GALLERY OF DOGS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 22

GALLERY OF DOGS

Many Little-known Breeds PORTRAITS FOR FANCIERS Dog has often been described as man’s oldest ally; "First Friend” is Kipling’s name for him. Investigations of the caves, middens and lake-dwell-ings inhabited by those primitive races who roamed Europe as long ago as the new stone age prove that even in that remote era dog stretched himself beside man’s fireplace. Several breeds were domesticated by the Chaldeans and Egyptians four and five thousand years ago; and even such low-type natives as the Australian aborigines when discovered by the white man were fofind to have tamed wild dog. Only to-day, after all those centuries, lias the canine race fallen into disrepute; man has grown so timid that he regards the Alsatian as a potential enemy, and cannot sleep if a puppie howls at the moon. Yet there are still enough dog-lovers extant for a publishing firm to have brought out a gallery of doggy portraits, where fanciers can compare show points and laymen become acquainted with faces and figures of the principal breeds. This is “A Book of Dogs” (Chatto and Windus, 5/-). The hundred photographs contained in this quarto volume include not only all the usual breeds, but several with wliich the majority of New Zealanders are unfamiliar. Big dogs are rare in the Dominion. The Alsatian is with us, to the sorrow of many; but even he is not so evident as in many places in Europe. Mongrel Alsatian. In certain parts of France a mongrel type of Alsatian is used to guard the vineyards. The dog's chain runs freely along a tight wire at the boundary of the otherwise fenceless field, and the savage beast is thus able to accompany with barking and frightfulness the casual passer-by, until he has passed the limits of the estate. When an Englishman, for whom Continental dogs seem to entertain particular dislike, encounters two such dogs, one at either side of the way, his lot is unenviable. But if the Alsatian is with us, most of the other breeds of big fellows are scarce. The Great Dane, which was originally the European boar-hound, and his cousin, the German Police Dog; the Mastiff, ancient breed known several centuries B.C. and mentioned in the Classics under the name “Molossus”; that favourite of sensational novelists, the fiop-jowled Bloodhound; the various deer and wolf-hounds; the solid St. Bernard and the stolid Newfoundland—all these are dogs we seldom have an opportunity of seeing, except through the medium of photographs. Harrier packs there are here, for the hunting of the hare is a New Zealand pastime, but other species of huntingdogs —otter-hounds, fox-hounds, and beagles—are rarities. Variations on the' greyhound theme, such as the tall Borzoi and the Eastern gazelle-hound, the Saluki; the “sausage-dogs,” Basset and Dachshund, which is a badgerhound, as squat and ridiculous as the greyhounds are tall and stately; the Afghan Hound, like u tall, sad, and extra-woolly Scotch Collie; the Chow dog, with his purple tongue, and the white Samoyed from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, between Ob and Yenisei ; and the. Black-and-Tan and Border Terriers, are interesting to see portrayed. And, of course, all the orthodox kinds of dog are to be found in this canine gallery. The Fiench Poodle. A touch of humour is lent by the pictures of the bearded Belgian Griffin, the tailless black Schipperke, the clipped French Poodle, with bows of ribbon in his hair, the moth-eaten Bedlington, and the odd Kerry Blue. The volume closes on a note of laughter, with a

quite ridiculous smug Pug, attired in a knitted woollen vest, and pampered with bed-socks! There are, however, several interesting dogs conspicuously absent. One could well dispense with the Sydney Silkie, but that intelligent animal, the Australian Kelpie, is missing from the gallery, and so is the domesticated Dingo. The Brlard, the lanky French sheepdog, with his shaggy black, brown, or grizzled coat, might well have been included. The little Papillon, weighing o.nly four to six pounds, with big ears 'that stand up like butterflies—whence his name—is quite a popular pet abroad. And right here in Wellington may be seen specimens of that modern fashionable and very attractive dog that has been developed at Munich, the Schnauzer.