The sporting dog

Front matter

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THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. American Variations i

II. Shooting Breeds 12

Chapter I American Variations

America is not England. After a century and a quarter of iirecracking Fourths the statement is a political superfluity, but no study of sporting dogs can reach clear going except across the dead body of the contention that America is an extension of British jurisdiction and infallibility.

That settled, the next step is to thank Great Britain for every one of our dogs of sporting breed. In our actual sports we use setters and pointers, foxhounds and beagles, greyhounds and two breeds of water retrievers. Crosses and mongrels need not be counted. These regular breeds are all British.

In technical classification the sporting division includes all the hounds, the Clumber, cocker and field spaniels, with the fox terriers and the rest of the sporting terrier list. Some writers add collies. In our country, however, none of these other breeds — ignoring dog-fights and ratting — is used to an appreciable extent in practical sport. They are kept as fancy varieties and as companions. In fashion and on the benches the semisporting dogs have forged ahead fast within a few years, and now collectively outnumber in the studbooks and shows the actual servants of the gun and leash. Attractive they are, too, and well worthy of care and study ; but only a voluminous and exhaustive treatise would need to describe them in detail, since they do not differ at all from their cousins across the water, where the breeds have been elaborately set forth by competent authorities and where the standards for both countries have been fixed. Boston terriers alone have an American status all their own, and they are scarcely sporting dogs.

In what does the sporting dog proper differ in America from the British dog of the same breed ? Greyhounds not at all, as yet, though if the wide prairies had remained unfenced, there is a chance that the climate and the jack rabbit, a faster and stiffer traveller than the English hare, might have caused a definite modification. Water retrievers not much, though the Chesapeake Bay dog is an American development, in form and raiment quite unlike any British breed.

It is foxhounds and shooting dogs which have become, under American conditions, something essentially different from what the British sports-

American Variations 3

men established and have maintained as filling their conceptions of utility and good looks.

Reduced to the simplest terms, the change wrought over here comes to this: The dry climate of extreme temperatures, the nature of the grounds and game, and the methods of hunting the fox and shooting game birds cause the survival of the fittest to proceed in the direction of a faster, lighter, more enduring animal ; perhaps not more sensitive of nose, but quicker in the reflexes of judgment and action which are the /

sequences of scent. /

An American will pardon every defect but one. /

That one is inability to stand the pace. Consequently, the dog which has more beef and timber than his nerve and power can carry drops, as the - same American sportsman would say, into the discard and is replaced by another which can go the route at the pace.

For speed and endurance are built upon the factors of strong muscle on a light bony structure, a heart action beyond the ordinary, and a nervous energy which cannot be physically measured, but is even more necessary in a dog than in a racehorse, because whip and spur cannot force unwilling or failing powers.

Conformation counts for much with theorists. It has an importance. Utterly bad shape is incompatible with easy speed. But the small variations at which solemn criticism is often hurled are more to the eye than to the deed. The ratio of weight to power, the blood-pump, the energy and the hunting zeal — these are what tell ; and to these ends American sportsmen have chosen their dogs.

Bred their dogs, one might say, but the phrase would be only a half-truth. The British — Ireland and Scotland are one with England in dogs — are better breeders than we. They are far and away the best in the world. Horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, pigeons — what you will, the British breed better than others if they take it up at all.

Not that they know any science of breeding "^.^ concealed from the rest of the world. They love the land and they love outdoor sport. With this penchant for the land and its sports they have the British — not less British than Yankee — gift of shrewd common sense, and an insistence on good form and approved standards which is more British than Yankee. It is only justice to believe that if they had our land and our game, and had undertaken to breed dogs to suit both, they would have produced the typical American qualities and at the same time have achieved more of uniformity and breediness.

