THE KENNEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3494, 22 February 1921, Page 21

THE KENNEL.

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Tarroa.

Fanotan ana breeders of dogs are cordially isTited to oontribute to this column. "Terror’* will endeavour to make this department as interesting and up-to-date as possible, but in order to do this be most have the co-operation of his readers, hence he trusts this invitation will be cheerfully sespoodod to. —Mr J. M’Grath disposed of his Irish terrier dog, Tipperary Mick, after the Otago Kennel Club’s show. He is mating his bitch, Irish Eyes, to Rev. Father Graham’s imported dog, Roscrea Rebel. —Mr Aitcheson purchased from Mr J. Drurie, of Christchurch, a nice wire-haired fox terrier dog. —Mr J. Drurie intends mating liis latest purchase, a nice wire-haired fox terrier bitch, to Mr S. Devereaux’s imported dog, Brinsea Boy. Wire-haired fox terrier fancieis are making a mistake not making more use of this highly-bred dog, as he has left his mark on any mated to him. —Mr J. Cooper, a successful recruit to the Irish terrier fancy, is talking of bringing a bitch from Australia. It is fanciers of this sort that we are badly in need of. ‘‘Fancier.”—So far as I can learn the first mention of the bulldog with an approach to its modern spelling fs found, as far as can be traced, in a letter dated 1631 or 1632, and written from St. Sebastian by Prestwick Eaton to George Willingham, of St, Swithin’s lane, London. The letter asks, amongst other things, for a “good mastive dogge, and “pray,” said lie, “procuer mee two good bulldogges and let them be_ sent by ye first shipp.” I have taken this from a lecture delivered bv a Mr A. Armstrong, ex-honorary secretary of the Manchester Counties Bulldog Club and of the Federation of Bulldog Clubs about six years ago. The lecture is full of interest, and I cannot resist quoting from it the following: “In the course of the same lecture Mr Anderson remarked that at the close of the eighteenth century and during the early years of the nineteenth century the bulldog was almost entirely in the hands of the roughest classes. A revulsion of task had set in amongst the more refined, and the pooi- bulldog reaped much of the obloquy that rightly should have been upon his master alone. He was marked out as the. ‘blackgqard of His species.’ and his entire extinction was considered desirable. When we recollect, therefore, the uses to which the ’bulldog was put for so many generations, and, subsequently, the sort of people who owned him. it is not surprising that, his temper suffered, and that his character was painted in the darkest colours. Even to-day the average man in the street looks upon the bulldog as an animal much to be avoided, and in my youthful days a certain section of the community considered it degrading for a man who had any respect for himself to keen a. bulldog; but that, of course, has all changed (Terror: Has it?’, and the dog is now kept by some of the highest personages in the land—not for the purposes for which lie was originally kept, but for his trustwortniness and his lovable disposition Some years ago the late Dicky Mann, who contributed the ‘Bulldog Barks’ to Our Dogs, drew e caricature of ihe bulldog, past and present—the former dog, with all his faults, dressed as a man of the lower order, with muffler, and short clay pipe (nose warmer) in his mouth, standing at the side of a, deal-topped table, with a mug of beer in front of him ns though debating some noint with his fellows in the tap-room of a Whitechapel pub; whilst the present-day dog was represented by _Ch. Docldeaf in evening dress, cigar in his hand or paw, champagne at his elbow, proposing a. toast at a banquet! This was one of the cleverest caricatures T have ever seen, and so truly representative of the breed in every way both in the improvement in the points of tlie dog ns well as in his social status.” — With Dog and Gun.—Bnirnsfather’s “Fragments” in a recent issue gives the following very useful hints to sportsmen. Tt says: “The dog is a most, important item, as many an amateur shot owes his reputation to his dumb friend’s unerring instinct for the nearest poulterer’s shop. It is, of course, essential that the animal should he able to point, The sportsman himself should never point at the birds, as this is considered rude. No well bred partridge or pheasant will stand being pointed at, by a human being, but a dog max do so with impunity; in fact, that is what it is there for. It is essential that the dog should be able to point straight, and it Is advisable, therefore, to obtain that kind of dog known as a pointer, which means that it, has been in the pointing business all its life. In off seasons it can be employed as an ornamental signpost.”