The most valuable Toy Bull-terriers are small and very light in
weight, and these small dogs usually have "apple-heads." Pony Queen,
the former property of Sir Raymond Tyrwhitt Wilson, weighed under
3 lb., but the breed remains "toy" up to 15 lb. When you get a dog
with a long wedge-shaped head, the latter in competition with small
"apple-headed" dogs always takes the prize, and a slightly
contradictory state of affairs arises from the fact that the small dog
with an imperfectly shaped head will sell for more money than a dog
with a perfectly shaped head which is larger.
In drawing up a show schedule of classes for this breed it is perhaps
better to limit the weight of competitors to 12 lb. The Bull-terrier
Club put 15 lb. as the lowest weight allowed for the large breed, and
it seems a pity to have an interregnum between the large and miniature
variety; still, in the interests of the small valuable specimens, this
seems inevitable, and opportunist principles must be applied to doggy
matters as to other business in this world. At present there is a
diversity of opinion as to their points, but roughly they are a long
flat head, wide between the eyes and tapering to the nose, which
should be black. Ears erect and bat-like, straight legs and rather
distinctive feet; some people say these are cat-like.
Toy Bull-terriers ought to have an alert, gay appearance, coupled with
refinement, which requires a nice whip tail. The best colour is pure
white. A brindle spot is not amiss, and even a brindle dog is
admissible, but black marks are wrong. The coat ought to be close and
stiff to the touch. Toy Bull-terriers are not delicate as a rule. They
require warmth and plenty of exercise in all weathers.
* * * * *
The most elegant, graceful, and refined of all dogs are the tiny
Italian Greyhounds. Their exquisitely delicate lines, their supple
movements and beautiful attitudes, their soft large eyes, their
charming colouring, their gentle and loving nature, and their
scrupulous cleanliness of habit--all these qualities justify the
admiration bestowed upon them as drawing-room pets. They are fragile,
it is true--fragile as eggshell china--not to be handled roughly. But
their constitution is not necessarily delicate, and many have been
known to live to extreme old age. Miss Mackenzie's Jack, one of the
most beautiful of the breed ever known, lived to see his seventeenth
birthday, and even then was strong and healthy. Their fragility is
more apparent than real, and if they are not exposed to cold or damp,
they require less pampering than they usually receive. This cause has
been a frequent source of constitutional weakness, and it was
deplorably a fault in the Italian Greyhounds of half a century ago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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