Americans are clear as to what they ask a dog to do, but neglectful of any ten commandments

American l/'anations 5

or thirty-nine articles bearing on how he looks. And, as such, they are indifferent breeders — at least of dogs. It is history that an American plunges into breeding with smart confidence, overdoes at the start, wearies about at the point where he might learn something, and seeks another novelty. To the Englishman, sport goes with the land and breeding with the sport. If he surpasses in his breeding, he is gratified. If things go awry, he keeps on breeding just the same. In England the landowner has most of the sporting dogs. In America nine out of ten pedigreed shooting dogs are bred and owned by lawyers, merchants, and other townsmen who shoot by sufferance or invitation on the lands of other people. Breeding, even shooting, is an amusement and an incident. It is lightly picked up, lightly pursued, lightly forgotten.

So the British are better breeders. Where we have the advantage is in the abundance of game — now, alas, becoming by degrees a scarcity — free to almost anybody, a country of immense extent, foxes which are wild animals, and the Bob White, a bird upon which the field dog can exhibit every quality, best to lie and trickiest to hide of all shootable feathered creatures.

In the evolution among pointers and setters of a greater proportion of energy to weight, it has sometimes happened that public trials have brought out winners which seemed very small. When these winners appeared alongside of the larger and heavier dogs of older type the alarmists cried out that the setters and pointers were becoming degenerate from inbreeding and other causes. Longer experience has rather dissipated the alarm, though some of the city writers resume the cry occasionally when they see a few small celebrities benched near bigger beauties at a show. Handlers and breeders who were among the dogs saw that the quite small ones were rather the exception at all times, and that winners represented about a good, fair average ; moreover, that the noticeably small-sized winners were nearly always of exceptionally good make-up — big little dogs — and, well mated, had a good influence in perfecting the breed. Nowadays the handlers and breeders work along, winning with whatever can win, producing from what can produce ; finding that there are big ones, little ones, and medium ones, and that academics must be guided by practice, not practice by academics. If the breeders do not stick to the game, the handlers do ; and so far there has always been a new crop of breeders coming on, with a few leaders, like Mr. Pierre Lorillard and the late Colonel Edward Dexter, who maintain their patronage steadily through the years. The large number of public events and the enormous pri-

American Variations 7

vate ownership of shooting dogs produce a result which the more concentrated and deep-seated breeding fancy in Great Britain cannot equal ; and could not equal even if the fashion of driving game had not diminished their use of dogs.

So the faster hounds of further-reaching and mellower cry, so the setters and pointers of wider range and keener temperament have been produced — not by any man's system of breeding, but by the constant selection of those which carry the pace under more exacting conditions.

British writers on sporting dogs are usually ahead of us. They regard their work more seriously. The better books on dogs in England are elevated in tone, scientific in spirit, and commendably thorough. With us there is a trifle too much of the chip-on-the-shoulder or of the attitude that about dogs anything will do. A report has just been issued by the Fish and Game Commission of a western state. It is bulky and quite fancifully illustrated. The chapter on setters and pointers states sweepingly that a great majority of dogs used for private shooting or entered in field trials are pointers. The writer, on this premise, concludes that pointers suit the United States better than setters. Just as this book reached me, the entries of the Nebraska and Manitoba field trials were announced. These two entry lists included most of the dogs which the trials of 1903 have seen. They were the beginning of the circuit. In the Manitoba Derby were entered 46 setters and 16 pointers. The all-age entries were 33 setters and 16 pointers. In Nebraska the Derby had 52 setters and 26 pointers ; the all-age stake 42 setters, one of them Irish, and 24 pointers. If all had been pointers or all setters, the difference would not have been material, since either breed is, all in all, as good as the other. But it makes a big difference when an official report proclaims a fact which is not a fact and draws a conclusion which is vitiated from the start. The subject was dogs and the author set down carelessly a casual impression, formed nobody knows how. The studbooks show a like preponderance of setters in private hands.

The English do these things better. Stonehenge, not now up to date even with revision, was an example of lucidity, judicial care, and ripened observation worthy of an honored place in any literature. Rawdon Lee was a later authority of the same type. Even Mr. Lane, whose chipper book is but three years old, possesses a freedom from pseudo-literary affectation and a wholesome sincerity of treatment which inspire confidence in his message as far as it goes.

