rd requires the legs to be "fine,"
and not have much bone. The bone of a terrier is only met with in
coarse Schipperkes. As to size, it need only be noted that the maximum
of the small size, viz., 12 lbs., is that generally preferred in
England, as well as in Belgium. Further, it is only necessary to
remark that the Schipperke is a dog of quality, of distinct
characteristics, cobby in appearance, not long in the back, nor high
on the leg; the muzzle must not be weak and thin, nor short and blunt;
and, finally, he is not a prick-eared, black wire-haired terrier.
The Schipperke's tail, or rather its absence, has been the cause of
much discussion, and at one time gave rise to considerable acrimonious
feeling amongst fanciers. On the introduction of this dog into Great
Britain it arrived from abroad with the reputation of being a tailless
breed, but whether Belgian owners accidentally conveyed that
impression or did it purposely to give the breed an additional
distinction is difficult to say. Anyhow the Schipperke is no more
"tailless" than the old English Sheepdog. That is to say a larger
number of individuals are born without any caudal appendage or only
a stump of a tail than in any other variety of dogs. It is said that
a docked dog can be told from one that has been born tailless in this
way; when the docked animal is pleased, a slight movement at the end
of the spine where the tail was cut off is discernible, but the
naturally tailless dog sways the whole of its hind-quarters.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BLOODHOUND
The Bloodhound was much used in olden times in hunting and in the
pursuit of fugitives; two services for which his remarkable acuteness
of smell, his ability to keep to the particular scent on which he
is first laid, and the intelligence and pertinacity with which he
follows up the trail, admirably fit him. The use and employment of
these dogs date back into remote antiquity. We have it on the
authority of Strabo that they were used against the Gauls, and we
have certain knowledge that they were employed not only in the
frequent feuds of the Scottish clans, and in the continuous border
forays of those days, but also during the ever-recurring hostilities
between England and Scotland.
Indeed, the very name of the dog calls up visions of feudal castles,
with their trains of knights and warriors and all the stirring
panorama of these brave days of old, when the only tenure of life,
property, or goods w
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