ANECDOTES ABOUT DOGS (_Continued_)
Another instance of sagacity occurred at Bristol, when a nursemaid
wheeling a perambulator with a baby in it, down Spring Hill, which those
of my readers who know the locality, will remember, is one of the
steepest in that hilly part of the country, was seized with a fit, and
loosened her hold. In an instant the little vehicle, with its living
occupant, was darting down towards a flight of steps in the hill and
apparently to certain destruction. Just before its arrival at the steps,
the leathern apron of the perambulator was seized by a Retriever dog,
who happened to witness the occurrence, and saw the danger of it, the
vehicle was stopped and the child saved from an untimely death.
The natural love of fun and inclination for being taught almost anything
of the Irish Water Spaniel is well known, so that I think the following
account by Mr. Lindhoe, R.E., at one time a keen fancier and exhibitor,
of his Rake and Blaeney, may be interesting to my readers.
He writes: "Rake is a very clever dog and can be taught almost any
trick. He is very tender-mouthed and can dive and bring up an egg,
unbroken, from a depth of twelve feet or more. It is very amusing also
to see him take sixpence out of a bucket of water, as he sometimes has
his head under nearly two minutes before picking it up. I taught him a
very clever trick which used to cause much amusement at the shows.
Whenever he was disturbed by any one poking at him with a stick to make
him rouse up and show himself, he would rise gently, put his fore paws
on the shoulders of the disturber of his rest, and before it was guessed
what idea he had in view, seize and take off the man's hat and deposit
it in the pan of water, or on the straw in his pen. Blaeney also is
wonderfully clever, and a splendid hand at sport on land or in water.
After a game of croquet is finished, she invariably brings in the hoops,
mallets, balls, etc., and places them in their proper box in the hall.
Once when I was engaged in separating four large Mastiffs who were
fighting, she came to my rescue, and considering the best way of
rendering assistance, seized the most stubborn of the combatants by the
tail and held on till the fight was stopped. She would retrieve very
long distances and often surprised people by seizing some stick or other
article, which had been put down on purpose for her to fetch, and they
had unknowingly picked up. I have frequently known both these dogs jump
into the water from a distance of nearly thirty feet."
I remember, on a recent occasion, when I had promised to judge at one of
our largest London shows, having the impression the show opened on the
Tuesday, I went up on the Monday, and did not discover my mistake until
I got to the hotel I usually patronised for any show in that part of the
metropolis, but as I have always any amount of places and people to
see, I own I did not trouble about the matter, and had nearly forgotten
it until at the show I met a gentleman also hailing from the same part
of England and a well-known light in the Beagle world, who said: "I did
an unusual thing this time, came up a day too soon, and I shall get a
pretty 'roasting' over it." I replied: "I also did the same for the
first time, in a long experience of Dog shows, but do not expect any
'roasting.'" He said, "Oh, but my wife will know it, if no one else
does, and she will never forget it." I answered, "Neither my wife, nor
any one else, will know it, from me, as I don't believe (any more than
the late Mr. Sam Weller) in telling matters against myself." But as I
see the gentleman referred to has followed the example of the late Mr.
Silas Wegg (in Our Mutual Friend) and "dropped into poetry," in the
pages of a well known fancier's paper, it may amuse some of our mutual
friends if I quote the lines here:
TOO PREVIOUS PUNCTUALITY.
Two L's went up, a Lordly Lane.
To visit Cruft, his Show
And scorning both the wind, and rain,
Were early, "on the go."
They both hail from the Sunny West,
And, both, their locks, are grey,
But spite of this, may I be blessed,
They, both, mistook the day!
The one, a Judge, of well-known fame,
But not, a Judge, of days,
The other, but, a Judge of Game,
In all its gamey ways.
So eager were they for the fray,
To be in time, for Sport,
They both arrived, upon the day,
The day, before, they ought!
Many of the older exhibitors will remember the late Mr. I. H.
Murchison, F. R. G. S., whose large and successful kennel of St.
Bernards, Dandies, and Fox Terriers, was for so many years in the front
rank at all the leading shows? As I was much mixed up in the two last
named varieties, I used constantly to be in his company, and that of his
son, also a keen and capable fancier. I remember on one occasion meeting
him at a show, I forget where it was, now, I think in the London
district, but amongst the dogs he had there was a young and very
promising Fox Terrier, called "Cracknel," with which he had carried all
before him, and he showed me a letter he had received from a gentleman
then, as now, in the front rank of Fox Terrier breeders, and exhibitors,
offering him £270 for the dog, and he said, since receipt of the letter,
the writer had offered to make it "even money" (£300), at that time,
quite a fancy price for a specimen of that breed. He said, "What would
you advise me to do about it?" I said, "Why take it, without hesitation,
it is a tempting price, the life of all dogs is uncertain, and show
dogs, especially, and it will do your kennel more good to have sold a
dog from it, at such a figure, than anything you can gain, in any other
way." However, he refused the offer, and Cracknel not long afterwards
rushed into a hayfield after a rabbit, or rat, and so cut himself with a
scythe hidden in the long grass that he had to be sewn up and was long
in the veterinary surgeon's care and was never in the front rank again!
I have known many such cases of good offers being refused to the
prejudice of the dog's owners. I remember a well-known lady exhibitor
coming up to me at a show with a telegram she had just received from
America, offering her £150 for a prize winning pug she had, and asking
my advice. I strongly advised her to take it, as it was far more than
the market value of the dog, but, in the end, she sent back a refusal.
Other dogs came forward, and put her dog into the rear rank, and she
afterwards sold it for, I think, about £20.
Mr. Edwin Nichols, of whom I have spoken in relation to several large
breeds, was one of the first men to get large prices for his dogs, as it
must be quite twenty years or more since he received so he told me, £900
for two dogs, one of them being the well known Mastiff, "Turk," one of
the grandest specimens of his day, and the other a high class
Bloodhound.
And to show what a fine judge he was as to the strains to breed, I
remember an instance he gave me from his extensive experience. He met a
friend one day to whom he had sold a Bloodhound bitch puppy, who said,
"Mr. Nichols, I wish you would take back that puppy I had from you, it
is always doing mischief in the garden, etc., and I wish to get rid of
it." Mr. Nichols said, "I really don't want it, I have a lot of dogs of
all ages, and I am more a seller than a buyer at present." To make a
long story short, he eventually took back the young bitch for £10,
afterward mating her to one of his best dogs, and he told me that he
sold that litter, which produced two if not three champions, for over
one thousand pounds. I say, that a man who could do such a thing, proved
himself a consummate judge, and I have not the slightest doubt of the
truth of the story, and, when he named the dogs in the litter to me, I
knew what grand specimens of the breed they were.