n has heretofore fallen to the lot of any variety of man's best friend.

CHAPTER XII.

PICTURE TAKING.

It would seem at the first glance that to write on this subject was only a
waste of time and energy, and yet I know that no one feature of the dog
business is more vital in importance or more fraught with trouble than
this apparently simple process of dog photography.

The novice will at once exclaim: "What could be more natural than sending
on a picture of a dog I want to sell to the prospective customer? Surely
he can see exactly what he is purchasing!" This may be perfectly true, and
yet again it may not.

I am not writing of the subject of false pictures on the stud cards of
some unscrupulous breeders, or those pictures taken of dogs whose markings
are faked, only too common in some quarters. The photos look good, of
course, to the buyer, but when the dog arrives, he finds, to his disgust,
that the beautiful markings, in some mysterious manner, got "rubbed off"
while making the journey in the crate. I recently saw a photograph of a
dog sold to a Western customer, by a dealer in an adjoining town to mine,
taken by an artist in photography when the dog was all "chalked up". When
the dog arrived he was as free from nose band as my pocket is frequently
of a dollar bill. Small wonder the buyer remarked with emphasis that the
dealer was a fraud. One can almost forgive his exclamation, which he
surely had not learned at Sunday school, at being taken in, in so mean a
way.

I am writing more particularly of the art of the photographer in bringing
out the best points of the dog, and effectually hiding the poorer ones.
How many times have we heard the dealer say, in speaking of a dog with
good markings, but off in many other respects: "He will make a good seller
to ship away, as I can get a good looking picture of him." He knows
perfectly well that a clever photographer can so pose the dog as to hide
bad defects. A long muzzle, a long back, or one badly roached, poor tail,
bad legs and feet, can all be minimized by posing the dog on the stand.
The buyer, on receipt of the dog, although thoroughly dissatisfied, will
have to admit that the photo is a genuine one, and, in most cases, is
unable to obtain any redress.

Another very important side of dog photography is the mania for picture
collecting. Some time ago I saw a signed article in "Dogdom", from a very
charming lady living in a city fifty miles from Bosto