THE SLEEVE DOG.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 13

THE SLEEVE DOG.

SMALLEST OF FRIENDS. She- was reclining languidly upon ft rose pink satin cushion in a shop window in Brompton road when I saw her first—a tiny mite of a dog only about the size of a rat. But from the luxury of her surroundings, the pink satin bow on- her neck, and the arrogant glance of her eye I knew at once that this was no ordinary small dog. Later, in conversation with the dealer who owned her (and who wanted, incidentally, £350 before he would dream of selling her), I learned that she was a genuine sleeve dog—one of the 60 who reside in England. There are only a few hundred of these valuable little creatures alive in the world (says a writer in the Sun News Pictorial. There is''-'a movement on foot in England to revive this rare strain, and induce the more prolific breeding of the tiny freak Pekingese. For freaks they are—originating centuries ago in ancient China, when a high-bred Pekingese amazed her aristocratic mandarin owner by producing,; among an otherwise normal litter, a puppy not as large as a mouse. Every since then, about one in every hundred Peke puppies born has been a sleeve dog, so called because the ladies of the Imperial Court were so charmed with their perfect miniature proportions, exactly approximating to the ordinary Pekingese, that they used to carry them about in their sleeves. In those days they were regarded as even more valuable than now, and each one born became automatically, the property of the reigning war lord. Even now they are literally worth their weight in gold, for when grown up the largest weighs no more than 61b. It was discovered a few years ago that some strains of Pekingese produced more sleeve dogs than others, and by crossing two of these strains the chance of one of these animals being born was much greater. Soon afterwards a Sleeve Dogs’ Association was formed in England to encourage the breeding of these vest-pocket models of Pekes, and it is now so flourishing that two shows yearly are held.

The secretary (Mrs Ashton Croft) has made an extensive study of the available history of this strain and gave" interesting information that in ancient times, when sleeve dogs were the adored darlings of their aristocratic Chinese owners, colour was regarded as most important—and that a woman of very high standing would have a sleeve dog to match every frock. '

“These little creatures are just as intelligent and healthy as an ordinary Peke,” she said. “ There is no necessity for pampering them. Their ration of food daily is about three ounce* of meat and a few tiny oval biscuits. They will walk about two miles a day, and some of them are very fine hurdlers. _ “ One of the qualifications for a champion sleeve dog at one of our shows is to be able to fetch and carry intelligently, and to find its own way out of a maze.”