Still, though we breed erratically and write loosely, we undoubtedly have, in " class " of per-

American Variations 9

formance at work, the best bird dogs and hounds ever seen. If this seems a broad statement, I must refer to Enghsh sportsmen of my acquaintance who have done hunting and shooting on both sides.

That being the fact, it becomes worth while to inquire into the history of our sporting dogs and to formulate some of the methods we use in handling them.

The reader will understand that the American modification here considered is not accepted by all Americans. There has been a conflict, sometimes bitter, between those who would adhere strictly to English ideals and standards and those who would press into recognition the American changes. The East, generally speaking, is the conservative section, supported by many Canadian sportsmen.

English setter men have conducted the factional contest most sharply. Soon after the introduction of bench shows, the American school, led by bench and field judges like Major Taylor, now of New York, Mr. P. T. Madison of Indianapolis, Mr. P. H. Bryson of Memphis, General Shattuc of Cincinnati, and Mr. W. S. Bell of Pittsburg, insisted on awarding bench prizes to the lighter type. Twice a club has been organized to formulate a new written standard. The first was fifteen years ago, the second in 1 900-1 901. These new lo The Sporting Dog

standards were not accepted by the other side, and the dispute remains where it stood. The conservative side has been upheld by Messrs. John Davidson of Michigan, William Tallman of Connecticut, Dr. Hair of the same state, James Mortimer of New York, and other judges. Usually the Westminster Kennel Club has alternated from year to year in selecting its English setter judges, to give each side a chance to illustrate what it means by type.

American foxhounds were also developed in the South and West, though in practical hunting they have the field to themselves, with occasional crosses of imported hounds, in all the states. There are only three or four packs of definite English type which an English M. F. H. would regard with approbation. Mr. Mather of Philadelphia and Major Wadsworth of Geneseo, New York, have the best kennels of direct English importation and style, Mr. Keene now aiming at the same forward position.

The American sporting dog, therefore, as a separate development, is a prevailing tendency and not a res adjudicata. The changes involve not a few contradictions which confuse a novice listening to controversial assertions. But the separate development is a certainty, and the lines can be marked out with an intelligible approximation to definiteness.

American Variations n

Definiteness as to the present. If I were to picture the future, I should describe the notable recent increase of preserves, some of exclusive ownership, some of leased privileges over farm lands, and make the deduction that fifty years will extend over America something closely resembling the British condition. But there will be other books on sporting dogs to tell that other story when the time comes.

Chapter II

Accurate impressions of the general value and utility of shooting dogs in America cannot be formed from any man's private judgment, even when his experience is considerable. No man's personal observation covers more than a small part of the ground, and an assured estimate can be obtained only by averaging a large number of personal opinions collected from different parts of the country, or by an analysis of the public records. In preparing this book my effort has been to combine these two methods in order to reach results which will be reliably instructive.

As far as anything can be, the records of registration in the studbooks are free from narrow and factional opinions. In the American Kennel Club Studbook for 1902 there are 893 English setters, 708 pointers, 70 Irish setters, and 37 Gordon setters. Out of the 893 English setters, 756 have Gladstone or Count Noble blood ; in the great majority of cases both. There are 53 which are either modern Laveracks or carry a controlling infusion of that blood. There are 84 of prevailing Llewellin blood which have neither Gladstone nor Count Noble lines.

The American Kennel Club registration is patronized by owners in all parts of the country, and is the only studbook which the bench show men, considered as a class, use at all. The preponderance of Llewellin setters, and the remarkable command which the Gladstone and Count Noble families have of the situation, are conclusive as to the popularity of that variety of English setters. No other registration is recognized at bench shows except that of the American Kennel Club. The tide of preference for Llewellin setters and for the Gladstone and Count Noble blood is, therefore, conclusively shown by the setter figures of this studbook ; because the leading bench show specialists prefer the Laverack, and are often inexorable in condemninor the Llewellin. If the studbook used by them presents such a proportion of Llewellins, there seems to be nothing left of doubt as to the English setter strains preferred in American sport.

