THE KENNEL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 29

THE KENNEL.

Stud Visits and Whelpings will be inserted uniier che Kennkl Notes in the New Zealand Mail for ONE SHILLING each insertion. I'or Sale advertisements, &c, not exceeding six lines. 2s each insertion. The Kennel Editor will be pleased to answer, through this column, any question as to canine diseases, or disorders, or auy inquiries on matters generally dialing with dogs. Items of general interest to dosj fanciers will at all times be acceptable, and our readers are invited to forward any information to the Kennel Editor, Nev; Zealand Mail. A QUEER DOG. Abiinelech Joe had a dog. You never saw such a dog as it was ! They called it Thomas Henry at home, but it would make the ink turn red with shame to print what other people called it. Thomas Henry was death on cats. Cats were his speciality. If there happened to be a cat hiding anywhere within rive hundred yards, and you said, "Hist, Thomas Henry ! Cats !" he would rout out that pussy and have her worried or else saying things to him from up a tree inside fifteen secouds. He had a marvellous seent for cats. He .could smell 'em anywhere. One day when 1 called to see Aunt Eliza I found him asleep on the hearthrug. I did not know that there was a cat within half a mile of us, and Aunt Eliza didn't either, because she told me so. So just for a bit of fun 1 stooped down over the sleeping dog and whispered, " Hist. Thomas Henry ! Cats ! " You couldn't fool that dog if you could fool as ! He knew where the cats I were as soon as his nose got wakened up. j He just sprang up with a snarl, shot straight I across the room like a meteor with his bristles up. and began barking like mad fury at a pound of sausages that my Aunt Eliza had just brought in for lea and laid on the table. And you just ought to have seen those sausages jump, too, and try to run up the window curtains ! Last year Thomas Henry's coat began to come ol}' here and there, and left bare places on him. It was a moat mysterious affair. The dog didn't seem to ail anything, and we could not find out the cause of the hair falling out. Thomas Henry was not what you would call a handsome dog when he was at his best, and his best was about six inches below any other dog's worst, but at that time he looked like a second-hand scarecrow in the moult. It bothered Abimelech Joe more than a bit, until one day ho was at the barber's and saw an advertise- i ment of Mrs S. A. Ave'eoi's Hair Restroyer, • warranted to make hair gro*v on bald patches. !?o he bought a bottle, and took it home, and rubber! Thomas Henry with it every night and twice on Sundays on those parts where bio clothes seemed to have got tjoo,littl,e for hirh. It was wonderful stuff—worked like a ; charm of piecework, only, you see, Abim.-. elech Joe had forgotten to tell the bar bey what colour of hair he wanted it to produce, and it came up a rich, soft, silky brown, while the rest of Thomas HenryV: natural coat was the colour of an old doormat, and about the fame texture. That dog would just stand for hours in fiont of a lookingglass and try to puzzle it out if he was an ' Airedale terrier or s patchwork sofa cushion : and when a distant relative came from the '< country on a visit md jsaw Thomas Henry she asked it be hadaccMently got torn and

Aunt Eliza had mended him with bits of her old sealskin jacket. He certainly did look a trifle sealskin:iied on that side that had been baldest—in 1 ;ct, one afternoon just before last Christmas, when my Aunt Eliza was getting ready to go out, she went upstairs to get her things on. Thomas Henry happened to be lying asleep on the bed, and Aunt Eliza, not having hi-r spectacles on at the moment, thought he was her mull', and tried to put her hand in it. SJie got it in as far as the top of his u-.roat before she found out her mistake. Thomas Henry found it out about the st.<j time. Aunt Eliza put her hand in it !"■ r warmth, but she didn't expect to get it quite as hot as she did. She had the wounds cauterised at once, and Abimelech Joe hasu'r. a dog now.—W. Carter Platts, in Remarks. NOTES. In an advertisement at the head of this column the well-known mastiff, Napoleon, is announced for sale by Mr F Taylor, of Petone. Napoleon won first prizes two years in succession at Wellington Kennel Club Shows.

