen fancier a litter of good healthy puppies, bred from show standard parents, provides a real interest which can be followed up after the youngsters are disposed of and ex-

hibited by their new owners. One of the uses of the Crystal Palace not mentioned in the news of the recent disastrous fire in London was the huge English dog shows held there. Many fanciers in this country have looked forward to watching the exhibits judged in the Palace, ana the destruction of the building leaves them without a focal point for their interest in the Old Country at the moment. The local Kennel Club is arranging to hold a parade in the Showgrounds shortly. Given a fine day this should prove an interesting day for local fanciers. The annual report of the New Zealand Kennel Club shows a further heavy increase in registrations of pedigree dogs with the controlling bo/ly, and a record is made of many expensive importations. The show to be Held in Palmerston North during November, 1937, will be the locale of the annual meeting of delegates to the New Zealand Kennel Club, and more than the usual number of well-known outside exhibitors will be attending.

The local club has every reason to be satisfied with the progress achieved during 1936, and the present prospects for 1937, both local and general, are very promising. GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS. ALSATIANS’ NEW NAME. ORIGIN OF THE BREED. The kennel correspondent of the London Times writes : After a good many years the Kennel Club committee has authorised a change in the name of the Akatian. A tentative step in the right direction was made when it was decided that the use of the words Wolf Dog should be discontinued. Being herding dogs, they had less right to that qualifica-

tion than some of the French and Italian sheepdogs, whose duty it was wild animals. The formidable-looking at one time to protect the flocks from lvomondor in Hungary is still employed in this manner. The Kennel Club has acted wisely in making the change gradually. Perhaps in a few yea.rs the word Alsatian will disappear and the breed will be known here, as in other parts of the world, as German Shepherd Dogs. An abrupt decision, by bringing confusion into the public mind, might have damaged the breed. People cling tenaciously to the old names. One often hears Scottish terriers called Aberdeens, although the association with the northern city never had official recognition. For years after the Willoughby and Morrison strains of pugs had lost their identity by inter-breeding one heard the terms used. When Lieutenant-Colonel J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon, M.P., and other enterprising men who had been impressed with the cleverness of the German dogs on the European fronts, set about persuading the British public to adopt them, they must have spent anxious moments in search of a name that would not offend our national susceptibilities. At last they decided on Alsatian, throwing in the Wolf Dog to make it more interesting. Some of their supporters, who had allowed their critical faculties to have a rest, set about finding justification for associating the dogs with Alsace. It was easy enough to prove that they were to be found there, just as they were to be seen all over Germany and in many parts of France. A FANCIFUL THEORY. Some ingenious spirit went further than that, however, declaring that in 1140 B.C. Scottish monks settled in the Valley of Munster, built a monastery, and procured some sheepdogs from their own land which, being crossed with native breeds, became the forerunners of the Alsatians. Thus, in a way, by establishing Alsatians here we were merely getting our own back again. The theory was so interesting that it luas been revived again this year. Lest it should tempt anyone to make incursions into the realm of fancy, it may be as well to explain that this breed, so popular throughout the world, is not old. In a sense perhaps the Scotch collie has something to do with the genesis of the Alsatian. It was the success of the collie that, towards the end of the nineteenth century, impelled the Germans to produce a dog of their own that would be different from all others —what the late Captain von Stephanitz described as a “lancy dog,” having erect ears and preferably a resemblance to a wolf.. _ . Germany abounds in varieties of pastoral dogs, some of which have erect ears aud are wolf-grey in colour. One can see in photographs of them a suggestion of the modern Alsatian, and the union of several of them gave the dog that has since blossomed into the modern Alsatian. Much of the improvement that has made the breed so striking has come since hostilities ceased. Most of those that- came earlier were not particularly attractive, looking like just common sheepdogs, but a few bought from a French kennel gave us definite ideas of the possibilities inherent in the breed. Frankly, though, those of us who studied them then had little idea of the sensation they were to create later on.