Irish Terrier Club
been passed, the date being after December, 1889.
Dew Claws. These may be removed or allowed to remain; they are, however, unsightly and liable to be troublesome to the dog when working. They occasionally appear upon the front legs as well as upon the hind ones. In their removal a pair of strong, sharp scissors are required, and the operation is best performed when the puppy is about three weeks old and suckling on the dam, whose tongue will soon heal the sores.
Docking or Tail Cutting. It is the custom to shorten the tails of certain dogs in order to prevent injury thereto when Club, established in 1874. It seeks to occupy in the kennel world a similar position to that occupied by the Jockey Club with relation to the Turf. The entry fee is five guineas, and the annual subscription five guineas. It publishes annually a stud book, monthly a journel called the Kennel Gazette, and besides its ordinary members has "Associates," who are admitted at a much reduced fee. The latter are not allowed the advantages of the Club house.
The Kennel Club holds a show each year, and every dog exhibited thereat, or at any other show in which their rules are enforced, has to be registered, the fee for which is half a crown. The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn is the president of STARTING ON A TRAIL. a they are hunting in coverts and thick undergrowths. The operation ought to be performed in early puppyhood, when fortnight old, when with the dam. The hair should be turned back, and about onehalf the tail taken off with a pair of sharp scissors. The practice once obtained of biting off the tail with the teeth. According to the regulations of the Kennel Club regarding the preparation of dogs for show, shortening the tails of the following breeds will not render them liable to disqualification:-Spaniels (excepting Irish water); fox, Irish, Welsh, Airedale, and Yorkshire terriers; old English sheepdogs, poodles, toy spaniels, schipperkes, griffons, and such varieties of foreign dogs as the Committee may from time to time determine.
Dog Clubs. Dog clubs were formed to look after the interests of the dog, especially in so far as their show career is concerned. The first Club was the Kennel the club, and Mr. E. W. Jaquet, Carlton House, Regent Street, London, W., the secretary. There are also the Scottish Kennel Club, the Irish Kennel Association, and the Ladies' Kennel Association. The two firstnamed have no particularly distinguishing feature, but hold shows annually. The lastnamed holds two annual shows-one, an open fixture, generally held in the gardens of the Botanic Society, Regent's Park, in June, and the other in November, at which, however, competition is confined to dogs owned by members. The secretary is Miss Gertrude Desborough, and the offices are at Belfast Chambers, 156 Regent Street, London, W. Then there is the old-established National Pointer and Setter Society, whose headquarters are at Shrewsbury, and which holds field trials annually. The more recently formed International Gundog League is conducted on much the same, though perhaps on more inclusive, lines.
Most varieties of the dog have specialist clubs, some one, others more. The Fox Terrier Club, the English Setter Club, the Irish Setter Club, the Spaniel Club, the Sporting Spaniel Society, the Deerhound Club, the Beagle Club, the Irish Wolfhound Club, the Borzoi Club, the Curly-coated Retriever Club, the Dandie Dinmont Club, the Scottish Terrier Club, the Welsh Terrier Club, the Irish Terrier Club, and the Airedale Terrier Club are the most important. The Association of Bloodhound Breeders and the Bloodhound Hunt Club are others.
The subscriptions vary in amount from five shillings to twenty-one shillings annually.
The oldest of the specialist clubs for sporting dogs is that for Fox Terriers, which was [DOGS amongst our most important sporting functions. In 1909 six such meetings were held, viz., by the Kennel Club, by the National Association, and by the English Setter Club in the spring on partridges; by the International Pointer and Setter Society, and by the Irish Setter Club and the Pointer Club in the autumn on grouse.
The first four of these are, at any rate, likely to be continued annually. The work done by the dogs on these occasions is generally first-rate-nose, pace, natural ability, training, staunchness, style, quartering and beating out the ground, game-finding, and general behaviour being taken into consideration by the judges who make the awards. Spaniel trials also are popular, POINTING AND BACKING. instituted in 1876, whilst the youngest is the Pointer Club, established early in 1908.
There is also an American Kennel Club and similar establishments in France, Russia, Germany, Belgium, and in other continental countries.
Field Trials. These are trials instituted for the improvement of sporting dogs-- pointers and setters in particular. Retriever trials were run at Vaynol Park in 1871-2, but were discontinued and not revived till 1900, the International Gundog League then holding a meeting near Havant on lines advocated by Mr. S. Smale, of Wilmington, Kent. The Kennel Club followed in 1906, and the Scottish Field Trials Association in 1907, while the movement became popular that in 1909 ten meetings were held in different parts of the country. In America, beagle and spaniel trials take place, but here they have not yet been tried.
Field Trials for pointers and setters are SO several well-supported open and local meetings being held every season. The first Field Trial meeting ever held in this country took place in April, 1865, over Mr. S. Whitbread's Bedfordshire estate at Southhill. Licences. In England, Scotland, and Wales, the licence for each dog is 7s. 6d.
Puppies under six months old, dogs used solely for the purpose of tending sheep and cattle on a farm or owned by shepherds, and such as are used by blind persons for their guidance, are exempt, but application for exemption has to be made to the local authority.
Muzzling. The Board of Agriculture and local authorities have the power to issue compulsory orders compelling all dogs to be muzzled, under certain penalties.
When such orders are issued, they are only in force in that locality in which the authority has jurisdiction; but the Board of Agriculture can issue an extended order, DOGS] which takes precedence over anything local.
Other local orders may be issued, the most important of which makes it compulsory for each dog to wear a collar upon which the name and address of his owner is legibly inscribed. In districts where the muzzling order is in force, exemptions are made with regard to hounds and to other dogs when actually being used in sport.
Registration. -The Kennel Club has adopted a system of registration; the fee is half a crown per dog, for which the FIELD TRIALS. POINTER AND SETTER. owner is entitled to select a name not already appropriated, and this is duly published in the Kennel Gazette, the official organ. No dog can compete at any show held under the Kennel Club rules unless it has been previously registered. There is an additional fee of ten shillings to pay when the owner of an already registered dog wishes to change its name. A bitch lent for breeding purposes has to be duly registered with the Kennel Club, the fee for this being 5s.
Shows. Since their first institution at Newcastle-on-Tyne, June 28-29, 1859, when there were sixty entries, dog shows have become an institution in the land. The first show was confined to pointers and setters; a leading show at the present day may have anything from a couple of hundred to four or five hundred classes, and include nearly a hundred varieties of the dog. Birmingham has always held a great show, and it is the oldest of modern fixtures, having been established in November 1859, and held annually ever since. It is called the National Show, and a win thereat is considered the blue ribbon of the canine world. Equal to Birmingham, and even larger, is that show held by the Kennel Club, which now seems to be fixed at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. This club has now held shows of its own since