A Napier correspondent informs me that Mr T. Parker's Minnehaha (the imported Edgbaston Marvel bitch) has just been visited by Mr F. Eogen's First Shot.

" Terror " writes in the Witness :—" A committee meeting of the Fanciers' Club is to be held next Tuesday, when the chairman will open the papers received from the different clubs voting as to where the headquarters of the N.Z.K.C. is to be located. Somehow I fancy Wellington will be the place decided on, and perhaps it will be for the best should this be the case. There will be a tremendous lot of work to be done by the new secretary, whoever he may be —indeed, his billet will not be a rosy one for some time to come. From what I hear it is quite certain the Wellington fanciers will make a better job of it than the Christchurch.

The same writer says that it is likely that the next show T of the Dunedin Fanciers' Club will be held in a new building to be erected by the local A. and P. Society for their winter shows. " Terror " expects to see some of the leading Australian collies brought over for the show in question.

Mr Thomas R. Dodds, acting- secretary of the N.Z.K.C, writes to the "Witness to " briefly state how matters stand re the headquarters of the N.Z.K.C." Mr Dodds says : —" The annual meeting- was held in Christchurch on Tuesday, sth November last, Avhen it was resolved to send ballot papers to each affiliated club, asking them to vote either in favour of Dunedin or Wellington. I returned home on Saturday the 9th, and on the 11th despatched to each club a letter explaining what had been done at the meeting, and enclosing txvo ballot-papei-s, as each club is entitled to two votes. About the end of November or beginning of December 1 received replies from the Tnvercargill and Wellington societies, and as I did not receive answers from any of the other clubs, I again wrote them on the 2nd of this month, stating that on the 20th (Monday first) the chairman of the Dunedin Fanciers' Club Avould proceed to open the ballot-papers then received, and decide the question. That time, however, will be extended until the 28th inst., so as to give clubs ample time in which to reply. So far I have not received an answer from any other club." Some of the Old Country shows don't pay very well. Both at Cork and Liverpool recently there was a distinct financial failure. At the Cork show the loss was no less than «£137. Enough to kill a show, that. The Liverpool show will not be held this j ear unless a guarantee fund of <£l{iQ is provided. Judging by the following par. in" Sirius' " notes in the Canterbury Times, kennel matters are pretty dull in Christchurch :—" It is understood, I believe, that the Christchurch Dog Society will not hold another show until a greater degree of public interest is \ evinced in the fancy. A loss of about £BO on the last two shows is certainly enough to damp the enthusiasm of the few who have had to bear the brunt.' 1 '1 he latent issue to hand of the Stockkeeper give 3 some details of the 37th annual show at Birmingham. The entries totalled up 1500, made up of about 900 exhibits. The Stockkeeper sums the quality up thus :—- " Regarding the quality of the exhibits at Birmingham it can only be said that,, in the language of the bacon merchant, it was very streaky. , Pointers and curly retrievers were excellent. 'Bulldogs unexpectedly good, and bloodhounds, setters, bull terriers, fox terriers, white English terriers, and Great Danes, each quite up to, it not beyond, average. On the other hand Newfoundlands were a disgrace to the show, with only five dogs in three classes and most of them moderate. Beagles had but one enti-y, whilst the array of toy spaniels, so far at all events as numbers went, was simply appalling. Birmingham did no,t suffer in the spaniel entry, because of the Spaniel Club not supporting the show this year. Mr James Farrow is a Spaniel Club judge, and had areccrd entry, the largest entry of spaniels used for sporting purposes since the history of the exhibition. Birmingham is such a recognised sporting dog show that wc think- the Spaniel Club and 'Brum' should OOrae together again, v The British Fanciers 5 Journal of 6th ult. ( also contains quite a budget of interesting items on the Birmingham Sho.v. The purchase is reported by Mr J. Boyle of the sensational St. Bernard pupoy Lord Heather- ' ton, a son of The Duke of Maplecroft, for the ! sum of £470. It appears this youngster was 3laimed at his catalogue price of £2OO before the judging commenced, bad to be put up to, ! auction, and was eventually knocked down ■' to the owner of Lord Douglass, Peter Piper, j Barou Othajn, e*c, for the sum stated. Tbe I

