British Dogs, Their Points, Selection, and Show Preparation

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...that English sporting writers during centuries, who described the English Water Spaniel, were writing of that of which they knew nothing. There is no evidence that the Irish Water Spaniel had any existence as a distinct breed so recently even as the early decades of the present century; yet it is on the supposition that the Irish Water Spaniel is an older variety than the English Water Spaniel that ' Idstone's' whole argument rests." Taking the principal writers from the beginning of last century we find that they mostly mention two varieties of dog used in wild-fowling, the larger of which they call the Water Dog, the smaller the Water Spaniel. Both of these are described as curly-haired, and various theories of their production from crosses with other breeds have been more or less plausibly suggested; it is, however, hardly necessary to father the looks of either of them on any outside cross. Our sporting forefathers were practical men, and showed that they were so in their selection of dogs suited to the work to be done; and although it is true they held peculiar notions as to the relations between the colour of the coat and the courage of the beast, such time-honoured superstitions are far less ridiculous than the freaks of modern fancy laid down by self-elected lawgivers--such as, for instance, that an Irish Water Spaniel must have the stern, or caudal vertebra covered with skin only and as innocent of hirsute adornment as a mop-handle! It is probable that a large and a small Water Spaniel, or Water Dog, would naturally result from the different requirements of sportsmen. He who frequented the sea-coast would require a bigger and stronger dog than the inlander who found his quarry in marshes, rivers, and sedgy ponds. Shakespeare's...