The Field Dog Studbook, conducted in Chicago by the American Field, contains for 1902 about twelve hundred English setter registrations and practically all of them have either Gladstone or Count Noble blood, or both, though the Laverack lines of Monk of Furness, Count Howard, and others appear frequently. This volume shows one pure Laverack. The managers of the Field Dog Studbook separate " straight-bred " Llewellins from other Engb'sh setters, but this is not worth noticing, while, since well meant, it is confusing and unjust. There never has been a fixed strain in or descended from Mr. Llewellin's kennel. All through this book I shall use the term " Llewellin " in connection with dogs which have a large preponderance of Llewellin blood, and the term " Modern Laverack " in connection with dogs which have an overwhelming percentage of Laverack blood, and have been bred to the Laverack type.

In the Field Dog Studbook there are about seven hundred pointers, thirty-nine Irish setters, and twenty Gordons.

While on this subject, the registration of other dogs practically used in American sports may be noticed. In the American Kennel Club Studbook for 1902 there are one Chesapeake Bay dog and one bitch ; three Irish water spaniel dogs and one bitch. In the Field Dog Studbook for 1902 there are six Chesapeake Bay dogs and three bitches; seven Irish water spaniel dogs and five bitches.

When it is remembered that the American Kennel Club Studbook was originally established by the field trial associations in the West, it is curious to note the progress of what may be termed the fancy breeds in America. In the volume for 1902 there are registered 860 odd Boston terriers, 1380 collies and 330 fox terriers. When the studbook was established, the Airedale terrier was almost unknown in America ; yet the volume for 1902 shows a registration of some hundred and sixty Airedales — a great many more than the registration of Irish and Gordon setters combined.

I may say that I made no attempt to exhaustively verify these figures. They may be in error slightly one way or the other. The evidence on all points was so irresistible that I permitted my first count to stand.

Of course these registrations do not tell the whole story. The foxhound and greyhound men have their special studbooks. It is also to be said in connection with pointers and setters that nearly all the collie and Boston terrier men register their dogs, while in all likelihood three-quarters of the three breeds of setters and the pointers in use in the country are not registered. At the same time the general story of the studbook records is descriptive of the situation affecting the various breeds of shooting dogs. In other words, the shooting men of America use Llewellin setters and pointers so largely that other breeds scarcely can be called competitors. It is also a basic conclusion that Gladstone and Count

Noble setters have almost crowded out other Llewellins and that King of Kent and Jingo pointers are rapidly assuming the same position of undisputed supremacy in their breed.

Not only on account of their numbers, but on account of the sharp discussions about individuals and types, the Llewellin setters must always occupy the largest space in any discussion of shooting dogs. In reference to these discussions and to differences over the relative value of different breeds of setters and different families of pointers, the reader should understand that partisans never do justice to the dogs on the other side. It is not well to believe the Llewellin breeders who call the modern Laveracks parlor dogs and diseased picture dogs. As a matter of fact, I can testify that these Laveracks make very useful shooting dogs which generally come to hand without much trouble. It would be a still greater mistake if one believed in the various denunciations of Llewellins. You will hear it said that the Llewellins are suffering from inbreeding ; that they get small and puny ; that they are all heels and no brains. You can hear these assertions and many others, not one of which is even approximately true.

A great many of the fashionable field trial winners have been rather light and small, and many of their descendants are not easy to train on

LLEWELLIN. LIGHT TYPE

Rodfield's Pride (Cowley's). By Champion Rodfield-Sport's Belle by Marie's Sport. Count Noble, Gleam, and Gladstone blood. Winner of several important stakes, autumn of 1902. Forty six pounds in field-trial condition. White-andorange. Owner, Mr. John Cowley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This dog was the chief winner among the setters and pointers in the prairie chicken trials of 1902.

