THE KENNEL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 390, 13 January 1898, Page 17

THE KENNEL.

At the annual show of the English Fox-terrier Club held at Brighton, most of the crack terriers competed, but there was a lack of striking merit in most of the young dogs. The Stoclclceeper remarks that in the wire-hairs “ coats seem to have made general progress, heads are nearly all good, and ears, which wer : formerly so large, are now neater and better carried. To an outsidei’ comparing the smooths and the wires the thought would occur that, whilst quality has made general improvement the size of the wires is within more reasonable proportions than the smooths, especially in the dog section. The smooth bitch class was probably one of the best We have seen on the sawdust for some time. The influence of Venio was very marked amongst the smooths, and the improvement, amongst the wires was also due to one or two sires. Smooth open dogs brought out. Visto, Claude Duval, Adam Bede, and Valuator, who were placed as named ; Compton Dollar, Donington, Lyons Crafty and Kilworth Baron were v.h.c. Open bitches saw Dame Fortune, Hester Sorrell, Lyons Forward and Principia in the places, with Becky Morgan and Dunelm Treasure v.h c. Mr F. Redmond’s Donna Fortuna won in the limit class and carried off the Club Cup, for which her dam, Dame Fortune, and Visto were her opponents. Donna Fortuna also won most of the valuable specials, making Mr Redmond’s winnings the largest he has yet achieved .at one show, great though some of his previous triumphs have been. He won £240 in cash besides cups and specials. The wire-haired open class, dogs, was headed by Go Bang (the Cup winner), with Tipton Slasher second, and Master Bristles reserve; bitches, Donington Flirt., Richmond Quantum and Richmond Fearless. There were eighty-feven smooth terriers entered which, when duplicated in the various classes, made a total of 223 entries. The wire-hairs numbered seventy-eight terriers and ISI entries, making in all a full complement of 165 terriers and 404 entries, the highest yet reached. These figures show the smooth and wire-haired varieties to be much more nearly equal in popularity in England than in the colonies.

The third annual show of foreign dogs, including specimens from nearly every country in the world, was held at the end of November- at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster. Miss Manley, an expert on the breed, judged the chow chows, Miss A dela Gordon the griffon Bruxellois, Mr F. Gresham various foreign dogs, and Mr R. G. S. Mann the Dogues de Bordeaux. The chow dogs shown were in various colours, and included both rough and smooth-coated specimens. Public favour seems to lean towards the rough-coats, many fine dogs of which were benched. The champion of the show was Mr W. B. H. Temple’s champion Chow VIII., a winner of thirty first prizes and six championships. The list of honours awarded Mr Temple’s exhibit included the Chow Chow Club’s twentyguinea challenge cup for the best dog in the show, a first prize in the open classes, and two specials. His victory was a big achievement, especially when one considers Chow VIII. is seven years old and practically a veteran. Under the head of foreign dogs came the breeds that have no special classification in the Kennel Club. In Arctic King Mrs H. C. Brooke showed one of the best Esquimaux dogs yet seen. Her exhibit was, as regarded size, half as large again as any in the Jackson team shown at Sidenham a short time since, and well deserved the first prize awarded it. In the classes for Dogues de Bordeaux, a type of dog closely resembling the old keeper’s night dogs of thirty years since, Mrs H. C. Brooke was well to the fore with Sans I’eur and La Goulue, both of which were awarded special prizes, in addition to a first and second. It. was unfortunate that Matador du Midi (Mrs I!. C. Brooke) showed such ferocity that it was deemed advisable to have him removed from the show. It was Matador du Midi that had to be led into the prize ring at the Cry s'al Palace recently by two men, and was then only judged with some difficulty. He’hus been twice matched against a bear. Mrs H. 0. Brooke won a premier prize with the Hairy King—a Mexican hairless dog—a like prize also being awarded to Mrs Brooke for her Australian dingo, Myall.