young collie bitch Charlton Fairy, recently purchased at Mr Diggle's sale for £26, was claimed by the Countess of Warwick at the catalogue figure, £2OO, after winning all before her, including the coveted championship. The same journal says :—Mr Megson lias' soon wiped out his Liverpool defeat, and the scene round the ring was a most animated one when Portington Bar None and Southport Perfection met. The verdict was well received, and Perfection was in such form that Mr Wheeler gracefully acknowledged his defeat. Of course, Portington Bar None can be made a far better dog than he now is ; then another meeting between the famous pair would be interesting.

Her Majesty has many dogs, and the collies are the favourites. It is pointed out; in a very interesting article in the Ladies* Kennel Journal that in the only picture in which the Queen appears with a dog there are three collies. Her Majesty christens all her dogs herself, and the original bearers of many of the names were gifts from the district of Balmoral. No puppj born in the Royal kennels is allowed to be destroyed, the Queen holding herself, as it were, responsible for the lives of all the little " strangers within her gate 9," and extendingher protection to them all alike. If any difference be made at all among the dogs, it is that, while most have names, there are some that go to their graves without one. Among the coloured collies the Queen's favourite is Darnley 11. In colour he is black and sable, relieved by the snowiest of collars and ruffs, white legs and white tip to brush. He was presented to her Majesty by the Rev. Hans Hamilton. Darnley 11. is quite of the latter day stamp and type of Collie—a nice long head with semi-erect ears, and one of the smartest of his breed at Windsor. Whenever the Queen comes to the kennels, Darnley ia asked for and brought out to show himself, and, good dog, heiat once " grins " with delight and welcome.

Mr J. K. Salter, who judged spaniels at the late Crystal Palace Show, thus expressed his views in the Kennel Gazette :—" Spaniels had a large entry—the third highest in the show—but in many respects disappointing ; and I think it must here again be admitted that, in spite of the effoits of a specialist! club to preside over the breed, the attempt, on its part to improve the different varieties and keep them to a homogeneous type haa signally failed. Crooked legs, monstrously long bodies, bad movement, lofty carriage o*£ stern, high set-on ears, light eyes, ara amongst some of the defects gradually creeping in stealthily, until by-and-by tha fault will be ignored ; nay, it may even, become among future breeders an excellence. A spaniel, of all dogs, should combine beauty with utility. He eannot bes beautiful with a short snout, a bleared and. prominent eye, a wide forehead with an ear stuck on above its level, ready to ' prick ' at; the least provocation, and a stern at the other end carried like a fox terrier ; and he cannot be useful if his legs are so crooked and his body so long and heavy that he can. hardly 'roll ' across the show-ring withoun giving the bystanders a feeling of pity that; he should have been asked to do so, much. less hunt a covert or hedge-row. I believe E have some warrant for these for I have bred and used spaniels all my life—many of them winners—and I have looked on and judged most of them, good and bad, for manv years. Indeed, an old spaniel fancier told me (to my sorrow), not long ago, that I was about the oldest breeder who still exhibited ; therefore, unless what I say on this point may be relegated to the 'safe and stale' department I hope it mayhit a sympathetic chord among some lovers of this beautiful breed, who are not too far pledged and prejudiced to prevent them. taking a new departure, by sticking to the old fashion, if it be the most difficult to acquire." As spaniel fanciers who read tha above will readily discern, says the Austral&~ sian, Mr Salter's remarks evidently apply tc/ the exceedingly long and low type of fieldspaniels, which have become so prominent in England during the past ten years. In* Victoria the majority of our field spaniels are decidedly of the old-fashioned type in shape, although at the same time capable of great improvement in many points.