LLEWELLIN. LARGE TYPE

Count Specso. By Count Rodstone-Nona H. by Gladstone's Boy. Litter brother to Doc Hick. Weight, sixty-four pounds in ordinary condition. White-black-tan. Steady and clever shooting dog. Owner, Mr. J. E. Bright, St. Louis, Missouri. For a large setter, Count Specso has great activity and endurance.

account of their intense hunting and ranging disposition. But this difficulty is more on the surface than real, since the dogs in most cases come under discipline quickly when the trainer sets himself seriously to developing their bird work. There are plenty of Llewellins which will weigh sixty pounds and more, and plenty of them which have brains enough to make circus dogs if anybody cared to use them for such a purpose.

Giving the fixed name " Llewellin " in this country to setters of certain blood has caused a great deal of confusion, though it was a gracious idea in the first place and it is no more than justice to Mr. Llewellin's liberality and labor in the interest of field dogs. The trouble is that a great many people do all their thinking on the assumption that whatever strains to Mr. Llewellin's kennel represents a concentrated breeding and a definite type. Even a superficial study of the subject shows that either a straight-bred Llewellin is a paradoxical impossibility, or that every Llewellin is straight-bred. The cursory student will also find out that only a few dogs of Mr. Llewellin's breeding were successful in helping to create the American favorite. Later importations from his kennel, like Gus Bondhu and Dick Bondhu, were soon discarded, and the influence of some of the earlier dogs, which are painted in glowing colors by the fancy writers, was utterly submerged in the field trial kennels.

Many of the logicians and microscopists, who do the theorizing for sporting papers, will cite opinions and detached facts to the contrary, but it remains that the American field trial type of setter is essentially Gladstonian. For scientific purposes, it would be accurate to call this type the Gladstone setter rather than the Llewellin setter. This Gladstone type is a leader among American setters. It is wiry, compact, fast, and decisive, with remarkable courage and ability to carry high speed. Nevertheless, there are, as I have said, any number of Llewellin types which should suit all tastes. We see Llewellins having every attribute of value except good heads and good tails. Excellence at these two points is rather hard to find if all the old standards in regard to muzzle, skull, and stern are to be retained. There has been a frequent complaint in the East that the Llewellins represented a degeneration from true English setter type. The gentlemen who present this dogma have usually learned all they know from studying bench shows, where the beauty of the Laveracks has largely given them the preference. To tell the truth once more, there are vastly more Llewellins true to the old and approved English setter type than Laveracks; by that I mean having good bodies and running gear.

LLEWELLIN-LAVERACK

Champion Cincinnatus's Pride. By Champion Cincinnatus-Champion Albert's Nellie. Fifty five pounds. White-black-tan. Bench champion ; field-trial winner, beating Champion Tony's Gale and others. Llewellin blood through Count Noble and Druid: Laverack through Tarn O'Shanter and imported Carlowitz. Regarded as the best combined bench and field English setter of the present. Owner, Mr. Edward A. Burdett, Radnor, Pennsylvania. The photograph was not taken at an angle to do justice to the champion's excellent muzzle and fine shoulders.

POINTER. MEDIUM WEIGHT

King Cyrano. By Jingo-Kate Kent by King of Kent. 'White-and-orange. Direct cross of Jingo and King of Kent blood. Winner of the Illinois all age, 1901, and other places in trials. Known as the most thoroughly broken field dog that ever won a Derby in the United States. Owner, Mr. J. A. Morton, Marshall, Illinois. In hard field-trial condition, Cyrano weighs slightly less than fifty pounds.

Until men cease breeding dogs, the name of Edward Laverack will always stand highest. Any breeder of dogs, though his fancy may be for toy spaniels or mastiffs rather than for shooting dogs, takes off his hat in veneration when he speaks of Laverack. Every man of them knows that at a time when communication was difificult and the art of breeding had not been carried far, Mr. Laverack produced a variety of setters which in beauty and distinction have never been equalled by any creation of the breeder's efforts. For a half century these dogs have stood out easily at the head of all others in their patrician appearance ; in the elegance and symmetry which are evidences of gentle birth. It is hard to breed Laveracks good at all points, but when one does come right it has a stamp of noblesse which no other dog rivals. The Laveracks have always had their friends in America, and probably will be preserved for generations to set an example of quality in breeding. In the field they suit a great many practical sportsmen, and as long as they please their supporters it is idle to speak disparagingly of their abilities on birds.

Considering pointers and setters as rivals, we come to a difficult question. Each breed has its advocates, many of them so extreme that they will listen to nothingr in favor of the other. Setters seem to meet the requirements in a larger variety of work and in more parts of the country. The pointers are most popular in the Middle West, where the country is open and the work is on wheat stubble and similar ground. The setter is a better water dog, and is the only bird dog suited to a country where briers are thick. The pointer suffers less from sandburs and is said to stand the heat better, though I never could see any difference in this last respect. I am inclined to think that out of an equal number of puppies one could develop more good pointers than setters. Pointers take to their work more readily, and in the hands of an ordinary amateur are more easily handled, though the rule is not universal. This last quality, with the sandbur troubles of setters, gives the pointer the lead in amateur hands through the prairie states.

The Irish setter can nearly always be made a good retriever on land and water, and probably stands rough weather better than any other shooting breed. The Gordon's rough weather qualities are little inferior. The studbook figures show that neither the Irish nor Gordon setter has quite met the taste of American sportsmen. I shall endeavor later to account for this fact.

In the subsequent chapters in which the history and the special qualities of these shooting breeds are presented, it seems useful to describe briefly the dogs which appear in present pedigrees and in those likely to come before the amateur in the next twenty years, so that the inheritance assembled in a dog's pedigree can be intelligently studied by the owner who may be curious — as every owner ought to be — about the potentialities of his dog's family history.

One cannot always follow the venerated counsel, " experto crede," in overhauling the virtues of ancient dog heroes. They were not all grace and glory as the " expert " pencillers and rhapsodists pictured them. When reading about them, one can see that the writers and artists were exercising their own powers instead of laboring for science ; in which they followed the old rule of historians and court painters. We must do what we can to get at the plain truth.

Humans who have the eye for dogs will be broad in spirit. There is room and there is reason for many tastes. The true sportsman is a connoisseur, and the true connoisseur would rather revel in the perception of beauties and achievements, than join the unhappy hunt for imperfections. Every expanded mind is first appreciative ; every mean mind is first depreciating.

If a man has seen much of dogs, he can explain certain inconsistencies of the apostles by remembering his own inconstancies. I confess that I have had many an enthusiasm.

When I have seen a bloodlike Laverack, say

Queen's Place Pride, sumptuous among her sisters as the star-gowned maiden of the fairy tale, I have felt that a gentleman's instinctive love of unexceptionable appointments should weed all other kinds from his shooting establishment.

If I happen to watch the work of pointers like Cuba Jr., Alford's John, or Alpine Lad, possessing nearly all of the best setter qualities and some advantages of their own, I can believe that setters will disappear and leave the shooting field to these Americans of the coat that never comes off.

Then it may be Marie's Sport, the Llewellin, structured of steel splinters, born a hunter and a leader, charged with vitality and character; and I predict that this is the type which sportsmen will cause to outlive all the rest through the selection of the fittest.

But if it is Mohawk, another Llewellin, I see last, he makes the impression — stripped of superfluities, lithe as an otter, quick as a ferret, tireless as Mahomet's mare. He almost persuades me that he is the finished product, the summation of improvement.

Irish setter men and Gordon men have their sufficient grounds of choice and their satisfactions. Perfected form and color are more than barren elaborations of breeding effort. They do not appeal to you, maybe, or to me. But the connoisseur's pleasure over them is healthy, and the sportsman can, with either Irish or Gordon, find both game and his own sort of pride. Who knows that you and I will not be seized next week with the Gordon or Irish fever?